Researching hybrid learning communities in the digital age through educational ethnography

Abstract

This paper discusses the complexities of investigating the experiences of participants in hybrid (online/offline) learning communities through educational ethnography. In these communities, people construct small cultures in the liminal spaces or ‘border crossings’ between the virtually real and ‘actually’ real, using computer-mediated and face-to-face communications to be simultaneously here and there, intensely local but incorporating global influences of the ‘others’ time and space. Drawing on studies in educational ethnography, this paper shows that researchers can investigate participants' experiences in hybrid communities using a range of multimodal research tools to collect data. However, this can give rise to ethical issues in research since the dispersions and constructions of engagement /disengagement within those communities' communications is bearers of asymmetrical power, rather than egalitarian. Researchers need to recognise the complex nature of the relationship between online and offline processes in their participants lives.

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