Multimedia Research Article #1: Hard Technology
Sean McCarty
smccarty@ucsd.edu
12-09-08
Ed Tec 561 – Wed 7:00pm

13. Disciplined Inquiry and the Study of Emerging Technology: Application Research

Summary
Chapter 13 details three types of emerging technology research. Application Research is one of those three types, the other two being Foundation research and Theory-Building Research. Application research can be most basically summed up as “pure applied research.” Unlike foundation and theory-building research, application research is not done for the purpose of gaining a fundamental understanding. Application research is done for the purposes of answering more immediate questions related to the practicality and usability of a particular program or emerging technology. The research oftentimes focuses on the users and the users’ experience with a program. A common goal of application research is to assess whether a program is cost-effective or even more simply, possible to implement at all.

Reflection
Application research grabbed my attention because it struck me as perhaps the “least academic” of the three research types. The entire purpose of the research seemed to be concerned solely with the feasibility of programs. I would venture to guess there is a great deal of application research done by companies that never sees the light of day due partly to privacy concerns but also due to the fact administrators may fail to see how their findings apply to a larger audience beyond their own entity. Though application research may not be concerned with a quest for fundamental understanding I would think a meta-analysis of several application research surveys on a particular program would in fact yield results that would contribute to a more fundamental understanding of emerging technologies. Currently, I am struggling to find much information on implementing podcasts on college campuses, however, I am sure there is a great deal of valuable and relevant research that has been done at peer institutions that is just not made public or has yet to be published. Simply because application research seems to be limited in scope does not mean it is necessarily any less valuable than the other two types of research.

Orrill, C. H., Hannafin, M. J., & Glazer, E. M. (2004).  Disciplined inquiry and the study of emerging technology.  In D. Johassen, (Ed.), Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (2nd ed., pp. 335-346). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.