Script Towards Research 2.0: The Influence of Digital and Online Tools in Academic Research

Ramona Bran,Gabriela Grosseck

doi:10.18844/wjet.v8i2.676

Ramona Bran, Gabriela Grosseck

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.18844/wjet.v8i2.676

Copy DOI

Abstract

The new Internet technologies have infiltrated in a stunning way the academic environment, both at individual and at institutional level. Therefore, more and more teachers have started educational blogs, librarians are active on Twitter, other educational actors curate web content, students post on Instagram or Flickr, and university departments have Facebook pages and/or YouTube accounts etc.Today, the use of web technology has become â€œa legitimate activity in many areas of higher educationâ€ (Waycott, 2010) and a considerable shift to digital academic research has gradually occurred. Teachers are encouraging students to take up digital tools for research and writing, thus revealing new ways of using information and communication technologies for academic purposes and not just for socializing.The main objective of this paper is to investigate the effects of integrating diverse digital, Web 2.0 tools and resources and OERs/MOOCs in research and in the construction of studentsâ€™ academic texts. We aim to stress the increasing influence of digital and online tools in academic research and writing.Teachers, specialists, and students alike are affected by this process. In order to show how, we explore the following issues: What is Research 2.0? Which digital/online tools have we used to assist our students? What are the challenges for academic research using digital / web 2.0 tools? And how do digital tools shape academic research?

Highlights

Iorns (2013) claims that: “Just as they have transformed many societal domains, digital tools are having a profound impact on the scientific process”
Research 2.0 can accelerate the diffusion of knowledge, “improve practices and increase participation and collaboration”
We introduced them to open educational resources (OERs) and open educational practices (OEPs) that can be used for conducting research and writing academic papers

Summary

Introduction

There are numerous definitions of what Research 2.0 represents, but for the purposes of this paper we consider the following to be most suitable. Iorns (2013) claims that: “Just as they have transformed many societal domains, digital tools are having a profound impact on the scientific process”. Despite the positive aspects of Research 2.0, such as openness, accessibility, visibility, collaboration, Koltay, Špiranec & Karvalics (2015) identify two other major factors that have prevented researchers from adopting it wholeheartedly: recognition (social media cannot replace scholarly journals; citation indicators) and trust (reluctance to share professional information with an uncontrolled audience; skepticism about the source’s trustworthiness which raises issues of credibility and reliability of information). In their opinion, Research 2.0 is still an “unstable environment (...) not acceptable in science”. Students must be capable to cope with different risk situations in the online world (cyberbullying, plagiarism, cheating, illegal software download, etc.)

How do digital tools shape academic research?

Final remarks