You have one basic task: brainstorm research topic ideas and visualize the results. Let’s get started!

PART A: Identifying a possible research topic area

Over the quarter, you will refine a topic of your choosing that satisfies the following basic requirement: The topic should simultaneously address both technology and research. Here are three common ways:
how computers change the way we conduct some specific part of the research process itself
Examples: computer-assisted data entry, collection of data based on Twitter behavior
how computers are changing our lives in some very specific way, and what research says about that
Many examples! A couple: GPS and navigational abilities, social media and bullying
how our lives and actions shape the specific design of computers and related technologies
Examples: use of user behavior to improve Google Search, eye-movement tracking on phones
You should also strive to make your topic unique – it should reflect your academic interest, knowledge, and background if possible. One result of research is that you become the expert on a small slice of life. In just a few short weeks, it’s a very smart idea to start with a topic you’re already familiar about and become more expert.
Your topic will evolve into a short, concise research paper over the course of the quarter. Lots of information will be provided about how to refine your topic into a really good one for that paper, but for today, you just need something to get started. You are welcome to shift topics between assignments the next few weeks.
For today I do not want you to spend large amounts of time anguishing about a topic. If you are absolutely without any ideas or curiosity about how technology may be affecting the lives of people in your field or the career you might be considering, you have my permission to research this default topic for the week:
Default (I can’t think of anything else right now) Topic: What is the impact of one specific learning-related technology of your choosing on student learning or other behaviors inside and outside of the classroom?
PART B: Refine Your Broad Topic into a More Specific Research Question

Note that you can return to this section many times as you brainstorm each additional question As before, this step alone is not graded, but you’ll be putting these first two steps together in Part C.

What is a research question, and how is it different from a research topic?
This is addressed in detail in the lectures, but at a minimum, here’s a good definition of a research question:
“A research question is literally a sentence that ends in a question mark and in which every word counts, one that points in two directions—toward the theoretical framework that justifies the question and toward the empirical evidence that will answer it.” (Alford, The Craft of Inquiry: Theories, Methods, Evidence, 1998: 25 (Links to an external site.))

Got it? Have a go at writing your first research question about your topic. A natural place to begin is to ask about something that:
you want to know the answer to
you don’t know the answer to
Next, refine:
do you think it is possible to find the answer? If so, how? If not, circle back and repeat.
what background information or experiences led you to ask this question? Can you acknowledge the origins of your question by re-wording or expanding the question itself?
Who’s going to be reading this question and the resulting research report? What specific aspects of the answer you may find do you imagine will interest them the most? Can you narrow the question?
Next, refine some more:
Most novice researchers ask HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE (very broad) questions. The sort of questions that might take decades to really answer. Example: what is the impact of the internet on the way that we think, remember, and retrieve information from our own brains? That’s going to require 100s, maybe 1000s of experiments, observations, and other forms of research data collection to answer!
So, K.I.S.S. – Keep it Simple, Sherlock. Ask the smallest, most bite-sized question that you can find. Example: Does knowing that they will have access to Wikipedia during an examination discourage students from actively remembering factual information more than knowing that they will not? Believe it or not, this is still a very broad question, but it’s a start in the right direction. Aim for specific.
When you have one actual question that starts with a question word and ends with a question mark and (hopefully) starts to do the other things described above, you’re ready for the next step.