ClappingTree’s Web 2.0

Adapted from Shirley Agostinho’s paper, Implementing Naturalistic Inquiry in Web-Based Learning Research:

TO DEMONSTRATE RIGOUR of the research process (how well the process leads to “truthful” and accurate findings), at least two of nine proposed verification procedures need to be conducted in any study: (1) Prolonged engagement, (2) Persistent observation, (3) Triangulation, (4) Peer debriefing, (5) Negative case analysis, (6) Member checks, (7) Thick description, (8) Access to an audit trial, and (9) Reflexive journal.

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(Extracted from the March 11 2004 (Thursday) issue of The Straits Times:)

YESTERDAY MARKED THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY of the death of Madam Teo Siew Peng, 32, who fell from the 10th floor of Block 202 Choa Chu Kang Avenue 1. Yesterday was also the day High Court Judge Woo Bih Li visited the scene of her fall, to ascertain if she could have leapt to her death - or had been ‘helped’ by her boyfriend, Harith Gary Lee, 39.

Accompanied by lawyers and policemen, the judge made a round of the carpark at the rear of the block, where Lee had parked his van across three parking lots and where Madam Teo had landed. He also went to the 10th floor, standing outside her family flat along the corridor, where two women said they had witnessed Madam Teo clinging to the railing… crying out, as a man started lifting her legs higher and higher… Lee has denied killing Madam Teo. He claimed she committed suicide because of financial and other problems. Read the rest of this entry »

Adapted from The Blind Men and the Elephant, an Udana parable attributed sometimes to Jainism or Buddhism:

ONCE UPON A TIME, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them there is an elephant in the village that day. Having no idea what an elephant is, they all went where the elephant was and touched the elephant.

“Hey, the elephant is a pillar,” said the first man who touched his leg. “Oh, no! it is like a rope,” said the second man who touched the tail. “Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree,” said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant. “It is like a big hand fan,” said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant. “It is like a huge wall,” said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant. “It is like a solid pipe,” Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.

As they argued, they got more and more agitated. Each kept insisting that he was right. Finally, a man who can see explained to them, “All of you are right. The reason each one of you are telling it differently because you touched a different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all those features that you all said.” Read the rest of this entry »