Exceptions to the Rule

In the world of scholarly writing we are strongly encouraged to rely on sources published in academic journals.  These sources are thought to be superior to information published in books.  When writing, we cite these articles from peer-reviewed publications since they represent the latest thoughts and evidence on the subject matter.  Given these reasons, it does make sense to pursue sources from peer-reviewed publications.

Recently, I came across some exceptions to this rule.  I have been conducting literature research in knowledge management and case studies.  In both of these examples, the field relies heavily on the use of books.  That is not to say published works only cite books but rather, there is an unusual amount of references to books in the publications on knowledge management and case studies.  Allow me to hypothesize on the reasons for these two exceptions.

First of all, knowledge management is a relatively new field.  As a result, there are limited theories supporting this field and some of the early contributors to the field published as authors in books.  While some of the theories building up to the more complete and accepted literature were published as journal articles, the books themselves became the predominate source in the field.  Lang, Hall, and Landrum (2010) observed that 30% of citations in published works were made to books and a majority of the citations were made to a subset of 25 sources.  This clearly shows a shallow pool of literature supporting research in the knowledge management field and the use of books is prevalent in this field.  As a result, research in knowledge management leads to a higher percentage of books cited compared with other fields.

Secondly, in the field of case study research there also exists a higher reliance on books.  Rather, a book.  Yin's (2009) work on the case studies research methodology has been widely referenced in the field of case studies.  While there are many sources on case study methods, Yin's work appears to be the primary source and is commonly reference by other publications.  Many of the research articles on case study methods refer to Yin.  While Yin's work does appear to be central to this field, it is also interesting to note the author's work leading up to this book was published on behalf of the author's organization and the work was distributed as a product rather than published as an individual scholar.  As a result, little work was published prior to the release of the first edition of this text.  Therefore, Yin's published text has become the predominate source rather than articles leading to the publication.

While peer-reviewed journals remain the predominate source for scholarly writing, we cannot overlook the value of the book and we must accept the book does play a role in providing relevant information on the field.

References
Lang, T., Hall, D., & Landrum, W. H. (2010). Citation analysis and trends in knowledge management. Paper presented at the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Lima, Peru.

Yin, R.K. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

If a picture is a worth a thousand words...

...how many words is a video worth?

Teaching online can offer challenges that are easily addressed in the traditional classroom.  This summer I'm teaching a research and writing course online and have been encouraging my students to use EndNote or similar products to organize their research sources and store their evaluative annotations.  A few weeks ago one of the students had questions about using this software.  If this were a traditional classroom setting I would have simply demonstrated the software in class.  This is not as easy in the online classroom (but not as difficult than in the past).

There are tools out there that can be used to create videos capturing desktop interactions.  These tools are robust and not too expensive and I use one of these tools (Camtasia Studio) for my formalized demonstrations to supplement my undergraduate courses.  There are times when I don't want to spend the time creating, producing, and posting a video when I just need a short demonstration without any bells and whistles.  In situations like these I have been using Jing.

Jing is free software that records video captures of the computer desktop that can be posted quickly to any learning management system or website.  Using this software I am able to quickly demonstrate the software, save the video, and share it with my students.  The same vendor also offers Screencast as a free service where I can save my video demonstration and link or embed the video to share with my students.  Once the video is created, it takes me approximately three minutes (depending on the length of the video) to save the video to the Screencast server, capture the URL and post the URL to my course.  Very fast!

While I still prefer the control I have over the video production when I use Camtasia Studio, I like the quick and easy approach Jing offers for these impromptu video captures.  I find myself creating these same impromptu videos for my face-to-face students to help them navigate through some of the software we use in class.

Jing and Screencast are both free but there are also paid versions of these two services.  They are pretty inexpensive and, if I continue to use these services on a regular basis, I will most likely purchase the "professional" versions of the service.

I wonder how long it would take to write out instructions for the same demonstration I recorded in Jing.  In this case, a video is probably worth 10,000 words.

I miss paper

A few days ago my wife and I were walking through Barnes and Nobel and came across a table full of calendars and planners.  These bound book-like objects were so neat, clean, and inviting.  We both commented on how we missed paper planners now that we are both reliant on the calendar and other functions on our iPhones.

This past week I tried very hard to move my to-do list from Remember the Milk (RTM) to a paper list on an old fashioned composition book.  I really liked the idea of writing out my to-do list and writing on paper.  I thoroughly enjoyed initially composing the list on paper and enjoyed having this list in front of me as my computer was booting up in the morning (I typically use the web-based version of RTM so I can't access this list until my computer is up and running).  However, my affection for this paper list ended when I was on my way to the car this afternoon and needed to remember something I needed to do later today.  In the past, I would simply pause and add an item to my RTM list on my iPhone.  Since I was no longer maintaining the list in RTM I needed to remember this item until I was able to get to a pen and paper.  I am far too forgetful to rely on my memory and, therefore, have been relying on my immediate access to RTM.  I am not back to RTM.

While my migration to paper in my to-do list failed, I have been successful in migrating to paper in another area.  Earlier this spring I began using a Moleskine bound notebook as a type of commonplace book.  The writing experience of recording important ideas and theories is satisfying with the quality paper in the Moleskine.  Additionally, the book format works very well for browsing through the pages and referring back to older entries.  This paper format supports the purpose of the commonplace book for reviewing past entries to maintain the knowledge codified in the book.

I enjoy the act of writing but also enjoy the benefits of search available through the electronic forms.  I am still waffling between taking paper notes in meetings and using my Evernote account on my iPad to record my notes.  I'll have to see this leads to this year.

Old Gadgets

I have a weakness for technology gadgets.  Over the years I have bought several devices that I may not have needed.  I was wooed by the small footprint of the EeePC, impatient with the availability of a portable video device and bought the Archos 604 WiFi only to purchase an iPod Touch shortly afterward.  I am also a victim of Apple's keen marketing of their products and currently own a 4th generation iPod, 2nd generation iPod Touch, 2nd generation iPod Shuffle, 1st generation iPad, and an iPhone 4.

While there certainly is a level of satisfaction gained from the initial purchase of each of these devices, the luster wares off after awhile.  Quickly this collection of the latest technology results in a pile of unused technology sitting on a shelf in my basement.  Now it is time to rid myself of these past technology investments.

I made a deal with my son that he can sell some of these devices on eBay and keep the proceeds to put toward his college expenses this fall.  After doing some research on the current selling price for these gadgets we realized how quickly these products loose their value.  I find myself asking if my compulsiveness for these latest gadgets has been worth it.

I also find myself second guessing when I have an urge to buy another product.  I would really like to own the the next Kindle but I'm not sure if I would use it when I already have an iPad and plenty of physical books.  Hopefully, I will think a little more about this before I go out and buy something.  Fortunately, with my son heading off to college this fall, I don't have too much extra money to waste.

Standardizing the Online Classroom

Later this evening I am meeting with the faculty in the IT Leadership program and one of the topics on our agenda is the use of a standardized grading rubric for online classroom discussion questions.  Over the past 18 months we have been working on providing a more uniform experience for our students across our online courses and the standardized discussion rubric represents the latest initiative to accomplish more commonality.

In the online environment, we must be able to strike a balance between the academic freedoms of creativity and individuality for the faculty and the need for consistency for the students.  Over the years, our IT Leadership courses have moved from a very creative environment where faculty build their own courses and design their own interface within the course management system to a more template style approach.

We are now using course developers to construct our online courses using an interface that is consistent across our courses.  Additionally, we are working toward applying common evaluation criteria for assessing written assignments and discussion questions.  However, while we are striving for a more uniform experience for our students, the faculty retain creative freedoms in determine the scope of the course and in designing the course materials and assessments.

Our goal is to end up with courses that allow students to focus on the course material rather than learning to navigate within the course and experiencing a different set of expectations for each course.  While the faculty are giving up some academic freedoms, we feel we are creating a better learning environment for our students; and improving student learning is our goal.