Experimental research (presentation)

 I recently accepted an invitation from Scotland's College Development Network to talk about experimental approaches within my own research. 'Experimental research' is a loaded term, therefore within my presentation I set out my stall by proposing that it can describe 1) approaches beyond the firmly established canon of education methods such as  interviews, surveys, observation and desk-based research, and 2) configurations of new and more conventional methods. 

You can watch the full recording of my presentation on Vimeo, and I've included below key slides from my talk. I can also summarise the main points that I made, here:

• Where I take an experimental approach to research, I am always doing so in collaboration with, or inspired by, the work of others (see the name-checks on my 'Inspiration and collaboration' slide below). Further, I feel emboldened to look beyond conventional, established education research methods by the supportive culture of the Centre for Research in Digital Education that I'm part of.
• There's nothing wrong per se with the conventional methods described above (some of which I myself use), however there are occasions when we need seek out or create alternative methods in order to answer our research questions, or to by sympathetic to the particular research context.
• As the term 'experimental' suggests, there can be a degree of risk in moving beyond text-book approaches to education research, but at the same time, we potentially jeopardise a research project by refusing to look beyond tried-and-trusted approaches.

Thanks to Jo Turbitt from the College Development Network for inviting me to make this presentation. Click on any of the slides to enlarge them.