10 Characteristics of Good Research?

The question has been posed to me and a good number of classmates: "What makes good research?" This question is set in the context of a graduate programme in Educational Technology, but I suspect there are a number of general principles that will apply. Here's an unorganized listing of 10 criteria I think could be necessary...

• an interesting, open-ended question
• complex subjects/participants
• conclusions that beg new questions
• a good guiding question that focuses the research's perspective and data collection
  
• fair, balanced acknowledgment of prior research on the topic
• new answers to old questions
• answers to new questions

As I'm writing this, the idea of the Nobel Prizes comes up - these are the world's best-recognized awards for research. But, do they recognize innovative research or solutions to new problems? Not necessarily - they usually recognize good, definitive answers to long-established questions.

So, maybe a couple more criteria for good research...

• conclusions must be sound
• as a result of good research, old questions should be subsumed by new questions that go beyond the original scope of the problem

One last idea here...

• the research must be presented in a compelling way - good research is useless if it causes drowsiness

So, what am I missing?

DGM

Reading to Blog to Learn

In the midst of researching and thinking about whether online learning is significantly different from face-to-face learning, I came across Stephen Downes' 2004 article Educational Blogging, for Educause Review. Four years on and it's still accurate and relevant. The article begins with a description of how blogs have been used successfully at several Canadian schools, giving anecdotal evidence to the kind of eagerness to write that blogging can inspire in some schoolchildren.

Downes shares some caveats about blogging, though. He cites Will Richardson who writes that assigned blogging is contrived, inauthentic. Kids are pretty perceptive - they will notice when an activity is "made-up" for school and then lose interest when the assignment has been marked.

The epiphany of this article, at least to me, is Downes' conclusion that "blogging isn't really about writing at all... Blogging is about, first, reading. But more important, it is about reading what is of interest to you: your culture, your community, your ideas. And it is about engaging with the content and with the authors of what you have read—reflecting, criticizing, questioning, reacting." I've often wondered what I would write about in a blog...well, there it is: I need to respond to what I read and experience that's of interest to me.

Now, it's no problem for me to find things to read - always have loved reading. However, feel free to recommend things for me to read, either by commenting on my blog posts, or by sending suggestions to my delicious account (user:cellodav)

dgm

Getting Started

I've finally succumbed to the allure of blogging : putting my personal thoughts, ideas and observations - my ongoing learning, really - on public record. I must say that the final inspiration has been reading Stephen Downes' "Half an Hour" blog (http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/). While I have no pretensions of being as profound or prolific as Stephen, I commit to writing in this space regularly on a variety of personally meaningful topics, including, but not exclusively, (E)learning, teaching, music, politics, canoeing, environment and theology.

Naturally, I welcome response, discussion, connection, correction and, above all, opportunities to learn through blogging. If I didn't want any of this, I wouldn't want to blog, would I?

David