Final Reflection

After seven weeks in Theory and Method for Media Technology, we have gone through a lot. I have read a lot of interesting articles and learnt about many new concepts. The course has been based on six different themes within the field of theory and method. In this last text I will write about two things. First I will reflect upon the course and second, I will write about combining different methods when conducting a research study.

Course reflection

Six different themes where discussed during the course. The first theme was a chock to most of us. The theme of week 1 was philosophy, a subject that most of the engineers on KTH feels pretty uncomfortable with or at least it seems like that when reading the comments from the first week. Despite the abstract subject, it was interesting to discuss the thoughts and Ideas of Immanuel Kant and I think that the seminar clarified some of the more abstract topics within the metaphysics.

The second theme in this course was Critical Media studies which was a lot easier to take in than the previous theme. This theme had a lot of historical influences and we discussed the ideas of Walter Benjamin as well as Adorno and Horkheimer. Very interesting thoughts about ”real art” and reproductivity.

Theme 3 about research and theory was more directly related towards research and felt more useful for our upcoming master thesis. Theory is a broad subject and it is important in the field of research is unquestionable but it is often hard to know how to use theory in the best way possible when doing research. After this theme I feel more confident about theory and I think this will benefit to the results of my master thesis.

Theme 4 treated the topics of quantitative methods versus qualitative methods. It is tricky but important to decide for the right methods to use for one particular research question. We discussed the benefits of quantitative methods with Olle Bälter. It was interesting that Olle discussed the difference between digital and print surveys, the pros and cons. As we thought the digital surveys are often better to use due to the very cost effective technology and also the possibilities to make the surveys interactive but there are still surveys that are better to use the conventional printing technology.

Theme 5 was about design research and qualitative methods based on concepts. Haibo Li had a great lecture about research problems and the importance of defining a problem. The last theme was about case study research, a very interesting topic where we learned how and when to make a case study about a research topic.

Looking back on the course, a good way to summarize the themes is that the course started of in a philosophical way and ended with discussions on concrete research methods. I think that this process of first learning fundamental thoughts about what knowledge and theory is was a good way to better be able to reflect upon different research methods.

Combining different methods in order to answer complex research question

One thing that bear with me from this course is the importance of choosing right research method or methods when conducting a study. There are both benefits and limitations with choosing a qualitative or a quantitative research method and the obvious solution to avoid the drawbacks of each method is to use them both in the same study. By doing this we get the advantages of deep and comprehensive answers using a qualitative method and a large amount of data from a large number of participations using a quantitative method. When using more then one method, for example when conducting a case study, you can generally make more reliable conclusions, eliminating unreliable results and verify results. There are also some limitations with combining different methods. It is more time consuming and it could also be hard to understand which data is important when having a large amount of researched information.

During my time at KTH I have two great opportunities to practise my skills in how to conduct a study and to write a academic report; the bachelor and master thesis. I believe that this course will help me a lot when starting on my master thesis. After taking this course, I can reflect upon my bachelor thesis in how I used theory and method. 

My bachelor thesis, which I wrote together with Anna Evaldsson, is called ”Living without mobile apps – difficult or liberating” and it was a deprivation study where we tested if people where addicted to there smartphones, both physiological and practical. We used a combination of different research methods and the different methods complemented each other. Centred in this study was a focus group of participants. We installed an application on each of the users smartphones and with that application we could track all the data from their smartphone use. This gave us a huge chunk of quantitative data which let us track patterns of use, session times etc. The results where really interesting and showed a lot of behavioural patterns from users. The second method was a deprivation of their smartphones. Before the deprivation the participant was asked to fill out a survey for us to get data about their smartphone habits. With the survey data we could more easily find out how the deprivation affected the participants. The deprivation lasted for three days, during which they were not allowed to use any smart functions on their phones; they were only allowed to make calls and text messages. Alarms and other helpers were banned. During the deprivation the participants kept a diary where they were asked to answer a couple of questions for each day. The questions were really important for us to be able to keep a structure of the eventual change that happened during the deprivation. When the deprivation was over we had a semi-structured interview with the participants to be able to collect their insights about this project and thoughts that was raised during the deprivation. All of these different methods generated a lot of different data which when combined gave a very comprehensive overview of the research topic and together with research theory we could come up with a concrete conclusion.

So, I have already done a study where I have used different research methods, and looking back at it, I think that the use of many methods was of huge benefit for our study. If it is possible I will try to ude different methods during my master thesis as well, since it is a good way of conducting a study.

Comments

Theme 1

1.1 
Hanna Bylund 21 September 2014:

http://bylundtmm14.blogspot.se/2014/09/theory-of-knowledge-and-theory-of.html

Hi Hannah!

It seems to me that you have enjoyed this week´s theme and that you already before the lecture and the seminar had some good ideas and interpretations about Kant´s and Socrates´ reasoning about what knowledge is.

You write: "Kant means that it is impossible to establish something (cognitional) without the experience".

How I understand it, it is rather "it is impossible to establish something without a reference from humans". We can not, and it is also no point in trying to understand something "in itself", without earlier experiences. Instead Kant mean that we should see and learn of the world, as it is "experienced and judged".

As I understand this, this reasoning is a mechanical worldview rather than a theological.

Good luck with you work!

1.2 
Noa Julin 21 Septemper

http://dm2572deepthoughts.blogspot.se/2014/09/theme-1-theory-of-knowledge-and-theory.html

Hi Noa!

First I would like to say that I enjoyed reading your text. It was full of expressive examples and good thoughts.

You write:

"However, Kant suggests that instead of originate from our perspective, with the knowledge we have and the science we know, we could learn more about the world, looking from the perspective of other things."

As I understand Kant, he meant that we should not look from a perspective from other things but rather accept that the way we are looking at things are reflected in us as humans, and that we should not strive to understand objects and the world "in itself". That is not interesting. What is interesting is how we se things, being humans. The world is adapting to our faculties of knowledge and not the other way around.

Talking about Plato and Socrates, I think you are on the right track. Here are some thoughts about how I understand Socrates ideas. Socrates said that we see and hear "through" our eyes and hears, not "with" them. He also said that we are seeing with our soul. I think this expression is a good one to be able to understand it better. We have to have some knowledge about an object or concept to be able to describe what the object is. Therefor we are allway using what we already know about something.

Good luck with your future texts! :)

1.3 
Fhoujie Fang, 22 sep

Hi,

I agree with you that this theme´s text where quite hard to understand. For me the hardest part was all the philosophical questions that we discussed, coming from a technical, non philosophical study background.

I believe you got it right concerning analytic and synthetic judgement. The main question Kant was asking was:

"How is synthetic a priori knowledge possible?"

And his answer to that was:

"Let us assume that our faculties of knowledge do not conform to objects, but that objects conform to our faculties of knowledge."

The world is adapting to our faculties of knowledge and not the other way around.

Keep up the good work!

1.4 
Malin Bokström 23 sep

http://kthkurs.blogspot.se/2014/09/theme-1-theory-of-knowledge-and-theory.html

Hi,

I think your thoughts and ideas where excellent after just reading the two texts. I think your last phrase about Plato´s text is a good explanation of what Socrates thought about "seeing with your soul" or seeing "through" our senses and not "with" them.

1.5 
Kristina Roman, 23 sep

http://dm2573kristina.blogspot.se/2014/09/theme-1-theory-of-knowledge-and-theory_5.html

Hi,

I think that you have a lot of interesting reflections and asks good questions in your text.

You write that one of the things you have learnt this week is that "knowledge actually has a wider background that I thought". What I think you mean with this is  that the answer to what knowledge is has been discussed for such a long time. I think it is quite amazing that Socrates was discussing the concept of knowledge over two thousand years ago. The same question that we are discussing in this course. The way we see things today can be the same or different as earlier generations have seen it, this depends on if a paradigm shift has taken place or not.

Keep up the good work!

Theme 2

2.1 
Noa Julin, post, 23 sep

http://dm2572deepthoughts.blogspot.se/2014/09/theme-2-reflection-i-found-this-weeks.html

Hi Noa,

I agree with you that this week´s theme was very interesting with how media affect the world we live in. I think your example with Swedish Bonnier controlling 80 percent of Sweden´s media production is a great example of how media is affecting us today.

2.2 
Malin Bokstöm, 23 sep

http://kthkurs.blogspot.se/2014/09/reflection-after-theme-2-use-of.html

Hi Malin!

It seems to me that you are pretty clear over all of the phenomena discussed in this theme. I agree with you that we get a better understandings of all concepts after discussing them during the seminar. I missed this theme´s seminar, so your explanation of Plato's Allegory of the Cave with the picture was great. It says that all objects are formed after an idea of that object. Even though I missed the seminar I understand your discussion about nominalism vs. realism thanks to the picture of the objects with their shadows on the wall. So thank you for that!

2.3 
Johannes Törnquist, 35 sep

http://johannestmblog.blogspot.se/2014/09/reflections-on-theme-2-after-seminar.html

Hi Hannes,

I think your blogpost was interesting with your thoughts on the importance of putting yourself as the reader of a text in the same time and space as the writer was in, writing the text. Times are constantly changing, with changing society, politics and values. Therefore, misinterpretations of a text can take place if the reader is not informed about the writer´s situation. You write that after this week you will always have this in mind then reading a new text. It sounds great, but I wonder how one can do this most effectively? A good start can be to make it into a habit to always Google the writer to see under what circumstances the text was written.

2.4 
Martin Söderberg, 25 Sep. 14

Hi Martin,

Even if you say that you thought this theme was harder to grasp then the earlier themes, It seems to me that you have a good understandings of this week´s theme, given your well reasoned reflections and questions. I agree with you that one of the most interesting topics this week was regarding the power over a society that media has. I came to think of the large media share that Bonnier owns in Sweden. In what way are Swedes affected that one family controls almost all Swedish media? That is a topic we rarely question.

2.5 
Ilona Khammatova, 25 Sep

http://dm2572ilona.blogspot.se/2014/09/reflection-on-theme-2-after.html

Hi Ilona!

I think you text was well written and it seems like you understand and enjoy this week´s theme. I think your reflection about, how it is hard to live in our society if one do not fit in in the hamster wheel of working and consuming, was great. The fact that movies and other media channels have such power over us that we want to live the life that are showing in film for example. As you say, the life where the most important events is to get married, have babies and work to be able to consume what ever we want in order to be happy. Somehow, this life have become a norm in our society. Who was first of constructing this way of living, us or media?

Theme 3

3.1 
Kristina Roman 23 sep

http://dm2573kristina.blogspot.se/2014/09/theme-3-research-and-theory.html

Hi Kicki,

I think the paper you read seem to be very interesting! The usage of a second screen while watching television seem to increase among all generations, but especially the younger once. I wonder what this does with our minds and brain. I feel a lot more stressed when I am watching TV and at the same time checking my phone (and sometimes even phone and computer). I also think it is harder to be focused on what happens on any of the screens when there is so many different impressions to take in. Do you agree with me?

I think that the method, they used in the paper, of testing where the users attention was directed was a good and interesting one. Too bad that the results of the study was hard to find, it would have been interesting to se their conclusion of the study.

3.2 
Johan Kasperi, 25 sep

http://dm2572-johan-kasperi.blogspot.se/2014/09/post-theme-3.html

Hi Johan,

You write that it is difficult to understand what theory really is, and I agree with you. At first I thought that of course I know what theory is, but when I started to analyze the concept of theory it is getting harder to grasp what it really is.

I think that one of the reasons for why it is hard to understand what theory is, is the fact that theory is something that we construct, it does not exist by itself (as Leif´s definition is saying). Since theory is something that we humans construct there is, in a sense, no right and wrong concerning what theory is. Do you agree with me, or am I totally wrong here? For example, there can be a lot of different theories about one same object or event. As Leif said during the lecture, "what is man?" can have different theories depending on who is answering the question. Aristocrats would say that "a man is a political and social animal", a doctor would say that "a man is a biological machine" and a religious would say that "a man is a divin creature, created by god". I think that the various definition of the same theory as well as the various definition of what a theory is, makes it a lot more confusing.

3.3 
Anna Evaldsson, 27 sep

http://theoryandmethod-anna.blogspot.se/2014/09/theme-3-research-and-theory-part-1.html

Hi Anna!

Thank you for a great text! Your chosen paper seem to be interesting and I liked that your have put a lot of effort to summaries the paper which makes it easier for me to understand what it is all about. I think you do a good job, critically examine the research method. I agree with you that it is important to, as the author of a paper, include a section where critic towards the chosen methods are raised, in order to increase credibility to the paper. Sometimes you can even learn something from the critic of your own study. For example in yours and mine bachelor thesis where we examined consequences of living without a smart phone, it was few people that was willing to participate. For us that was an other evidence of how addicted we are to our smart phones, not willing to be without it for just a few days. That too can be interesting to look into.

3.4 
Emelie Ekman, 27 sep -14

http://dm2572emelie.blogspot.se/2014/09/reflections-on-theme-3-theory-research.html

Hi Emelie!

I agree with you that there are a lot of theories about what theory is. I am glad I could help you with one definition, “theory as a way to organize abstract thinking, making meaningful generalizations of a phenomena or the world” (if was from me, right?) :)

I think you make a great interpretation about why a higher number of the theory type does not mean that the paper is more valuable. It depends on what type of paper it is and what its purpose is. Before I read this, I was also willing to say that prediction as a theory, for example, is more valuable then the analys type.

Great text and nice pictures!

3.5 
Malin Bokström, 27 sep -14

http://kthkurs.blogspot.se/2014/09/reflection-after-theme-3.html

Hi,

I think you summarized this weeks seminar very well. The topic we talked about and learned about the most was the different theory types. I agree with you that it was a good thing we got to chose our own papers and journals for this week, since you get so much more out of the theory learned if you have that chance to apply it to something that you enjoy to read about.

Theme 4

4.1 
Anna Evaldsson, 11 oktober

http://theoryandmethod-anna.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-4-quantitative-research-part-2.html

Hi Anna,

I was also concerned over how determined Olle Bälter was that one should use an uneven number of alternatives when constructing a survey. I have also heard that there is no right and wrongs when choosing between having a even or uneven number of alternatives.

However, I think it is important to be aware of the limitations and benefits with the method you choose. An uneven number is not preferable due to the fact that a lot of people will choose the middle one and therefore not “have an opinion”.

On the other hand, an even number of alternatives will upset people that do not really have a opinion in the matter. 

Well done!

4.2 
Cecilia Friström, 11 okt -14

http://ctheorymethod.blogspot.se/2014/10/seminar-4-reflections.html

Hi Cecilia,

I also think that the seminar of this week was really good. The seminar was constructed in a fun and at the same time learning-full way. Olle´s explanation about how to construct a good questionnaire was interesting. One of the good tips he was giving was, as you wrote, to make sure that a question is clear and not ambiguous. I think your example question was a good example; “Vissa människor vet inte riktigt vad dom vill med livet, men jag är inte en av dem", which actual consists of two questions in one.

Good reflection!

4.3 
Hannah Bylund, 11 oct

http://bylundtmm14.blogspot.se/2014/10/reflections-after-fourth-seminar.html

Hi Hannah,

I agree with you that this week´s seminar was really good, actually I think it was the best seminar so far in this course. You could see that Olle was well prepared and the setup of the seminar was well organized, something I have missed during the earlier seminars. The fact that the seminar was based on a game and a contest made everyone much more engaged in the discussions which I believe made everyone learn much more of the topic. Thank you for a good reflection!

4.4 
Ilona Kammatova, 11 oct

http://dm2572ilona.blogspot.se/2014/10/reflection-on-theme-6-after.html

Hi!

The setup for this seminar was really great and after reading a lot of reflections on this week´s theme it seems as there is a consensus, among the students taking this course, on that point. As you, I have too taken courses such as evaluation methods, HCI and the bachelors degree, which is based on knowledge in both qualitative and quantitative methods. This makes me wonder what the reason is for making this course mandatory during our master? I wonder if it would have been better to take this course earlier, maybe before doing our bachelor thesis, or if the fact that we have worked which these methods before makes the discussions on this topic better?

Great reflection!

4.5 
Kristina Roman, 11 oct

http://dm2573kristina.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-4-reflection.html

Hi Kicki!

Thank you for a great reflection about quantitative research! I have to agree with Sofia, commenting above, that there is a risk with giving the participants a reward for participating in a study. A reward can give them a reason to do the study too quickly and sloppy just to get the reward, which will probably not end with good results.

Your thoughts on having an uneven number of alternatives in questioners, was exactly what Olle told us during the seminar. I thought one could use an uneven as well as an even number of alternatives when conducting a survey, so good work with figuring out that before the seminar! :)

Theme 5

5.1 
Jerry fan, 12 okt

Hi,

I was also expecting Eva-Lotta Sallnäs to speak more general about the process of designing research. Instead she spoke solely about her research with haptic and collaborative methods. So instead of learning a little bit about a lot concerning design research she taught us a lot in one area, haptic. I think it was interesting to learn how haptic can be related to media technology, for example using it in telepresens production. I liked that you had read an article about haptic and that you shared the knowledge you got out from it in your post. Thank you!

5.2 
Johan Kasperi 12 okt

http://dm2572-johan-kasperi.blogspot.se/2014/10/post-theme-5.html

Hi Johan,

It seems like you have found a great way to prepare your self for the lectures and seminars, by discussing the texts with your friends. It is a good way of getting new inputs about the theme of the week!

I have to agree with you that it seems to be much more natural to let the participants discuss in a group, using a collaborative setting, instead of use the "think aloud" method. But is there not a risk that the participants real opinions and thoughts get lost due to peer pressure (grupptryck) in a collective setting?

5.3
XuXiao Ma, 23 okt

http://gaara526526.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-5-reflectionsafter.html#comment-form

Hi!

Good reflection. I agree with you that this week´s theme was one of the most interesting themes. I think that Eva-Lotta´s lecture was interesting since we got a deep understanding for her research. I also found it interesting what she said about the benefits of using mixed methods. But at the same time, when thinking about it, it is pretty obvious that it is better to use both qualitative and quantitative methods. Is it not better to ask in which situations it is better to only use one method? For examples, in situations when you are short on time. What could other reasons for not use mixed methods be?

5.4 
Martin Söderberg 23 okt

http://martsodm2572.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-5-design-research-post.html?showComment=1414089228148#c3856427223400566468

Hi Martin,

You write that you have taken Eva-Lotta Sallnäs' unit in haptics earlier and therefor you where already familiar with her lecture and the article belonging to this week theme. I think it was very interesting to read that you can reflect on the content of this topic both from a design research perspective (in this unit) and from a technological perspective (the haptics unit). I wonder what you learned when combining these both perspectives?

5.5 
Viktor Leandersson, 23/10/14

http://evilmadscientists.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-5-postreflection-design-research.html?showComment=1414092695317#c8285089018757879837

Hi,

I thought it was too bad Eva-Lotta Sallnäs did not talked anything about research design in general, instead of only discussing her own research. It was more a lecture about haptics then research design unfortunately. But I agree with you that it was interesting what she said about participants that not really fit into the target group, as when people are blind folded to akt as a blind person. I think this is not a good way to perform a study, and I wonder how much you can really relay on a study that test a "fake" target group?

Theme 6

6.1 
Zulfiia Tarazova 23 okt

http://zulfiiatarazova.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-6-qualitative-and-case-study.html?showComment=1414081588846#c539806085036034076

Hi!

Nice reflection!

To further describe the concept of case studies I can ad what I think was Leif´s main two things that define a case study.

Firstly, it is important to have a specific scenario or a limited research area to perform a case study at. You can use one or several scenarios to perform the case study at. Secondly, a case study is defined by its method. A case study consists of a number of different methods. It can be both qualitative and quantitative methods, only qualitative methods or only quantitative methods.

Hopefully I contributed with some information about what I perceive as a case study.

6.2 
Jerry Fan, 23/10/14

http://ferryjan.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-6-reflection.html?showComment=1414091587473#c115652588297840428

Hi,

You have done a great work explaining what a case study is. I liked that you made four different categories that define a case study. It was also interesting to read your understandings of the limitations of a case study. Though, I was wondering why you mean the collected data is hard to be generalized to a wider population? I do not believe that case study per se is causing problems with generalization. I would say that if you are using only qualitative methods it is much harder to make generalized conclusions. But as Leif said during the seminar, one should make 4 to 10 case studies in order to be able to make generalizations.

6.3 
Simon Fransson, 30/10/14

http://dm2572simonfra.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-6-qualitative-and-case-study.html?showComment=1414668715024#c6850227818690646266

Hi!

Thank you for a great summarization of what a case study is! I think you got all of the important parts when discussing what a case study is; "case study is a limited-area or scenario, that the optimal number of cases for building theories from it are 4-10, how you first get familiar with the field and then create the methods to be used, that multiple methods are to prefer, how to define undefined cases as research fields (uniqueness), that they’re often open-ended, that there’s never to little data in a case study but quite the opposite etc." I agree with you that Leif´s examples where great. It is easier to understand a phenomena when examples are given!

6.4 
Ilona Kammakova, 30/10/14

http://dm2572ilona.blogspot.se/2014/10/reflection-on-theme-6-after.html?showComment=1414669346690

Hi Ilona!

It seems to me that all of us had a hard time understanding what a case study really is. It was for me too. But when reflecting over what a case study is, I think it is not that hard to grasp. Do you think that the main reason why so many of us do not know what a case study is, is because it is a word or name we seldom use and hear?

6.5 
Muhammed Haky Rufianto, 30/10/14

http://hakikth.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-6-reflection.html?showComment=1414669737907#c5616852187806941201

Hi,

It seems to me that you have fully understod the concept of a case study.

Compared to the other methods in the course do you think a case study is harder or more complex to carry out and in that case, do you think it is worth it?

Theme 6, part 2: Qualitative and Case Study Research

When writing my pretext of this week’s theme, I did not fully understand the concept of a case study. Fortunately, my understanding of what a case study is was clarified during the seminar.

There are two things that define a case study regarding how to use this method. Firstly, it is important to have a specific scenario or a limited research area to perform a case study at. One example is to use personas (a fake person that corresponds to the typical user in a target group).  You can use one or several scenarios to perform the case study at. Secondly, a case study is defined by its method. A case study consists of a number of different methods. It can be both qualitative and quantitative methods, only qualitative methods or only quantitative methods.

During the seminar we discussed benefits and limitations concerning case studies. The obvious benefit is that you are never short on data when conducting a case study but at the same time too much data can also be a problem.  I think that if you have the time as a researcher it is a good idea to use both qualitative and quantitative methods. Then you minimize the risk of having too short answers from only quantitative methods and too few participants from only qualitative methods.

When doing case studies and getting a lot of raw data it can be hard to know what to do with all the information and to know what data is most important. What I thought was interesting was that Leif´s answer to this was to do more case studies. In that way one can see what a case has in common with other case studies and find the most important stuff. To generate a general theory it takes four to ten case studies. That means a lot of work but hopefully, it also means a great result!