A Practical Guide to CMCL Practitioner Research

Abstract

In this chapter we concentrate on the practicalities of CMCL research to offer support to readers interested in setting up projects in this field. From one point of view, conducting CMCL research is like any other education research experience: human participants (students and teachers) have to be selected in a principled manner and treated ethically; data protection concerns have to be met; data must be collected and selected in ways appropriate to the pedagogic setting and to the research objectives. However, in CMCL, research is conditioned by the computer-mediated nature of the experience, which affects the participants, the conditions in which they are networking, the data they are producing and the practical aspects of data collection and analysis.