[TOS] Start of the school year -- what are people doing for fall semester?

[Don Davis]

>I've confirmed my affinity for small-scale qualitative
> research on faculty (as opposed to large-scale quantitative research on
> students, say). I'm still frustrated by the phrase "the open source way"
> not being backed up by anything other than anecdotes. What the heck does
> that mean?

That's interesting. I just spent the summer watching undergrads in a CS1
class (in a qualitative study) so I think I'd like to parse some numbers
in my near future...  That being said - I do think qualitative research
is very important.

Apropos qualitative research (& CS):

You've read Margolis & Fisher - What about Garvin & Doxas? How does CS
classroom hierarchy building and informal discourse shape perceptions of
FOSS?


Part of a qualitative discussion of an "(free & ) open source community"
will look at community, identity, and other elements. Without spiraling
into never-ending tangents ending in one-word questions... It may be
important to consider students and moreover professors who model to
students what software is (Bandura).

What are professors' / students' "root metaphors" for software (Reddy,
1972)?

What are there "interpretive frameworks" for understanding what software
should be (proprietary|"open source") (cf. Reddy, 1972)?

Which "Discourse" is used to position FOSS in CSE environments? And what
are students' figured software worlds (Gee, 2012)?

What are students' perceived possible "CS" selves and how does this
relate to FOSS (Markus & Nurius, 1986)?

--
1 1/2 years and then quals? You might need to get on top of that
dissertation topic if you're dissertating in the Spring....