Regardless of whether Quebec, Canada or the world is considered, team research today is not the exception but the rule. For instance, multicentre projects now account for 80% of research projects carried out in the health field in Quebec. Where does college research stand, especially in the IT field?
This coming May 5 and 6, at the 76th Acfas Convention in Quebec City, the Association pour la recherche au collégial (ARC) will be holding a colloquium titled La recherche collégiale: état des savoirs et illustration des pratiques (“College Research in Teams: The Current State of Knowledge and Practices”). For this occasion, two non-traditional teams will illustrate the advantages, disadvantages and limits of this type of work. One of the two presentations will deal with the metasynthesis project that ARC has been conducting since 2005 on the results of experiments on the integration of information technologies into college teaching. ARC is in fact bringing this metaresearch up-to-date by soliciting answers to the key question raised in its metasynthesis from people who are active in the field and who are recognized as experts. In addition, the Association builds these models by subjecting them to the critical examination of the stakeholders who will make up the next generation of college researchers and educational consultants, and are eager to find answers to their questions and guidelines regarding their actions. This metaresearch is conducted in teams, both to increase knowledge and to train future scientists. An impressive, exemplary practice!
On Tuesday, May 6, from 12 noon to 2:00 pm, 55 researchers will present their research results by means of posters to be shown at lunch-time. The results of technological, fundamental and applied research will be the subject of an extensive multidisciplinary poster session. Three of the posters that will be on exhibit are especially noteworthy because they deal with the integration of information technologies into college teaching:
- “Enseignement de la littérature québécoise et intégration des TIC : à propos de l’expérimentation de dix outils tirés de la série multimédia ‘Profils et regards’” (“Integrating IT into the teaching of Quebec literature: Ten tools from the Multimedia series ‘Profils et regards’”),
- ”Proposition d’une norme informatique d’interfaces adaptables soutenant des tâches d’évaluation dans un contexte d’évaluation adaptative par ordinateur” (“Proposal for a computer interface standard supporting evaluation tasks that can be adapted by computers”),
- “L’utilisation du modèle CBAM pour accompagner et étudier l’innovation technopédagogique dans le projet ‘cégeps en réseau'” (“The use of the CBAM model to support and study technopedagogical innovation in the ‘cégeps en réseau’ project”).
Is this the main course, or just a taste of things to come? Come to the colloquium and judge for yourself!
Over the day and a half of the colloquium, various aspects of team research will be discussed. In particular, the initial results of the college research history project that ARC is currently carrying out will be presented. As well, some of the issues raised by team research that involve ethics, integrity, conflict of interest and intellectual property will be discussed. Do information and communication technologies promote teamwork a little? A lot? Greatly? Moreover, do teams use these technologies? Come and talk about these issues with us in Quebec City, on May 5 and 6, 2008. Meanwhile, send us the questions, suggestions, even the objections, that you want to submit to the participants.
Translator: Jim Edwards Copy editor: Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood
