Like last week we were supposed to pick a journal and a paper, which I did. Now that I had already done it once before it became substantially easier to pick and extract information now that I knew more than before what to look for. However unlike what I thought when I picked the paper, the one I had chosen was not very interesting nor fun to read, which slowed down the reading and analyzing process. Despite feeling more advantageous I had trouble really understanding the text. We also read the text ‘Drumming in Immersive Virtual Reality’.
The paper was about looking to see if major search engines ‘favorited’ popular sites over less popular ones, alas if they are biased. The paper used quantitative methods in form of a bot to crawl around the sites which were in the top of the search-list, regarding different root words. As I understand the bot searched for certain words which were related to the root words and ordered them based on frequency and how they linked to other sites with similar content. I don’t really think this is a great way of determining if sites are ‘better’ than others, just because certain words are used more. I also have a hard time of figuring out ways to combine the quantitative data gathered with qualitative methods, it feels almost impossible regarding the problem.
On the seminar we talked mostly about the paper regarding drum-patterns. I realized I had missed some parts of the paper, possibly by simply overlooking them while reading the text. I think the major way I contributed to the seminar was by asking leading questions to understand the parts that I initially missed, and to drive discussion as well as giving my opinions on the things I actually understood.
I learned mostly about stereotyping from the drum-text, how initial thoughts impact our way of acting. (The black guy was dressed in a hoodie and the white in business attire, really?) I also learned alot about quantitative and qualitative methods of gathering data, what they are good for, how they are used, what advantages and disadvantages they have and such.
interesting paper you have read. i feel like that best part of this theme is to share about paper you had read and the process of quantitative research they had used.
SvaraRaderalike yours was counting repeating words on website to decide if it's rank better because of that. however from what i know (this is totally off topic but.. anyways) algorithm of ranking website on search engine (SEO) must have more indicators to order the ranking beside the repeating words. like time people spending on website and bouncing rate and so on. however i think all of them can be all study with quantitative research or numeric data alone. uhm interesting topic indeed.
anyways thanks for sharing. i enjoy reading :)
I thought it was interesting to read how you contributed to the seminar. It would also have been interesting so read about something specific you talked about regarding qualitative and quantitative methods. We for example discussed if one method is more objective/subjective than the other and concluded that both were subjective in their own ways. Other than that I thought you summarized the important features. Good job!
SvaraRaderaDen här kommentaren har tagits bort av skribenten.
SvaraRaderaHi,
SvaraRaderaThanks for composing so good reflection.I really like your discussion on the "theory" and "hypothesis" because
you pointed out the basic difference between them.That is to say, theory is kind of explanation proved with test
while hypothesis is kind of explanation to be proved. Also,I enjoyed your group discussion on the scientific theory
and philosophical theory.Apparently,philosophical theory is so special that need us to rethink.
Keep it up.
Hello Marcus! Interesting reflection, it seems like you have found a paper that uses a quite different research method compared to most of the methods I have come across when searching the web for a research paper. Something I would like to see more from in your reflection is what you were discussing at the seminar and things that you thought were extra interesting or difficult for this weeks theme.
SvaraRaderaHi,
SvaraRaderaI liked that you explained what kind of obstacles were faced analyzing chosen research paper. You wrote that you did not get how it is possible to combine both quantitative and qualitative methods but it is quite common combination in the studies. I looked through your chosen research paper and I think scholars applied both methods regarding the fact that they analyzed the content (qualitative research). During the seminar we also discussed about differences and circumstances when a particular method is applied. To be more concrete, I learnt that quantitative method is based on measurement and data explanation in a logic framework, while qualitative research is more about the content analysis and interpretation of complex description. Chosen research method have to provide you new data and you will be able to draw grounded and significant conclusions.
Hi Marcus!
SvaraRaderaThank you for a interesting blog post. I think that two of the most concept of this theme is both the differences between quantitative and qualitative methods, and also how researcher uses the questionnaires when are designing their research. On important aspect that is worth mentioning is that the way that the researcher chooses to formulate the questionnaires can affect how the participant perceive the questions and the meaning of the research.
Hi Marcus!
SvaraRaderaToo bad the paper you chose wasn't that good, it takes a lot longer to read and answer if it is boring. Regarding the quantitative data and the qualitative method I feel like this is what was done in the drummig paper, but I do feel that it would be hard to do in your paper since it is all about the bots. I really liked you blog post thought, keep up the good work!
/Maria
Hey!
SvaraRaderaI am sorry to hear you picked a boring paper to read. Hope next time will not be so boring. :)
I don't understand a part where you say quantitative data gathered with qualitative method. I think that this is impossible, qualitative method produces qualitative data and quantitative method produces quantitative data. Maybe you were thinking about how to analyse qualitative data and present it in a quantitative way.
Hah, I can see how you were a bit put off by the attire of the dark-skinned casual person in the experiment - I was too. Still, after my initial reaction I concluded that there wasn't so much racial stereotype as a scientific reasoning behind that choice - the instrument being played was West-African, thus justifying the avatar's ethinicty, whereas the activity of 'playing music' would usually be way mroe suited for someone in a casual attire, rather than a business outfit. Thus, the reasoning wasn't that African-American men supposedly dress sloppily, but just that both factors were individually consistent within the context of the experiment.
SvaraRadera