First, research is more likely to be read and key ideas reinforced when it contains multisensory components. Second, technology and multimedia allow the researcher to express ideas in more creative, artistic ways rather than being trapped into a traditional text with scholarly language and little personality. Finally, the ease of access to research via the internet and the World Wide Web increases dialog about problems needing resolution as well as providing multiple perspectives or resources for detailed information. Improving Research Practices Finally, technology and multimedia provide additional avenues for establishing standards of quality and raising questions to guide researchers toward more ethical practices when conducting qualitative research. In more conventional paradigms, researchers sought validity, generalizability, reliability, replicability, and objectivity.
More naturalistic paradigms seek credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability.
Transferability of the findings rests on thick description. Clearly, the computer has increased systematic collection and analysis of data. The issue of ethics surfaces in many forms. Although Bier et al. These unanticipated consequences appear to be more problematic when qualitative researchers follow ethical codes established for quantitative approaches.