Re: [Air-l] Theoretical Approaches to CMC Research
As I wrestle with how to approach a research project involving CMC, I'm curious as to what types of theoretical approaches researchers on this list use when studying CMC. What are some of your "favorite" theories with respect to CMC? Thank you! JS
You might look at the people doing research on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning: http://lester.rice.edu/browse/lstkeywordbrowse.aspx?ord=804 John Daly http://www.geocities.com/stconsultant http://stconsultant.blogspot.com
Okay, I seem to be posting here a lot, hope I'm not on any twit lists, but to follow on from John Daly: CMC approaches - Bodies of theories CSCW - computer-supported cooperative work approaches(mentioned by John Daly) HCI - CHI approaches - I think they are closely aligned but not identical to activity theory - in CHI, I haven't read in it for a few years, but I would put the cognitive theories (as opposed to activity theories) - those writing about cognitive approaches and computers as cognitive artifacts include stuff by Donald A. Norman, Ed Hutchins (_Cognition in the Wild_) and even Sherry Turkel (1984) book. I would include Weizenbaum and Turing in the cogitive approaches to computing, not sure how that interfaces with the communicative theory. SCOT - Social construction of technology approaches (too many to list, and what's the communicative side of social construction) - but I do like David Hakken's work (1993) Computing myths: Class realities. And there's lots more where that came from, Bjiker, Pinch, and there's an old volume by Bernard & Pelto. Rhetoric - rhetorical approaches - this could follow on from cognitive, rhetoric being the stategic side of communication rather than the purely descriptive side. Metaphorical approaches - have heard this mentioned in the panels coming up, can't think of an author right now, but some of the feminists come to mind here. Feminist approaches - Susan Leigh Starr, Sandy Stone, Sadie Plant, Cynthia Cockburn, Juliet Webster, Joannne Braglidiccio (mispelled name certainly) etc. Consumer approaches - Media as it is consumed. I'm not a media theorist, but Daniel Miller usually has something to say about this side of things. He's got a good listing in the bibliography of _Internet Ethnography_ (2001) Daniel Slater, and I forget the coauthor. Also Castells, not that I've read him, maybe a media - anthropological approach. Ok, just off the top of my head, not too profound. Denise ===== "I want to focus on my salad" (M. Stewart, 2002) Denise N. Rall, Sustainable Forestry Mentoring Coordinator & PhD student, School of Education, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW, 2480 Australia Phone +61-2-6624-8627 Fax +61-2-6624-8637 Office (Tuesdays) (02) 6620 3577 Mob 0438 233 344 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/edu/research/deniserall/index.html __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/
participants (2)
-
Denise N. Rall -
John Daly