Research Question: What are the prevailing opinions of both students and teachers regarding the extent to which schools and classrooms need to address students' digital practices?

Source: Wednesday Martin

This question would best be explored through the use of a quantitative research survey. My goal would be to survey a random sample of approximately 200 grade 8-12 students, and around 30 teachers, in the Edmonton region. This would be a cross-sectional survey, with data being collected at one point in time. Most of the questions would most likely be closed, using rating scales with 5 possible categories, because with any more, it may prove too complex for some students, and it would become too difficult to make such fine distinctions (Muijs, 2004). The quantitative or numeric description of the trends, attitudes, and opinions of the respondents I survey would then help me to generalize or draw inferences about the greater population of students and teachers in the Edmonton region, and perhaps even the province (Creswell, 2014).

There would be a number of advantages to researching this question through the use of a quantitative survey. First, it is easier to generalize the findings of a survey to real-world settings, which is certainly important in educational research. Surveys are also efficient in that a researcher can gather large amounts of data at a reasonably low cost and effort compared to other methods like observation. It is also easy to guarantee respondents’ anonymity, which could lead to more candid and honest answers than less anonymous methods, like interviews (Muijs, 2004).

Being that my research centers around digital technologies, it is only appropriate that I similarly use technology for my research, such as an online survey tool like Survey Monkey. Raghupathy and Hahn-Smith (2013) detail a number of reasons why online surveys have several advantages over more “traditional” survey methods. They are often quicker to conduct and more cost-effective, and because no manual data entry is needed, transcription errors and researcher workload are minimized. Additionally, computerized surveys allow for more complex questionnaire designs because automated skip patterns can easily be programmed into the survey. In terms of research with youth, there is evidence that students prefer taking online surveys, perhaps because they are in a format that is more familiar and comprehensible to this group. Use of online an survey could also lead to a benign disinhibition effect, whereby the online environment encourages respondents to disclose more personal information and secret emotions than they might in face-to-face interactions (Madge, Hemming, Goodman, Goodman, Kingston, Stenson, and Webster, 2012).

There are potential setbacks to online quantitative surveys which must be kept in mind, however. The setting within which the participants complete the survey can present challenges to confidentiality, because in some school sites or computer labs, students’ responses on the computer monitors may be visible to other students or teachers. This could also have an effect on the validity of responses, if a student perceives that someone else may see his or her responses. Web-based surveys also tend to produce more nonresponses than more traditional survey methods (Raghupathy and Hahn-Smith, 2013).

As a novice researcher, I might also encounter problems in designing my own instrument, such as writing questions that are unclear or confusing, or that detract from the validity of the research. For example, gathering quantitative information on respondents’ behaviours can sometimes be unreliable, as individual perception may differ from what an outsider might observe (Muijs, 2004).  To mitigate these problems, I would first create a survey instrument more focused on opinions or perceptions, with only a limited number of questions dealing with the individuals' behaviours. I would then perform a pilot study, conducting the survey with a small number of students and teachers from the same demographic I will eventually be formally researching. From this pilot study, I can make any necessary changes to the content or phrasing of the survey (Rowley, 2012).