Blog comments

1.1

I can really relate to your reflections around how we as engineers often are locked in our own way of thinking. And as a result of our own way of thinking it is really hard to understand the concepts which Kant and Socrates are talking about. But for the future, do you think that the concepts around forms of intuition and categories of understanding will affect your thinking around research and problem solving? Or do you think that we as engineers already are too locked in our own ways of approaching knowledge?

http://dm2572aslind.blogspot.se/2014/09/theme1-reflection.html?showComment=1413362518833

Hi Åsa.

1.2

Hi Daniel,

I agree that the first theme was difficult to understand, in a way i feel like we engineers are kind of locked in our own way of thinking and therefore it is hard to grasp philosophical concepts. Personally i feel like you would need to study some basic courses in philosophy to fully understand what Kant and Socrates are trying to say. However, i don't think that it is unnecessary mind wrestling to understand what knowledge is because of the fact understanding what constitutes knowledge, our forms of intuition and categories of understanding, can contribute to a new way of looking at objects and approaching different problems.

http://dm2572-dlindstrom.blogspot.se/2014/09/theme-1-reflections.html?showComment=1413363569730

1.3

Hi Gabriella,

Interesting blog post! I would take your reflections about the categories of understanding a bit further by saying that what Kant is trying to say is that there is some kind of structure in the world. "unity", "limitations", "substance", "space" and "time" are categories of understanding and forms of intuition that make the world as it is, as it is, and gives the world a meaning for us humans. This is how i interpreted the text by Kant.

http://dm2572gsk.blogspot.se/2014/09/post-seminar-1.html?showComment=1413364568789

1.4

Heya!

I agree that the first weeks theme and texts were a bit abstract and hard to grasp, however the seminar was really helpful in my opinion! I think the important part to understand with Kant is that it is us, humans, that give meaning to the world through our forms of intuition and categories of understanding. Without us, humans, the world as we look at it would have no structure which is important to remember when we are discussing what knowledge really is.

1.5 

Hello!

I agree that as an engineer it was hard to look upon subjects like "knowledge" from an philosophical angle since we are not trained to look at things from an philosophical standpoint. What i think Kant is trying to say with his text critique of pure reason is rather what makes knowledge of electricity possible in the first place. Which i understood as through our categories of understanding (unity, plurality, substance, causality etc) and forms of intuition (space, time), which gives the world a sense of meaning and structure.

http://ferryjan.blogspot.se/2014/09/theme-1-reflection.html
 

2.1

Overall good reflection! I did not quite understand your reflection about nominalism in relation to society. As I understood it, the purpose of nominalism in society was to break free from social constructions such as the "ideal" woman. However, the nominalistic view tends to overlook structures of power. Therefore there has to be a give and take between konceptualism and empirism.

http://ferryjan.blogspot.se/2014/09/theme-2-reflection.html?showComment=1414602597135#c5901610708701934075

 

2.2

It seems like you really grasped a lot of the concepts that were covered during the second theme, good job! I especially like the thoughts around how there is a gap between what society we want to live in, and what society we currently are living in. I believe there has to be a balance between conceptual/empirical thinking in order to not generalise too much while at the same time regarding power structures in todays society, this way i think we as engineers can achieve great things for the future!

http://kthkurs.blogspot.se/2014/09/reflection-after-theme-2-use-of.html

2.3

Hi!

I agree that the texts were a lot easier to read compared to theme 1. Really good reflection around how you have to be aware of the writers situation in order to fully understand their opinions and perspectives. I totally agree that we have to live in a world with a balance between nominalistic and empiristic perspectives in order to achieve a better world and society!

Good job!

http://dm2572-dlindstrom.blogspot.se/2014/09/theme-2-reflections.html?showComment=1414603849382#c6198497496964350822

2.4
Hi!

Interesting reclections around how we need to learn from our past in order to not make the same mistakes again. I guess you can relate to todays society, how people with Nazi backgrounds are gaining power in the swedish parlament. Even though i think we know more about our past today with the development of technologies such as internet etc, people seem to forget and ignore. Perhaps it is not about information spreading but rather about education and keeping an open mind toward society.

http://dm2572stipic.blogspot.se/2014/09/theme-2-critical-media-studies_19.html?showComment=1414604548619#c7868051907136101027

2.5

Hi!

Totally agree that the texts for theme 2 were alot easier to read and grasp than the ones for theme 1. I agree that the cave example made it alot easier to fully understand the concepts. What i also liked a lot with this seminar was the fact that it was easier to connect to reality and how I think about things like the "ideal" woman etc. Furthermore, i really liked how you have to keep the writers situations in mind in order to fully understand the opinions and concepts.

http://dm2572johanhuu.blogspot.se/2014/09/theme-2-reflection.html?showComment=1414604930606#c7359186713093853673

3.1

Hey!

I agree that this weeks theme was a lot easier to grasp and felt like something useful for the master thesis.

I had not thought about theory as a bridge between raw data and a hypothesis, interesting! As i understood it a theory is like a set of propositions or proven hypotheses that makes up a "system of thoughts" around a phenomenon, good theories therefore help us define new hypotheses which can lead to new theories. I guess that your reflection therefore is correct saying that our "normal" use of the word "theory" is somewhat incorrect from a scientific point of view. Perhaps "my hypothesis on the matter is...", but that just sounds wrong!

http://dm2572johanhuu.blogspot.se/2014/09/theme-3-reflection.html?showComment=1414605625438#c7865145064869143832

3.2
Hi,

I totally agree that the assignment for the seminar was kind of hard, especially because what a theory is and isnt is, still, really hard to fully grasp. Therefore underlying theories in the papers we read like social capital, feminism and democracy were overlooked. I also agree that it is easier to define what a theory is not rather than what a theory is, but i guess that is usally the case when it comes to defining any concept really.

http://dm2572-dlindstrom.blogspot.se/2014/09/theme-3-post.html?showComment=1414605974899#c1855540568637481376

3.3

Hi,

Really liked your reflection around research and the "Steady house". I guess that it is really important that you let the used theories "go to work" with the research data, not only building a steady house but also building a beautiful house. Both spending more time in the beginning and using the theories throughout research is something that I can relate to when thinking about my candidate thesis, it could have been so much better!

http://dm2572stipic.blogspot.se/2014/09/theme-3-research-and-theory-reflection.html?showComment=1414606425873#c3515008555038379024

3.4

Hello,

I agree that this weeks theme was not as abstract as the more philosophical themes, however this theme was not really clear to me either. Picking a paper that you could enjoy reading really helped for this seminar, but i still had a hard time grasping what kind of theories were in there since the definition for me still is kind of vague.

http://kthkurs.blogspot.se/2014/09/reflection-after-theme-3.html?showComment=1414606719513#c15146538157471774

3.5

Hi,

I think that your reflections around how the "normal" use of the word theory differs from the scientific one is really good. Perhaps that is why it was hard defining what theories were used in the papers we picked. I dont know if i fully agree with your definition on a theory being a plan. I think it is rather so that a theory is constituted by a set of proven hypotheses that makes up a system of thoughts around a phenomenon, perhaps theory can be seen as a framework for producing knowledge?

http://ferryjan.blogspot.se/2014/09/theme-3-reflection.html?showComment=1414607210675#c5738821991185360308

4.1

Hi Anna Maria!

I think that the seminar-setup Olle Bälter used was the best so far, it was really fun and instructive. I lso feel like this knowledge will be useful for the master thesis. However, i think that he talked a bit too much about how to construct surveys rather than when its
a good idea to use quantitative/qualitative methods. It was great to get some clarifications and guidelines for do's and dont's when it comes to surveys though!

http://dm2572stipic.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-4-quantitative-research-reflection.html?showComment=1414607711698#c2188264404336995133

4.2
I agree that this was one of the best themes so far, perhaps it has something to do with the seminar setup by Olle? I found it very fun and inspiring. I agree that the guidelines around constructing surveys was great. Some of these facts would have been really nice having before doing the bachelor thesis, i guess it is good to have this knowledge before the master thesis though! I agree that the most optimal thing would have been to read this course before the bachelor thesis. However, I think that its a good refreshment for the master thesis. The web vs paper survey discussion was really great, you tend to forget the pros of old technology to be honest.

http://dm2572johanhuu.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-4-reflection.html?showComment=1414608017232#c1554760454093366059

4.3

Hi,

I totally agree that theme 4 were really easy to grasp. It is an really interesting reflection around how Olle B‰lters seminar setup can be related to interactive feedback in surveys which he talked about. I guess that by including feedback in a learning/contributing process we can achieve better results both by making the process more fun while at the same time more instructive. Perhaps interactive feedback really has some future potential! 

http://dm2572-dlindstrom.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-4-post.html?showComment=1414608558987#c2991608145287872107

4.4

Hi Malin,

Haha, i dont know if that was something that Olle Really thought about, perhaps he just prefers qualitative answers over quantitative answers.... I believe that your second experience point was really interesting aswell. The questions you post in surveys have to be really clear and not contain negations and ambiguity.

http://kthkurs.blogspot.se/2014/10/reflection-after-theme-4.html?showComment=1414609504354#c3063109563135057071

4.5 

Hi,

Wow, great work with the table! Mind if i use it? Im just curious, but in what way do you think that you could have made a better survey with the knowledge you got from Olle?

keep up the good work! 

Link:http://ferryjan.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-4-reflection.html?showComment=1414610215279#c4250402149917437515 

5.1

Hi,

I agree that a collaborative setting result in many advantages. However, I think that you would have to consider the negative effect that participants might have on eachother; like not being completely honest about opinions, peer pressure. Furthermore a collaborative setting might be hard to analyze and not fit all test cases.

http://dm2572-dlindstrom.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-5-post.html?showComment=1414619305065#c8966045074558635197

5.2

Hello,

I did not attend Evas lecture but it seems like i did not miss anything really important. If you are interested in taking some courses in HCI i believe that there are some useful information in the link below:

https://www.kth.se/en/studies/master/kth/human-computer-interaction/course-overview-1.412663

I agree that the collaborative method is a great way for getting a deeper knowledge around the user testing. However, there are also advantages with a single user setting where there is no risk of users affecting each other. In order to know whether to use a single user setting or a collaborative setting you would have to know what kind of case we are talking about.

http://ferryjan.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-5-reflection.html

5.3

Hi Malin,

I liked Haibos lecture aswell, and i agree that it might be equally important (if not even more important) to define the problem as solving it. I think that there is a possibility that you often get stuck in your own way of doing things and therefore have a hard time adapting and "thinking outside the box". The most beautiful solutions are often the simplest ones, i guess that this is very important for our future work as engineers!

http://kthkurs.blogspot.se/2014/10/reflection-after-theme-5.html

5.4

Hi,

I guess that there is both pros and cons with a collaborative setting/think aloud. What it comes down really is what kind of user-testing is done. I would probably use a think-aloud method when evaluating a prototype in it's early stages while using a collaborative setting in the later stages where depth of answers might be more useful.

http://dm2572-johan-kasperi.blogspot.se/2014/10/post-theme-5.html

5.5

Hello,

Good reflections around Haibos lecture. What i found most central though was the part where we as engineers have to spend more time on defining the problem. Often it feels like we as engineers spend too little time defining the problem in comparison to the time we spend on problem-solving. Therefore we are often left with complicated and timeconsuming problems which could be solved in a better and more efficient way.

Keep up the good work!

http://dm2572johanhuu.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-5-reflection.html

6.1

Hi,

The doctor and police example helped me to understand what a case study really is. I guess as you're saying the main characteristic of a case study is to examine something within it's "natural frame". I think that many researchers might say that they are using a case study method when they're actually in some sense constructing the case. Perhaps the frames for calling it a case study is not so strict in practice as it is in theory. Good job!

http://dm2572-dlindstrom.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-6-post.html?showComment=1414667398746

6.2

Hi,

Great summary of the three main points. Even though the case study concept is a bit messy it seems like you learned and grasped the concepts from this theme, good job!

Haha interesting how many cases makes up "many" or "few" cases, did Leif mention why the line is drawn between 3 and 4 cases?

Keep up the good work! :)

http://kthkurs.blogspot.se/2014/10/reflection-after-theme-6.html?showComment=1414666426822

6.3

Hi!

Good reflections around using various methods in a case study, i guess that combining quantitative and qualitative methods is a main strength of a case study which leads to both broad and depth in information. In my seminar group we also talked about another strength of a case study which is the fact that you might stumble upon "serendipities" which can lead to some interesting hypotheses and theories.

http://dm2572johanhuu.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-6-reflection.html?showComment=1414666034194

6.4

Hi,

Good job on explaining a cast study! Besides the fact that you don't really run out of data i think that the breadth of information is what makes case studys in practice really interesting. You might find out that a answer to your questions in the case study context might be totally different from what you originally thought. Furthermore I liker that you defined four different categories in order to define what a case study is. Good job!

http://ferryjan.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-6-reflection.html?showComment=1414666776999

6.5

Hi Eric!

I totally agree that it sometimes is hard to say whether a researcher is using a case study or not. Often it feels like researchers are constructing the frames for the study just for the studys sake. In practice, perhaps the space between what a case study is and what a case study is not really strict but rather floating. However, this often makes it hard to know when someone is conducting a case study or a qualitative/quantitative study. Goob work!

http://dm2572-91roseri.blogspot.se/2014/10/theme-6-post.html?showComment=1414667714465