Seeing between the lines

How do PhD students use computer technologies in their research practices?

Abstract

The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has grown enormously in the last decade with computers and smart devices becoming indispensable in tertiary students’ study practices. There is, however, limited documented research about the ways PhD students use ICT in their research practice. Nevertheless, it is expected that PhD students will make use of various computer technologies throughout their research process (e.g., preparation phase, fieldwork phase, analysis phase, and write-up phase). This paper reports on the analysis of one of the datasets in a study that examined how PhD students use ICT to support their research practice. The analysis takes into account the relationship and/or the tensions that exist between the PhD student participants and ICT. Two discussion sessions, which included photo capture, were conducted with nine doctoral students, who self-reported as being skilled computer users in a short questionnaire. The sessions aimed to review the ways the PhD students engage with and integrate computer technologies in light of the four phases in their research process. The preliminary analysis indicates some interesting hybrid relationships between papers and computer technologies (i.e., computer devices, tools and networks) in this cohort of PhD students’ daily research practices. These findings will form the basis of the other parts of analysis in the mentioned larger study to investigate relationships between the PhD students and ICT in their process of doing doctoral research.