Theme 4

Theme 4: Qualitative methods

• Seminar (Mon): Qualitative methods in media technology research, Stefan Hrastinski.
• Lecture (Wed): Qualitative methods based on concepting, tinkering and critique, Ylva Ferneaus.

Select a media technology research paper that you argue is using qualitative methods in a good way. The paper should be of high quality. The following are examples of questions to discuss in your blog posting:

1. Which qualitative method or methods are used in the paper? Which are the benefits and limitations of using these methods?
2. What did you learn about qualitative methods from reading the paper?
3. Which are the main methodological problems of the study? How could the use of the qualitative method or methods have been improved?

The lecture of this week will serve as a bridge between this theme (qualitative methods) and the theme of next week (design research). Read the following paper. Reflect on the key points and what you learnt by reading the text. Prepare one question that you would like to discuss during the lecture.

• Fernaeus, Y. & Jacobsson, M. (2009). Comics, Robots, Fashion and Programming: outlining the concept of actDresses. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction. New York: ACM. 

Publish your reflections before and after the theme is completed in you individual learning portfolio (blog). See the course guide for further instructions.