Evaluation

Research Techniques – Evaluation

Introduction

Overall, I have enjoyed exploring and developing my knowledge of the different research techniques and how they are used. The secondary research techniques that I used were very helpful and beneficial in gathering the information that I could use in my final report on ‘The Effects of Mobile Technology’.  The fact the assignment was not just written work, but also physical interactions (i.e.: focus groups and one on one interviews), meant that I was able to really understand and therefore present information that was digestible and interesting. Whilst creating my final report, I realised just how much I had actually discovered through my research.

Secondary Research

Our secondary research was collected first because it created a good foundation to start to collect data and outside opinion. Completing the secondary research first was beneficial because I was able to gain a good understanding of my chosen topic, organize the arguments and questions I intended to put forward and in turn, decide which forms of Primary research would be most appropriate. I organized what I was aiming to find out within the secondary research creating topic headings such as; who actually uses mobile technology, what is mobile technology mainly used for, what are the links between excessive use and health concerns if any etc. A lot of the research was through Google and I had easy access to a wide range of relevant articles, blog and official reports in relation to research topic. A key source found was quantitative data and as my research was based around mobile technology, sourcing percentages and statics of mobile device use in specific age groups and status groups. As well as this, some of my research was found at random and some sources were not as reliable because of this. My data did begin to come repetitive and in some cases, irrelevant to my topic question. In some ways this offered variety, however, my aim was to stick to a specific topic question to which I could build information around. I used Google as my main search engine which accommodates for my repetitive findings and as well as this I only really viewed the most popular links Google advertised as I thought they were the most reliable seen as they were first. I later found that depending on the sources with the most views didn’t make them reliable as they were advertised for reasons other that reliability and content, in fact many were very dated and others weren’t specific at all. I did manage to use AskJeeves and Yahoo on occasions however I found Google offered the best sources.

Primary Research

Collecting my primary research was the most enjoyable part of the research process and was beneficial as it was equally if not more reliable as the information and data collected as a result of it was straight from a source rather that taken from and outside influence. Selecting the Primary data techniques personally also made the research more specific and direct in relation to my specific area of research. For example, creating a questionnaire which contained different sections to be answered by certain groups of people depending on their current financial situation, parental situation etc. This allowed me to gain in depth, first hand research which I could relate to my research topic. I also carried out an detailed one on one interview with Karen Hadfield who works with teenagers and young people, and is also a parent to two teenagers. This helped show the aspect of my research topic that related to the question on how mobile technology affects us. Teens are a dominant target audience in electronic and mobile devices and seeing how these effects can or should be controlled by parents was very useful and beneficial to my research topic.  Karen gave very long and detailed answers which also helped in backing us secondary sources and information I had collected.  If doing this again, I may have video recorded the interview as opposed to writing out her responses. This would have made the source even more reliable. For the questionnaire I mentioned earlier, I tried to make it as detailed as possible as so to go into as much depth and cover as many points as possible. However if redoing this, I would definitely have extended the questionnaire and given it to many more people as I only received data from 20 people. This meant that I had quite similar results from a majority of those who filled out the survey. Finally, I carried out a focus group with class members to gain some knowledge of how mobile technology affects people of my own age. It certainly could have been thought out better, and planned to a higher standard because it was quite rushed and vague.

In conclusion, my research was successful however there are many areas which could have been improved in some ways. For example, taking more time over choice of secondary sources and where they actually came from could have taken more time and care to ensure the sources reliability and relevance. In terms of primary research, the focus group and questionnaire may have resulted in more reliable information is given more thought and time. I would have defiantly given more thought into my focus group and given my questionnaire to a wider audience.

Final Presentation

Primary Sources Evidence

One of the primary sources I used was a questionnaire which I gave to a wide range of people and collected information and data from the results I was given.

Research Questionnaire – Mobile Technology

Section 1: Who are you?

1.     How old are you?

10-14 []       15-19 []     20-24 []     25- 30 []     31+ []

2.     What is your gender?

Male []    Female  []

3.     What is your current occupational status?

Student []   Unemployed []   Employed []  Claiming financial help []  Other []

Section 2: Your personal use of mobile technology

4.     Do you own any of the following forms of mobile technology?

Ipod/Mp3 players []  Mobile phones []  Laptops []  Pagers []

Portable DVD players []  Other [] – Please state ___________________________________

5.     If so, what forms do you use most regularly and why?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6.     What is the highest amount you would be prepared to pay for a mobile    appliance?

£30-£50 []  £60-£80 []  £90-£110 []  £120-£140 []  £150-£170 [] 

£180-£200 []  Other [] – Please state _______________________________________________

Section 3: The effects of mobile technology

If you are a parent, please answer the following questions

7.     At which age do you think it would be acceptable for a child/young person to have access to mobile technology?

0-10 []      11-14 []      15-18 []

Please give reasons for this answer:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8.     Do you think there are social effects and differences when mobile technology is used excessively?

Yes, because ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

No, because

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9.     As a parent, do you think it is your responsibility to monitor your child’s mobile use?

Yes []    No[]    Sometimes []  When needed []  Definitely  []  All the time [] 

Never []   Other []

Section 4: The effects of mobile technology

If you are not a parent, and not dependent on any one, please answer the following questions

10. Do you feel dependent on mobile technology in any way?

Yes  []    No []

 - Why?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

11. If you use mobile technology on a daily basis through work or education, do you think it has a positive or negative effect on your social awareness?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

12. As you are not a parent, and not dependent on anyone, do you feel that mobile technology is easier to use/gain access to?

Yes []    No []   Sometimes []  Other [] – Please state ______________________________

Section 5: The effects of mobile technology

If you are under 18 and dependent on your parent/guardian, please answer the following questions

13. At which age do you think it would be acceptable to have access to mobile technology?

0-10 []      11-14 []      15-18 []

Please give reasons for this answer:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

14. When you see the latest smart phone advertised on television or online, what do you do?

Save up for one []  

Do nothing []

You don’t need a new phone, your old one works fine []

Don’t bother, you won’t be allowed one anyway []

Ask your parent/guardian to get you one [] 

Do a lot of jobs and chores in payment for one [] 

Ask for one as a birthday or Christmas present []

Other []  - Please state ____________________________________

15. Do you sometimes feel that you want a phone because a lot of friends or family have a mobile appliance?

Yes []  No []

-       Why?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

16. Do you think that by having mobile appliances you spend more time doing virtual activities, rather than real life activities?

(For example, you may spend more time speaking to a friend over the phone than go round to their house to have a chat )

Yes []

No []

Sometimes []

I don’t know []

Other []  Please state - __________________________________________

Section 6 : General queries

17. Do you think that our world has become dependent on mobile technology over the years?

Yes []   No []  In some ways []  Not at all [] 

Other [] Please state - _________________________________________________

18. Where do you think mobile technology will take us next?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

19. If you had to choose a brand in terms of mobile appliance companies, which would you choose and why?

Dell [] ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Apple []

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Microsoft []

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Blackberry []

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sony Ericsson []

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Other []

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

20. Which do you think is the most effective mobile appliance?

Mobile phone []

Laptop []

Pager []

Side Kick []

MP3/iPods []

Other [] Please state _________________________________________________

One on one interview

Name: Karen Hadfield

Age: 43

Occupation: Primary school teacher and Art and Design Co-ordinator

1.     Do you own any form of mobile technology?

-       Yes I have quite a few actually. Within my house hold there are 5 of us and I would say all together that makes a lot of mobile technology. My sons, aged 12 and 7 both have iPods and share a laptop between them. My daughter is 17 and has a Blackberry, an iPod and an AppleMac laptop which my husband and I gave to her to support her with college work. My husband and I both have our own ‘AppleMacBook’Pro ‘ because they are needed for work. My husband and I also own mobile phones, not fancy, state of the art like my daughters, but they are effective never the less.

2.     Do you have constant control over the use of mobile technology within your home?

-       Ermm, with the boys I most definitely monitor there everyday use of any type of activity which isn’t fundamentally constructive. In my home work comes before play, therefore there are tight restrictions and limitations surrounding when they are able to use their gadgets. Jordan, 12, most probably has more control over his mobile appliance use than Sam, 7, simply because as he is getting older, I am trying to provide him with more responsibility in the hope that one day he will be able to regulate his of mobile appliance use. In our day and age I think it is so easy to succumb to the laid back, lazy ways of society. There’s a machine that does a job a human could do simply because of speed and the way at which our world in developing so quickly means that there is such a high demand on everything. When I was a child, the world didn’t move any where near as fast as it does today and I honestly put that down to the way in which we have found technology a substitute for human work. The fact that this allows us to move faster as a society means the demand for ‘things’ increases and I think in a lot of ways we lose sight of the better things in life which technology can not contribute to. I may not be able to control the

world’s use of mobile technology, but I can start at home.

3.     At what age do you think it is acceptable to give a child/young person access to mobile technology?

-       Well, it depends on a lot of factors one of the first being the circumstances in which the mobile technology is given. If a child is aged 9 and they travel to and from school without a parent/guardian I think it may be acceptable to issue the child with a mobile phone, perhaps in case of emergency. However, the use of that phone would be limited to the journey to and from school, as its not necessary for it to be used at any other time.  In general I believe that young children should not depend on technology, but instead use it as a tool in which can support their natural personal skills. Using laptops and MP3 players carry the same principal. I’m not suggesting that it is acceptable for young children to have open access to these appliances, however young people are our future and I believe that supporting them and teaching them the benefits and disadvantages at an early age could potentially prove helpful during the adolescent years. When my daughter was 11, I allowed her to have a mobile phone which I monitored closely yet gave her the opportunity to prove her responsibility and maturity in the way she conducted her own use of the mobile phone. Once I felt confident that she was aware of the negative effects mobile technology could have,  and I could clearly see her using her initiative with the phone ( eg: when it is and isn’t appropriate to be on the phone), I felt I no longer needed to have control over her personal mobile use. So in conclusion I feel that it is down to the circumstances as well as the maturity and responsibility of the child/young person in question.

4.     Growing up, where you ever able to have a mobile phone at a young age?

-       Certainly not! I was born in 1967 when mobile phones like we know it today weren’t even invented! It wasn’t until the early 1980’s that they started to become more available but even then, they were hideous in appearance, gigantic and bulbous in shape and size and literally performed the bare essentials i.e. make and relieve phone calls. Never the less, the mobile phones of the 1980’s were the best of the time and people were immediately dependent on them. Over the years, the demand and want for your mobile phones to do simply everything you could ever imagine it to do has become the reality.  Years ago I never would have believed that a mobile phone would also be my camera, my games console even my favourite book and I think it is really amazing how far technology has moved just within my life span to date. When I was a teenager, I was looking after my younger siblings whilst my mum worked. I has to cook, clean, shop for the family and generally take care of my family whilst my parents worked, all as well as dealing with school work and my hormonal and emotionally changes. When I explain these things to my children and children of today, they can’t really understand that there have always been teenagers but it want recognized as that all those years ago. It just was not tolerated, so the cultural differences are clearly a result of how the times have changed and how they will continue to change is the most intriguing element of mobile technology.

5. Do you think that mobile technology has a social effect on young people as opposed to the elder generation?

- Definitely. I think the whole ‘teenage years’ ideology which has become an established journey through adolescence and puberty means that having a moody, hormonal, selfish, demanding version of the child you gave birth to and raised creates a negative view of teenagers. I love my children and I aim to give them the best even when they dislike my parental decisions, the decisions stands and that’s final. Blaming mobile technology for ‘teenage’ behaviour isn’t necessarily always fair, however I do think that as teenagers are at a crucial stage of personal development, dealing those issues can be embarrassing and uncomfortable for them. My daughter is nearly 18 now, and I can remember how she went from being the little girl that I had given birth to and raised, to being this incredibly sarcastic, lethargic, miserable, and temperamental person who I didn’t like very much to be honest but I always loved and supported her through those times. At that age, you think the world is against you and nobody understands how hard it is to be you and I think that spending time on the phone to friends and having your first encounters with the male species through texts and phone calls is innocent and doesn’t really cause a lot of issues. However, if this is not regulated, I can, and does become a problem. There were times when family members would ask my daughter if she was born with the phone stuck to her head! Other occasions when we would be at the dinner table and she would miss meals as she was having a MSN conversation with a friend. It creates a strange form of hostility because as a parent you feel shut out. Your little girl doesn’t want to do the same things any more and they spend hours talking nonsense instead of doing something constructive. Peer pressure contributes to this as well because if you are a teenager and all your friends have the latest iPod, PS3 or whatever it is, it means then that, that is what you should have. So in general I think it does have an effect if not monitored correctly, however in saying that, during the teenage years I suppose it is normal to shut yourself away from the world because ‘no one understands you’.

6. Where would you like to see mobile technology in 10 years from now?

- Oh, if I’m still alive and well at 52, I would love to see teleporting. That is one area of technology, which really excites me. The idea that I could move myself from one place to another in seconds rather that taking the bus, or having sit in traffic somewhere is just fantastic and if technology progressed to that level, I think it would be very fascinating to see what kind of effect that would have one the world.

Mobile Technology Focus Group

1.     What other functions do our mobile phones offer other than basic phone calls and texts? And how important do you think it is for our mobile technology to have these functions?

-       Internet – not very important but good for social networking, facebook, also good for business people as they can access important email and work information.

-       Games, themes, free communication services eg:MSN, Blackberry Messenger and PingChat.

-       A lot of phones over complicate things, too much fancy stuff means essentials are less effectives eg: signal lost

2.     Do you think that recent mobile technology is more or less reliable than dated mobile technology? (eg: Nokia 3210 Vs iPhone 4)

-       Newer phones over complicate things

-       Less connection and signal lost easily

-       Style over substance, a lot of phone focus specifically on USP’s , packaging and appearance rather than basic functions like making phone calls and texts quickly and efficiently

-       Newer phones much harder to use

3.     Do you think that having a mobile phone or laptop etc, has a knock on effect on your lifestyle? In what way?

-       Can make you very antisocial  - people are dependent on mobile phones

-       Constantly using games, internet, messenger applications, texting, making phone calls – less time for literal interactions

-       People panic when their battery dies

-       More likely to be targeting in a mugging when you have an expensive phone, people feel safer with a less appealing phone.

4.     Do you think that mobile technology has a knock on effect on your relationships with people? Negative or positive?

            Negatives

-       Can’t express yourself as well – expression not seen through texts

-        Causes mistrust in relationships – lots of arguments can being over speculation of texts and what the tone being used is – not clear through texts

-       Less emotion through online or virtual communication

-       Sometimes people can misunderstand, mislead others through smiley faces, ‘x’ kisses at the end of texts etc

Positives

-       Can begin relationships, communication minimal but established

-       Reliable and constant – can text all day

-       Quick, fast – can receive and send messages instantly

5.     What is the most you have ever spent on mobile technology?

-       Just the phone in the shop - £160, £250, £60, £45, £60

-       Phones on contract per month - £50, £35, £25, £25, £15

-        Laptops - £ 1200, £300, £267, £ 800, £250

-       MP3/iPods - £100, £99, £60, £45, £30

6.     What’s the most you would ever spend on a mobile phone?

-       £200 - £500

-       Quality, brands

7.     Do you think there is an appropriate age at which children/teenagers should be exposed to mobile technology? Why?

-       Primary school is too young for children to have phones

-       Secondary school is better but not an expensive phone

-       Pay as you go price plans are best for young people so that they spend less money on phone calls and texts – parents can control this – contract makes it harder for parents to control

8.     How many of us use Apple? Why? What do you like/dislike about it?

-       2 3^rd’s use Apple

-       No virus’, looks nicer than windows

-       More flexibility with programmes and applications

-       Don’t like that it isn’t always compatible with other programmes.

9.     Which form of technology to you think is most effective and why?

-       Mobile phones – everyone has one, people depend on them

-       Makes people feel safer, always have communication with outside world

-       Allows people to stay in touch

-       Not over priced, get what you pay for

-       Basic idea of a portable phone relates to all generations.

10. What do you think is the next step for mobile technology? Where would you like to see technology lead on to?

-       Polo grams, 3D images

Reliable Websites

Many websites are unreliable as a resource and offer false or irrelevant information and therefore are not suitable for use in secondary research. To make sure that websites are reliable and relevant in terms of being solid fact and being fresh, new information to relate to your research;

Who? - finding out who is responsible for the source is a way of understanding how reliable the information is. Blogs and websites such as Wikipedia offer some useful information yet, in terms of blogs, they can be very opinionated and in many cases, inaccurate. Making sure that the source comes from a reliable source is essential.

What? - finding out what the website is actually telling you. Many websites don't actually give a large amount of factual information, and rely heavily on inaccurate information and biased points of view from random blogs. Reading over the information carefully and relating in directly to your research will help ensure you only use reliable information.


Why? - finding out why the specific information is relevant to your research. Many sites offer varied facts that are sometimes to general for a channelled area of research. Finding an expert website which features your research topic heavily would be beneficial to keep your research fresh and relevant.

Where? - finding out where the sources were taken from is very important as it makes your research reliable. By finding out where information is taken from you can decide whether the information is relevant to your research.

Research log   Date	Activities	Sources found	How found?
24.9.10	Assignment was set. Topic decided on and discussed. List of sub-questions created. Initial web searches- secondary research – Wikipedia…etc Also began searching for good sources.	http://www.wirelessdevnet.com/library/iconverse1.pdf -Reliability - Tim Rochford Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder iConverse Inc. March 2001 Future - http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/Mobile_Phone_Technology_-_Future_Development (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_and_society)	Googled the topic – lots of sources found. Checked Wikipedia and followed links at bottom of page.
29.9.10	Began Planning Gathering Research	-          Teenagers and mobile technology – relationship, effects http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/7612663/Teenagers-prefer-texting-to-talking.html  -Reliability – Telegraph website- Article - Published: 8:30AM BST 21 Apr 2010 -          Social effects of mobile technology (http://www.itu.int/telecom-wt99/press_service/information_for_the_press/press_kit/backgrounders/backgrounders/social_impact_mobile.html) -          Disadvantages of mobile technology -          Parents view on mobile technology amongst teens -          Who is using it? – Demographic/ psychographic impacts -          Distraction or motivation? (http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=MTg5NTY) (http://www.passioncomputing.com.au/Articles/The-Social-Impact-of-Technology.aspx) (http://family.wikinut.com/Teenagers-and-Mobile-Phones/1bpn15k./)	Googled the topic – lots of sources found. Checked Wikipedia and followed links at bottom of page.
01.10.10	Gathered more sources	http://www.academy.rpi.edu/1.overview/index.html -Reliability –     Academy of Electronic Media – New York http://www.filmobile.net/ http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/09/10/237643/Technology-addiction-disrupts-teenagers39-learning.htm	Googled the topic – lots of sources found. Checked Wikipedia and followed links at bottom of page.
03.10.10	Gathered more sources – used book sources	(http://mishy79.wordpress.com/2009/12/12/social-implications-of-mobile-technology-in-developing-worlds/) Reliability – I would usually label this as a bad source because it is a blog entry and blogs are commonly biased and opinionated – however, this blog has referenced several internet, book and article sources which I myself have also researched and found useful. New Media - A Critical Introduction – Second Edition Martin Lister, Jon Dovey, Seth Giddings, Iain Grant and Kieran Kelly Published in 2009 Pages 252 – 254 Case Study 4.1 : The Mobile Phone: Gadgets and play http://www.bristol.ac.uk/aquatest/about-device/ Relates to future development and future uses of mobile technology - Updated 20 July 2010 by Aquatest | Feedback University of Bristol, Water and Health Research Centre http://www.vitalwaveconsulting.com/pdf/10FactsMobile.pdf Reliability  - 10 Facts about Mobile Markets in Developing Countries 4 Copyright 2008 http://www.unfoundation.org/our-solutions/mobile-technology/ Reliability -  2010 UN Foundation	Googled the topic – lots of sources found. Checked Wikipedia and followed links at bottom of page.
05.10.10	Gathered some bad/unreliable sources	( http://www.funsms.net/sms_facts.htm) -Reliability - Copyright © 2010 funSMS.NET All rights reserved. (http://www.brighthub.com/computing/windows-platform/articles/15230.aspx) -Reliability -  Blog - Article by Baby Rani  Edited & published by Rebecca Scudder on Dec 31, 2008 The impact of mobile technology in developing nations http://www.open2.net/blogs/scitechnature/index.php/2010/02/08/ict-for-development?blog=7 Reliability - Posted on 08/02/10 by David Chapman	I found this source through Yahoo search engine.