Mobile Media Technologies and their Impact on Academic Collaboration Beyond the Walls of the Classroom
An Action Research Project - Douglas W. Conrad
What is action research?
Action research is a cyclical research method that is more about taking action than about studying action. It is a transformative process in that it requires collaboration to go along with the cycles of context, planning, taking action and evaluation. This democratic way of enacting change in an organization appears strange to any of us so rooted in studying subjects or situations rather than engaging with them to find a better way forward together.
Action research is different from other ways of research first in it's inclusive nature. Many other traditional forms of research enacted by a detached researching studying the actions of others in a controlled environment. I appreciate Wesbord's (1988) concept of action research being like a film maker who is also an actor in the film; involved in the process, not a wholly detached observer. On some level, this feels like a new language to me, while at the same time it makes perfect sense to take action, collaborate and reflect.