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In this prezi, I will use Joe Maxwell's interactive approach to research design to elucidate upon the research questions that comprise my own project in the digital humanities. This is, first and foremost, a work-in-progress, so I will continue to build on and refine this project in the coming weeks and months.
Methods
This project will certainly require that quite a bit of qualitative research actually take place in Cuba. However, I would first like to review more of the literature on issues of access to technology and digital literacy in Cuba to get a better sense of the social and critical landscape I am working in. It would also be helpful to perhaps get more information about the sorts of projects that academics throughout the world might be conducting in Cuba as of now. The Cuban government does grant "educational" visas, so it will be important to see where my project might fall in the miasma of research being conducted in Cuba.
Research Design
An Interactive Approach (First Stage)
Main Idea
Issues of access to technology and digital literacy in Cuba
5 Components
of Maxwell's
Approach to
Research
Design
Goals
My goals include exploring the ways in which Cuba's unique social, cultural, economic, and political contexts have not only impacted issues of access--whether material, functional, experiential, or critical, as Adam Banks would have it--but, more importantly, also produced a smattering of creative and unprecedented digital literacies that require more nuanced critical attention. As a Cuban American, providing more personalized representation for my own communities in my research and praxis serves as one of the most important components of my profile as both an individual and an academic, so this project in many ways emerges from these impulses.
Conceptual Framework
As I mentioned in my blog post, I am still fairly green in terms of my foundation in the digital humanities as well as my project, though I feel as if the following texts might be useful as I continue fleshing out my approach:
1) Banks, Adam J. Race, Rhetoric, and Technology: Searching for Higher Ground.
2) Junqueira, Eduardo S., and Marcelo E. K. Buzato. New Literacies, New Agencies?: A Brazilian Persepctive on Mindsets, Digital Practices and Tools for Social Action in and Out of School.
3) Rubira, Rainer, and Gisela Gil-Egui. "Political Communication in the Cuban Blogosphere: A Case Study of Generation Y."
I also feel that terms like: comparative media, access to technology, digital literacy, and synchronous/asynchronous communication will feature rather prominently in my approach. I will attempt to draw on my own experiences as a Cuban American as much as possible, though the purpose of my project is more so to provide more insight into the digital practices of those populations currently residing in Cuba.
Research Questions
1) To what extent have various populations and demographics in Cuba had material access to digital technologies over past decade or so?
2) In what capacity are Cuban citizens introduced to and/or given free reign to use digital technologies?
3) How do those engaging with various interfaces and digital technologies in Cuba compare to other "Western" societies, whether "democratic," "communist," or otherwise?
Validity Concerns
As much of the substance of this project will likely emerge in the context of qualitative research, there is certainly potential for my findings to be both limited as well as biased. I am generally working off of the presumption that digital literacies and digital practices in Cuba are fundamentally different and unique, so it will be important for me to rein myself in and not project these notions onto my findings. In line with this idea that digital literacies and digital practices in Cuba are different and unique, I must also be cautious and suspicious about the terms, vocabularies, and assumptions that I use and make as I articulate my findings.