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There is an on-going identifiable paradigm shift in educational practice through the development of 'e-learning' methods and there are profound consequences of this for the way in which education research is carried out. In a previous seminar I have developed a basic SocioCybernetic approach to educational systems that helps explain this shift and I have also looked at the consequence of this changing educational world on epistemology, talking in terms of epistemological anarchy. This seminar will explore how these changes must influence the way in which education research is carried out.

Given that most current education research thinking has its origins in the blackboard and chalk era, we need to look at the effects of an 'e-learning paradigm' on how we do research. Even methodologies that appear to be recent, such as ethnomethodologies, have their origins in the 1960’s and 70’s. Much current epistemological and pedagogical thinking is based upon Bruner’s work from the 1960’s (and maybe Vistkovsky’s from the 1930’s) and this influences the way in which research is conceptualised.

Most aspects of education research are in need of review: research design, data collection (qualitative and quantitative), data modeling and evaluation of educational activities. For example, any attempt to define the way in which an educational program has influenced student knowledge acquisition has, within the SocioCybernetic world, to take into account the influence of knowledge acquisition from ill-defined sources. Similarly it has to take into account the changing structure of student collaboration. At the design level, the researcher has to redefine sampling parameters as student expectations are changing.

Selby is the CERG Research Fellow, and has been since 1999. He is a psychologist with wide teaching and consulting experience both in Australia and in the UK and S.E. Asia. His involvement in education has ranged from teaching in TAFE, through lecturing in various university faculties, to workshops on everything from career development to research methods.

Selby's array of interests include photography, restoring cameras and Chinese brush painting. He is also Webmaster and general factotum for the Akademos Tertiary Education Cooperative (http://www.akademos.org.au).