Drama in Education: Research

The Internet does not replace more traditional methods of conducting research, rather, it must be seen as a valuable additional resource. It is still possible to find materials in libraries that can never be found over the Internet. On the other hand it is also paradoxically true that more and more material is being catalogued and its existence is being made accessible through searches on the Internet. For the researcher this is often important as it may mean that a decision can be made on the provenance of the material before a visit is made to a particular library or museum. However, the first rule must be to consider the Internet as an additional research tool rather than the only one.

What does the Internet have to offer? It is a vast collection of computers which contain an ever increasing amount of data. Do not confuse data with information. At times you will be overwhelmed with data but none of it will be of any use to you. You must work hard to be specific in your searches. It is therefore important to have some idea about what you are searching for before you even start. Plan your research question carefully and use this to help decide whether the data you find will become useful information.

At an early point when you construct your research proposal you will generate a bibliography to establish what has been written in your field. To do this you will consult library catalogues. The Internet makes accessing these databases very simple. In the past they were only accessible using Telnet. Now they are increasingly available as web interfaces. So now you can begin to compile your bibliography without leaving your computer.

The Internet is a vast collection of computers and it therefore seems likely that there are a vast collection of experts sitting and working at these machines. You can use the Internet to find colleagues working in similar fields to you around the world. You can ask questions to test out your hypotheses and receive a surprisingly quick and large response. However, it is not always easy to determine the value of these responses. You could try emailing specific departments that you guess are active in your field or contact Usenet or Listserv groups. Another option is to write to professional bodies in your field and ask for information or guidance. These bodies are extremely busy and usually understaffed. Make your requests for help as detailed as you can so that you get a specific and helpful response.

Once you have your bibliography you will want to conduct a literature search to find out just what has been written in your field and what current thinking is. There are a number of ways to conduct these searches and I strongly suggest you enlist the help of a librarian at this point.

As part of this search to find recent and relevant information you will want to look at newspapers and periodicals. These are increasingly available online. However, back issues are not always catalogued. It is often therefore necessary to go back to the original printed sources.

Finally you may want to do some general searching on the Internet to see if you can discover any new or interesting angles for your research. Chance often plays a part in a research project. A lucky accident may uncover a completely new area of interest.