A test I did for AcademiaResearch of Griffiths popular claim that "there is no hope in doing research".

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Trixie Aguinaldo
Academia Research
Academia Test
30 April 2011
Research Equals Technological Revolution
Even the best inventions become obsolete and this also goes to show that even research
works get to be superseded.
Research can be compared to technology particularly the innovation of mobile phones that
started as a huge and heavy block-like gadget with long antennas that nobody would even
attempt to purchase just before it even became a craze. Apparently today, mobile phones come in
handy. There are a variety of choices that are not only limited to outgoing or incoming calls, as
well as exchanges of text messages, but they are almost as good as computers and even more
easy-to-use.
Innovations indeed are very dynamic, one can never underestimate what other discoveries
can be further made in the near future and research also seemingly follows a similar fate – it is
ever changing. There are no absolute findings because they can be altered by various factors that
are dynamic as well. There will always be loopholes as time transcends events, objects, and other
phenomena.
This justifies how research has been academically defined as a form of inquiry and re-
exploration. Inquiry in this case means, “A close examination of a matter in search for
information or truth” (The American Heritage) and re-exploration refers to exploring a-new or to
“inquire into” (WordNet 3.0).

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A study titled, Tracing Teachers' Use of Technology in a Laptop Computer School: The
Interplay of Teacher Beliefs, Social Dynamics, and Institutional Culture, done by Mark
Windschitl and Kurt Sahl at the University of Washington, supports the claim of this article.
The study mentioned the concept ubiquitous technology wherein teaching methods of middle
teachers seemed to have transcended because of the culture that surrounded the nature of the
research work and how technology has been affecting the lives of their students and how their
interest has been built up because of this (Widschitl and Sahl). The proponents said that,
the laptops were a catalyst that enabled one participant, who
had a pre-existing dissatisfaction with teacher-centered
practices, to transform her classroom through collaborative
student work and project-based learning (165).
This further reiterates what has been mentioned from the beginning, that nothing is
absolute because of the changes that does not only influence the unfolding of events but even the
culture from which humans and other entities exist, this also includes change in behavior and
attitudes. Hence, a previous knowledge needs to be updated and there will always be something
new to study.
Furthermore, another research done by James A. Kulik at the SRI International, a non-
profit research institute, initially reviewed research studies from the last three decades about the
effect of instructional technology on how students learn word processing. This was titled, Effects
of Using Instructional Technology in Elementary and Secondary Schools: What Controlled
Evaluation Studies Say (Kulik).
In the review, the researcher was able to make comparisons of the development of
technology, particularly computers and its impact on the students from the 1970’s to the present.
Although the studies he cited were not sufficient enough to make assumptions because of the
gaps, he was able to find out how computers have changed through the years and how they have

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influenced the conditions from which students have been learning in school. He mentioned from
his paper that,
Computers have improved dramatically since they were first
used in instruction. Today’s computers are faster, friendlier,
and more visually and aurally sophisticated than yesterday’s
models. In addition, students are more computer-literate today
than they were in years past, and many teachers have become
sophisticated users of instructional software (x).
This study provides an example of findings from past research works, wherein their truth
value only remain within a given time frame because of the ever changing and ubiquitous
technology ((Widschitl and Sahl). Given that, perhaps there will also come a time when findings
from Kulik’s study become outdated and needs to be re-explored but nobody knows when.
By taking research within the perspective of technological revolution, it can then be said
that everything that has been ascertained expressed my agreement to Griffith’s popular statement
that “there is no hope of doing perfect research” (97) because every subject for study is
transcended through time as it is prompted by the surrounding environment and the different
phenomena that commit to altering it further.
Indeed, if there really is a perfect research, then this could have ceased to exist long before
it even became a trend (Korwar).

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Works Cited
Griffiths, M. (1998) Educational Research for Social Justice: Getting off the Fence.
Buckingham: Open University Press, 1998. Print.
Korwar, Deepti. “There is No Hope of Doing Perfect Research (Griffiths, 1998, P97). Do You
Agree?”. Scienceray. 13 May 2010. http://scienceray.com/philosophy-of-science/there-is-
no-hope-of-doing-perfect-research-griffiths-1998-p97-do-you-agree/. 27 April 2011.
Kulik, James. Effects of Using Instructional Technology in Elementary and Secondary Schools:
What Controlled Evaluation Studies Say. Diss. SRI International, 2003. Online.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.). Houghton Mifflin
Company, 2000. Print.
Windschitl, Mark, and Sahl, Kurt. Tracing Teachers' Use of Technology in a Laptop Computer
School: The Interplay of Teacher Beliefs, Social Dynamics, and Institutional Culture.
Diss. American Educational Research Journal, Vol. 39, No. 1, 2002. American
Educational Research Association. Print.
WordNet 3.0, Princeton University, Farlex Inc., 2003-2008.
http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn. 29 April 2011.