John James Marshall thesis.pdf - OpenAIR @ RGU - Robert Gordon ...

service Preview Trend Direction 56 . He is also a member of the advisory group
for the ‘Multimodal Representation of Urban Space’ project (a ‘Designing for the
21 st Century’ research cluster supported by the Engineering and Physical
Sciences Research Council and Arts and Humanities Research Council).
These activities underpin, locate and have been informed by this research. The
aim of this study is to establish a clearer understanding of the use of computerbased
tools across subject domains and provide an opportunity to critically
examine and map this area of enquiry. This research project has provided a
supportive and structured context for the researcher to develop a critical view of
theory, research and practice and to identify new kinds of objects and methods
of working.
4.1.1 Live discourse
The research blog has been a useful method to disseminate information about
the research project and has contributed to increased professional esteem for
the researcher. The research blog has been a useful tool to filter and make
connections between various information sources. The blog was originally
intended as a means of tracking and storing the researcher’s online activity
throughout the research project (and a method of reporting and reflecting on
this). The blog has served as a record of some of the thoughts, arguments and
questions of the researcher throughout this period. The frequency with which
the researcher has posted to the blog has varied. However, since the researcher
was conducting this study at a distance from the host university the blog has
served as a portal to a wider community. For readers it operates as an
introduction to explain the research and to help define the field of enquiry.
Since launch the site has had 13,520 57 visitors. Because of the interest created
by this site the researcher has been contacted by and is now corresponding with
other international researchers that would have been otherwise unknown.
Through RSS feeds and social book marking the researcher has been able to
track developments in the field as they happen and have an indication of the
relative importance of that development by the number of references that occur.
56 http://www.previewtrend.com/
57 The total number of pages viewed is 23,214. Information from http://www.sitemeter.com/ recorded on 04/09/2007.
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