I really think this learning studio idea is worthwhile. I liked the custom format I was given based on my own preferences and style that I like to learn from. The content and reading was challenging in the begining, however the reward was after reading and gaining knowledge in qualitative research methods, I was able to apply it directly to a useful project.

This class was interesting in that it gave freedom and flexibility where most all other classes spoon feed a textbook, test on formulas, concepts, etc. and give you a grade. What I liked most about my experience in this class was the 'learn by doing' approach. At the very least I gained experience along with knowledge by taking this course.

• Introduce Focus Groups
• Literature Review on science of this approach
• Methodology of this experiment (explaination of proposed plan to test:  focus group in class)
• Discussion

1.      results of focus group (condition of session- not so much focused ATIS data offered by group, but how participants responded, why, when, etc.)

2.      In- action critique and adjustments (Dr. Horan)

 

·         Results and Conlusion

1.      What worked and what did not work

2.      How this study (paper/learning object) will contrbiute to existing knowledge regarding focus groups.

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In one of the research papers published (Horan, Abhichandani- Journal of Information Technology Management) a signifcant section of the study's results was related to focus groups. The purpose behind the focus groups were to help researchers understand why participants answered the way they did in their survey instrument. A useful part of this section of their paper was not only citiing the good and bad parts to the focus groups, but also describing their group and intent in the begining. Solid research and sourcing was included in this 'focus group' section of the paper and was excellent in introducing readers to whay the results were significant.

In this paper, the researchers conducted an online survey asking citizens who used specific transporation websites to participate. After citizens filled out these surveys (both in Los Angeles and Minnesota) the results were tallied and analyzed in the EGOVSAT frameowrk descibed throughout this paper. However, once that information was visible, Horan and Abhichandani went one step further and tried to understand the rationale behind the user's answers. The real power in this paper seemed to be the actual comments relayed by citizens in the focus group. That is, after the reader read the results and their context within EGOVSAT, the direct quotes listed in the 'focu group' section really made this data come to life.

This paper really is a worth reading. If nothing else, the influence and power that focus groups seem to have on data is incredible. Having read this, it seems like a qualitative analysis such as focus groups really give meaning and credibility to research which involves most any kind of sociotechnical system. To simply select 1 of 5 choices in a survey may give a good overall idea of what is happening with a certain system, technology, gellings therein, etc. However, when the people are able to explain why they made such choices you really begin to uderstand your own research better. 

This paper describes very interesting perspectives and theories that explain the resistance to information systems. Based on the previous researches, she defines three different perspectives as to why people in an organization resist using information systems: people-determined, system-determined, and interaction theory. As causes of resistance, while people-determined theory focuses on the factors internal to people and groups, such as cognitive styles and human nature, system-determined theory emphasizes the system factors such as lack of user-friendliness and poor technical design. The interaction theory she focuses on stresses on interaction of system and context of use. That is, people resist systems because of the interaction between characteristics of people and features of system.  She defines two variants of the interaction theory: socio-technical variant and political variant. The socio-technical view means that systems can create organizational change and induce the resistance. The political view focuses on the intra-organizational power relationship.
 
She also sees the resistance from other points of view: rational theory and non-rational theory. Rational theory means that systems have common purposes and people use the systems to achieve the goals. However, the non-rational theory means that different subgroups in an organization may have different purposes about a system and their local optimizations do not necessarily mean the global optimization. In other words, the resistance to information systems may be a complex problem that involves many different factors. From this article, we can extract valuable implications for the area of IS implementation. We should consider the interaction between people and system factors and non-rational factors as well as rational factors. 
 
In this light, we can use this framework to analyze why municipalities are moving towards the municipal wireless. We can see the people-determined and technology-determined factors respectively. And we can also consider the interaction between those two different kinds of factors in terms of socio-technical and political perspectives. Moreover, we can see the problem from the points of rational and non-rational perspectives. That is, we can see the problem both by considering rational factors such as costs and benefits of municipal wireless and by inquiring non-rational factors such as the power relationships between private and public sectors.

 

This article (“Use of narrative interviewing in everyday information behavior research” by Jessica A. Bates) is addressed on the narrative interviewing, a research method to understand everyday information behavior from a person-centered perspective, now is considered as a qualitative research method used to stimulate interviewees to express their experiences and views through telling stories or narratives.  The technique of narrative interviewing stimulates storytelling and encourages interviewees to describe an event as they saw it, in their own spontaneous language, using their own terms of reference.  It is believed that how study participants report and narrate episodes from their everyday life reflects the factors which influence their behavior.  Narrative interviews give insight into how the participants make sense of their everyday lives in relation to the overall research topic instead of just one simple answer.  In addition, using narrative approach in social inquiry can overcome barriers that can arise when collecting data from people from relatively disadvantages backgrounds who may lack educational experience and language or literacy competencies.  I totally agree with this point of view regarding the language competencies as English is my second language.  By providing more context or scenarios, interviewer would have clear picture or better understand of my perspective.  Thus, I indeed feel that using the narration or story telling would bring out the original meaning or perspective in a more genuine form. The article also talks about the techniques which narrative interview should have besides providing real examples of narrative interview:

3 ways to analyze the data collected from narrative interview:

·         The sequential and temporal structure of narrative to understand the sequence of actions which comprise the story.

·         The focus /perspective of the narrative to understand how interviewees evaluated the situation.

·         How the interviewee tells the narratives including their use of languages and tones.

6 elements which any fully formed narrative should contain:

·         Abstract (a summary)

·         Orientation (context-time, place, situation, participants)

·         Complicating action (sequence of events)

·         Evaluation (perspective on the event and attitude)

·         Resolution (outcome)

·         Coda (relates the narrative event back to the present)

To conclude, it seems that narrative allows us to list out all the context, sequence, reasoning, details or even outcome that we can closely relate to the research topic as well as extracting the insight from analyzing the narratives.  Further, the storytelling techniques give researcher to gain access to everyday language of participants and where participants have difficulty responding to a formal, rigid line of questioning; and that is one of the significant advantages of extracting the truth.   

 

The article I chose to read was Robert K. Yin's article titled, "The Case Study as a Serious Research Strategy". Within this article Yin seeks to dispel myths that designate case studies as good for only conducting exploratory, quasi-experimentation forms of qualitative research. Yin argues that by using rigorous techniques for study design, data gathering and analysis that case studies can also be used for descriptive and explanatory purposes through which causal inferences can be derived. Of value to me were Yin's discussion of multiple-case design and the degree to which case studies can "cover both a contemporary phenomenon and its context." The use of multiple case studies within the PHR study we are conducting is being used specifically for that reason. In trying to determine how PHRs can be effectively used within vulnerable populations it is important to understand the entire context in which the clinics, physicians, administrators, and information systems affect the experiences of multiple users with completely unique backgrounds and conditions. The number of data points that would be needed to effectively study this phenomena within a more quantitative approach would be overwhelming.

As professor Horan suggests me a “real hands-on” project, I would like to join the project of MiVIA, which was launched in 2003 as an electronic personal health record for migrant and seasonal workers in Sonoma Valley, California.  Migrant and seasonal farm workers and mobile population groups suffer disproportionately from undiagnosed or unattended chronic medical conditions due to a lack of continuity of care resulting from a transient lifestyle.  This fragmentation of care contributes to poor health outcomes and increased costs (duplication of services or tests).  MiVIA offers a solution while the purpose of it is to store and download health information and make that information available to multiple doctors and clinics.  I will be participating in interviews with the workers, and hopefully will come up with some significant findings regarding the effectiveness of MiVIA and improvements for MiVIA.      

There are many local governments that plan to provide wireless broadband Internet for their citizens. Some people worry municipal wireless may crowd out private operators. However, many cities are still moving towards that. Why are they doing that? Is it really for social benefits or political purposes? They may do so for their own needs, such as real-time criminal detection, utility investigation, healthcare for the old, and so on. They may do so just for fashion or political purposes.  For my case analysis, I plan to analyze the municipal wireless initiatives from multiple perspectives, such as technological and socio-technical perspectives. Using qualitative methods, such as document analysis, focus group meeting, and interviewing if possible, I will analyze why they are doing that, what the intended purposes and potential unintended impacts are, whether municipal wireless is socially beneficial or not, and what best practices are, and so on.

I'd like to focus my time on the formulation of a focus group, as I see it helping me with projects in the near future. Specifically, I'd like to design a study group for the upcomming e-government (ATIS) trust/satisfaction project. I was thinking, I'd like to conduct a case study incorporating professors who have held focus groups to try and find out successes and failures they've encountered. Through the qualitative study conducted and literature written, I feel like it would be beneficial and fun to design a focus group and actually go through the process of conducting it.