Research on virtual worlds: linking quantitative and qualitative data in e-learning environments

CONSTANTINO, GUSTAVO DANIEL; BANZATO, MONICA & JULIANA RAFFAGHELLI

Rovereto - Italia

Congreso; International Human Science Research Conference (IHSRC) 2007.New Frontiers of Phenomenology: Beyond Postmodernism in Empirical Research.; 2007

International Human Science Research Conference/Faculty of Cognitive Science and the Department of Cognitive Science and Education of the University of Trento

The ?hot? epistemological and methodological war between educational research paradigms hasbeen followed by the ?cold? war between socio-cognitive and cultural approaches triggered byInformation Communication Technologies (ICT). The current scenario is characterised by thepeaceful coexistence of neo-positivist approaches with qualitative features and qualitativeapproaches almost chaotic in their variety. On the other hand, the internationalisation of trainingresulting from globalisation and ICT development has given rise to Web-based multiculturalenvironments in which people interact within virtual practice and learning communities. Thesedigital IT environments provide vast amounts of quantitative data about user behaviour, whichare linked to topological information on access and statistical analysis of use frequency. Owingto the interpersonal nature of virtual communities, a plethora of qualitative data can also begathered from multimedia discourse about participants? online life as well as social andprofessional roles, which have been transferred from face-to-face settings. Therefore it issuggested that both ethnographic and multimedia analysis methodologies should be used. It isconcluded that online education research requires a qualitative approach that takes account ofquantitative data. This perspective has been adopted by an international teacher educationproject from which empirical examples are taken.