For this posting, identify a topic you would like to focus on for your final paper. Provide the main research question(s) you are going to investigate. Outline the sections of the paper and explain which theory will guide your paper. Then, find two articles or books that seem relevant to your topic and give their complete citation.
A handout outlining the parameters of the final paper project will be distributed in class. Good luck!
8 comments:
Topic: Older adult technology use
Main research questions:
1.Do personality factors influence older adult attitudes toward computers (e.g., openness, extraversion)?
2.Does older adults perceived social support have an influence on older adult attitudes toward computers?
3.Do personality factors influence older adult computer self-efficacy?
4.Does older adults perceived social support influence older adult computer self efficacy?
Outline:
I. Introduction
II. Theoretical Applications
A.Rogers’ Theory of Diffusion of Innovation
III. Personality factors influencing older adult attitudes toward technology
A. Openness
B. Extraversion
IV. Self-efficacy influencing older adult attitudes toward technology
V . Social support influencing older adult attitudes toward technology
A.Social support influencing self-efficacy
Reference:
Jay, G. M. & Willis, S. L. (1992). Influence of direct computer experience on older adults’ attitudes toward computers. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 47, 250-257.
Lagana, L., Oliver, T., Ainsworth, A., & Edwards, M. (2011). Enhancing computer self-efficacy and attitudes in multi-ethnic older adults: A randomized controlled study. Aging and Society, 31, 911-933.
My topic would like to be the micro-blogging as new force for social change in China.
Micro-blogging (Weibo) Chinese version of twitter — is growing rapidly among China. It is estimated 360 million Internet users. Some of the controversial events were first spread out in Weibo and got heat debated then forced the government to take some actions.
The Theoretical Applications would use Diffusion Theory to explain why Weibo diffused so rapidly within only two years in China.
My questions would be:
Is Micro-blogging really giving hope to freedom of speech and democracy in China?
Does the government will put any restrictions on weibo?
Who are the most active weibo users? And what are their motivations behind?
I will also provide some case studies (most recent controversial issues in weibo and caused public stir in China) to examine the influence of weibo.
Articles:
Yan Q et al., (2011) Microblogging after a major disaster in China: a case study of the 2010 Yushu earthquake, Proceedings of the ACM 2011 conference on Computer supported cooperative work. New York, USA.
Yinbin Li and Yixia Z, (2011) Social media in China: Rising Weibo in government. Digital Ecosystems and Technologies Conference (DEST), 2011 Proceedings of the 5th IEEE International Conference. Shanghai, China.
1. Topic: Readers of blogs and their motivation
2. Research questions:
What motivates people to read blogs?
What motivates readers to visit a specific blog more than once?
What motivates readers to become loyal visitors to a blog?
3. Paper outline:
- Introduction
- Theoretical framework:
expectation-confirmation theory
- Role of the reader – habit/routine forming
- Reader satisfaction (expectation and confirmation)
-Presentation and perception
-Authenticity
- One-to-one communication vs one-to-many (blogs as a medium)
- Active participation and feeling connected
- Loyalty and stickiness
Articles:
Baumer, E., Sueyoshi, M. & Tomlinson, B. (2008). Exploring the role of the reader in the activity of blogging. Proceedings from CHI’08: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Florence, Italy.
Oliver, R.L. (1980). A cognitive model of the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction decisions. Journal of Marketing Research, 17(4), 460-469.
Topic: The effect of agricultural and communications technologies on rural communities in the United States.
Since the 1930s American farms have gotten larger and rural communities have gotten smaller as a share of national population.
My final paper will show how many technological innovations often have the effect of forcing farmers from their land, making farming impossible and weakening and homogenizing rural communities.
My central hypothesis is that the overreliance on factory-style farms and bigger and brighter technology have been at the heart of this problem. My research question will ask whether technological innovations spurred bad public policy or did bad public policy facilitate development and diffusion of net technologies.
I. Introduction
II. History of Ag tech since 1933
III. Trends in rural population and employment since 1933
A. Case Studies
IV. Public Health concerns related to Industrialization of Farming
V. Broadband Internet in Rural Communities
A. Communications tech used as agent for community-building and rural revitalization in 21st century
Sources: Hurt, R. Douglas American Agriculture: A Brief History, Purdue University Press, 2002.
Conkin, Paul K. A Revolution Down on The Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture Since 1929, University of Kentucky Press, 2009.
My topic is still somewhat fluid, but based on where I am now, the topic of my research paper will be the use of social media in government, particularly local government, and my research question will be how can it be used most effectively.
I. Introduction - What is social media?
II. Rise of social media usage
III. Objectives for social media usage in local government
IV. How effective is social media at achieving those objectives
V. Recommendation for how local governments can effectively use social media to achieve their desired objectives
Potential sources:
Jana Hrdinová, Natalie Helbig, and Catherine Stollar Peters. "Designing social media policy for government: Eight essential elements" The Research Foundation of State University of New York, May 2010.
JC Bertot, PT Jaeger, and S Munson. "Social media technology and government transparency" Computer (title of periodical) Nov. 2010.
(1) Topic: The Diffusion of Bt Cotton among Farmers in China
(2) Main research question:
RQ 1: What are the differences in media channel use across farmers of 6 stages of diffusion process.
RQ 2: What are the differences in the number of media use across farmers of 6 stages of diffusion process?
RQ 3: What problems significantly influence farmers to adopt or reject decision on Bt cotton?
RQ 4: What are the social demographic characteristics of farmers across 6 stages of diffusion process?
RQ 5: What do farm size and soil quality influence farmers across 6 stages of diffusion process?
(3) Outline
1. Introduction and Problem Statement
1.1 The significance of Agriculture in China
1.2 What is Bt
1.3 Objectives of this study
2. Theoretical Framework
2.1 Diffusion of Innovation Theory
2.2 Rural studies of the theory
3. Factors that influence farmers' decision of Bt in literatures.
3.1 Media channel usage
3.2 Social-economic factors
3.2 Individuals' Social-demographic factors
3.3 Individuals' farm characteristics
(4) References:
Ho, P., Zhao, J. H., & Xue, D. Y. (2009). Access and control of agro-biotechnology: Bt cotton, ecological change and risk in China. Journal of Peasant Studies, 36(2), 345-364.
Pemsl, D., & Waibel, H. (2007). Assessing the profitability of different crop protection strategies in cotton: Case study results from Shandong province, China. Agricultural Systems, 95(1-3), 28-36.
The general topic of my final paper will be diffusion of online education.
Section I: Introduction. What is online education? What is good about it? What is the current situation it is facing?
Section II: Literature review. There might be more than two articles needed for this section to examine what previous researchers have done in this area.
Section III: Theoretical application. How Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation theory can apply to the development of online education?
Section IV: Analysis. Given online education is still small part of the whole education system, what might be some possible problems during the diffusion process? What can we do to accelerate this process?
Section V: Summary.
References:
Shea, P., Pickett, A., & Li, C. (2005). Increasing Access to Higher Education: A study of the diffusion of online teaching among 913 college faculty. The International Review Of Research In Open And Distance Learning, 6(2). Article 6.2.2. Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/238/493
Dooley, K. (1999). Towards a Holistic Model for the Diffusion of Educational Technologies: An Integrative Review of Educational Innovation Studies. Educational Technology & Society, 2(4), 35-45
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