using technology to enhance research practice: analysing the use of ict and e-science by academic...
DESCRIPTION
These are the slides to the presentation i gave at the Oxford e-research 2008 conference.TRANSCRIPT
Oxford E-Research Conference11-13 September 2008
Using Technology to Enhance Research Practice: Analysing the
use of ICT and e-science by academic researchers
Dr. Nick Pearce
Centre for e-science
Lancaster University
Oxford E-Research Conference11-13 September 2008
Outline
• Background to study
• Relationship between culture and technological innovation
• Importance of disciplinary culture
• My survey
• Results
• Analysis and conclusions
Oxford E-Research Conference11-13 September 2008
Background to study
• Universities early adopters of ICT
• E-science Vs web (1 and 2)– Access Grid Vs IM
• Funding for online staff survey of ICT use
• Key question –– How do disciplinary differences affect which
ICTs do researchers use when researching and collaborating?
Oxford E-Research Conference11-13 September 2008
Relationship between culture and technological innovation
• There is a central problem– Advocates of ICT suggest revolutionary
benefits– Yet adoption of ICT more likely if compatible
with current values and beliefs (cf. Rogers 2003:243)
Oxford E-Research Conference11-13 September 2008
Importance of disciplinary culture
• Becher and Trowler (2001)– Discipinary culture affected by epistemology– Hard/ soft applied/pure
• Fry (2006,2007)– Applied the above to ICT
• Few other studies
Oxford E-Research Conference11-13 September 2008
My survey: a case study
• Fairly new (est. 1967)
• Mid sized– 16k UG students– Of which 3k PG students– 2.5k staff (just less than 900 academic)
• Research led
• Organised into 3 faculties
Oxford E-Research Conference11-13 September 2008
Survey details
• November to December 2007
• Online survey
• Aimed at research active staff (and students)
• Fairly representative in many respects
• Skewed towards younger academics
Oxford E-Research Conference11-13 September 2008
Response rate
Faculty Research Staff
Responses
Response Rate
FST 470 105 22.3
FASS 250 52 20.8
MS 141 37 26.2
Total 861 202 23.5
Oxford E-Research Conference11-13 September 2008
Results
• Tried to break the research process into generic stages– Problematic!
• The following is a selection– More comprehensive results available on
request
Oxford E-Research Conference11-13 September 2008
Resource DiscoveryTraditional Web 1 Web 2
Faculty
Reading
Colleagues
Database
Web searc
h
Journalnotificatio
ns
list
scholar
Wikipedia
RSS
FST 88 77 77 63 42 26 53 26 5
FASS 95 88 94 72 53 42 66 31 11
MS 91 78 81 59 57 28 57 12 3
Oxford E-Research Conference11-13 September 2008
Technology use of primary project
Faculty Web page Wiki e-mail list Blog
FST 41 19 36 2
FASS 36 4 32 6
MS 36 9 28 9
Oxford E-Research Conference11-13 September 2008
Collaborative technologies
Faculty
Instantmessagin
g
Conference
calls
Desktop
VC
Google docs
FST 29.0 21.7 6.5 3.6
FASS 22.4 18.8 4.7 3.5
MS 43.1 19.0 8.6 3.4
Oxford E-Research Conference11-13 September 2008
Awareness and Use of Access Grid
Faculty Awareness (%)
Use (%)
FST 23 7
FASS 12 6
MS 21 13
Oxford E-Research Conference11-13 September 2008
Use of blogs
Faculty Subscribe(%) Write(%)
FST 16.3 2.2
FASS 27.4 7.3
MS 10.5 8.8
Oxford E-Research Conference11-13 September 2008
Summary
More likely Less likely
Science and Technology
Find references through reading
Projects more likely to have wiki
Write research blogs
Arts and Social Sciences
Find references through reading and databases
read research blogs
Use desktop videoconferencing
Aware/ Use access grid
Management School
Projects with blog
Use Instant messaging
Use access grid
Projects with email lists
Oxford E-Research Conference11-13 September 2008
Summary and conclusions
• Considerable variety across faculties
• Wide variety of tools used to help research– More often web 2 than e-science?
• Cultural differences could be significant– Norms of co-authorship/ collaboration– Size/ spread of project teams– Perceived ease of use/ usefulness of ICT
Oxford E-Research Conference11-13 September 2008
Final Questions
• If e-research is enhanced research it will likely combine e-science and web 2.0– What can e-science learn from spread of web
2.0?– How can adoption and utility of web 2.0 tools
be enhanced through existing e-science infrastructures?