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.