Understanding Women’s Learning Experiences through Blogosphere (Published)
In the body of qualitative research literature, a number of attempts have demonstrated that technology could serve a useful role to enrich and deepen the process of data collection and analysis. The purpose of this study is threefold. First it attempts to explore possible learning experiences within dialogues among women from the platform of the virtual community (the blog). Second, it endeavors to uncover to what extent women could benefit from this virtual community. Finally, it provides an example and possible strategies for qualitative researchers to incorporate technology into their research. Three analytical strategies were utilized: word count, content analysis, and constant comparison analysis. Two major findings are discovered. First, in this virtual community, women are eager to “know others” and “hear others’ stories” (see figure 1 and table 1). The findings of constant comparison analysis further confirm the results from word count and content analysis. Second, it seems that for qualitative researchers, blogs or similar online formats could provide a rich and meaningful context data for the investigation.
Keywords: Blog, Constant comparison analysis, Content analysis, Learning experience, Qualitative study, Word count