Opis paradygmatu wirtualnej rzeczywistości i możliwości jej zastosowania w psychiatrii

Cel: Wirtualna rzeczywistość (virtual reality – VR) to technologia, która od ponad 25 lat wykorzystywana jest w psychiatrii do badań nad różnymi zaburzeniami psychicznymi, z uwzględnieniem zaburzeń psychotycznych. Autorzy przedstawiają cele i założenia zastosowania VR, najważniejsze zagadnienia teoretyczne, kluczowe pojęcia, charakterystykę technologii, wirtualne środowiska i zachodzące w nich interakcje społeczne, aspekty etyczne, bezpieczeństwo i działania niepożądane związane z wirtualną rzeczywistością. Poglądy: Autorzy omawiają podstawowe pojęcia, kluczowe dla opisu środowiska VR i jego wpływu na użytkowników. Zwracają szczególną uwagę na aspekty etyczne związane z badaniami nad użyciem tej technologii. Opisują pewne swoistości wirtualnych środowisk, wpływ ich jakości na odbiorcę i warunki, które muszą zostać spełnione, aby skutecznie na niego oddziaływały. Analizują prace badawcze dotyczące bezpieczeństwa VR dla zdrowych osób i pacjentów psychiatrycznych oraz przedstawiają możliwe działania niepożądane. Omawiają techniki ucieleśnienia z awatarem, charakterystykę interakcji społecznych w świecie wirtualnym i możliwości prowadzenia badań z wykorzystaniem tego środowiska. Wnioski: Wirtualna rzeczywistość wydaje się stosunkowo bezpieczną metodą, niewywołującą zbyt wielu krótkoterminowych działań niepożądanych, jednak aspekty etyczne związane z długofalowymi zagrożeniami wymagają dalszych badań. Umożliwia to prowadzenie ekologicznie ważnych badań przy zachowaniu wysokiego poziomu standaryzacji. Odwzorowanie prostych interakcji społecznych jest stosunkowo wierne, nawet przy wykorzystaniu niefotorealistycznych wirtualnych środowisk. Możliwość uzyskania iluzji ucieleśnienia z ciałem wirtualnego awatara otwiera nowe perspektywy badawcze.Purpose: Virtual reality (VR) is a relatively new technology that has been used in psychiatric research on various types of mental disorders, including psychotic disorders, for over 25 years. The authors of this article present the aims and assumptions of virtual reality use, its most important theoretical concepts, key concepts, technology characteristics, as well as virtual environments, social interactions that occur within them, ethical aspects, safety issues and adverse effects related to VR. Views: The authors discuss basic concepts of the VR environment and its impact on the users. They remain sensitive to ethical aspects related to research that use this technology. They describe certain specificities of virtual environments, the impact of their quality on the recipients and the conditions that have to be met in order to have an effective impact on them. They analyse research on the safety of VR for healthy individuals and psychiatric patients and present possible side effects. They discuss virtual embodiment techniques, the characteristics of social interactions in the virtual world and the possibilities of conducting research with the use of this environment. Conclusions: Virtual reality is a relatively safe method, not causing many undesirable effects. However, ethical aspects related to long-term threats require further research. It enables ecologically valid research to be conducted while maintaining a high level of standardization. The mapping of simple social interactions is relatively accurate, even with the use of non-photorealistic virtual environments. The possibility of creating virtual embodiment illusions opens new research perspectives. Key words: virtual reality, paradigm description, presence

Learning in the Panopticon: ethical and social issues in building a virtual educational environment

This paper examines ethical and social issues which have proved important when initiating and creating educational spaces within a virtual environment. It focuses on one project, identifying the key decisions made, the barriers to new practice encountered and the impact these had on the project. It demonstrates the importance of the ‘backstage’ ethical and social issues involved in the creation of a virtual education community and offers conclusions, and questions, which will inform future research and practice in this area. These ethical issues are considered using Knobel’s framework of front-end, in-process and back-end concerns, and include establishing social practices for the islands, allocating access rights, considering personal safety and supporting researchers appropriately within this contex

Moving outside the box: Researching e-learning in disruptive times

Indexación: Scopus.The rise of technology’s influence in a cross-section of fields within formal education, not to mention in the broader social world, has given rise to new forms in the way we view learning, i.e. what constitutes valid knowledge and how we arrive at that knowledge. Some scholars have claimed that technology is but a tool to support the meaning-making that lies at the root of knowledge production while others argue that technology is increasingly and inextricably intertwined not just with knowledge construction but with changes to knowledge makers themselves. Regardless which side one stands in this growing debate, it is difficult to deny that the processes we use to research learning supported by technology in order to understand these growing intricacies, have profound implications. In this paper, my aim is to argue and defend a call in the research on ICT for a critical reflective approach to researching technology use. Using examples from qualitative research in e-learning I have conducted on three continents over 15 years, and in diverse educational contexts, I seek to unravel the means and justification for research approaches that can lead to closing the gap between research and practice. These studies combined with those from a cross-disciplinary array of fields support the promotion of a research paradigm that examines the socio-cultural contexts of learning with ICT, at a time that coincides with technology becoming a social networking facilitator. Beyond the examples and justification of the merits and power of qualitative research to uncover the stories that matter in these socially embodied e-learning contexts, I discuss the methodologically and ethically charged decisions using emerging affordances of technology for analyzing and representing results, including visual ethnography. The implications both for the consumers and producers of research of moving outside the box of established research practices are yet unfathomable but excitinghttp://www.ejel.org/volume15/issue1/p5

The Ethics of Netnography

Ethnographic and phenomenological research is commonly used to understand the motivations behind, and consequences of, people’s participation in online spaces; and such qualitative methods are arguably essential to understanding the role that virtual spaces might play in areas of mental well-being, personal health and self-help. Such techniques clearly require consideration of the ethical dimension of research practices. This presentation examines the ethical guidelines for Internet-based studies published by the British Psychological Association and examples of their implementation in research projects, and suggests that such guidelines inappropriately apply models of public space to the web, and that their application often obscures an underlying misunderstanding of Internet practices. This presentation represents a key stage in the author's research into the use of online spaces by people who are bereaved, and is based on preliminary surveys prior to undertaking ethnographic and phenomenological research

Research ethics and participatory research in an interdisciplinary technology-enhanced learning project

This account identifies some of the tensions that became apparent in a large interdisciplinary technology-enhanced learning project as its members attempted to maintain their commitment to responsive, participatory research and development in naturalistic research settings while also ‘enacting’ these commitments in formal research review processes. It discusses how these review processes were accompanied by a commitment to continuing discussion and elaboration across an extended research team and to a view of ethical practice as an aspect of phronesis or ‘practical wisdom’ which demands understanding of specific situations and reference to prior experience. In this respect the interdisciplinary nature of the project allows the diverse experience of the project team to be brought into play, with ethical issues a joint point of focus for continuing interdisciplinary discours

An investigation into the perspectives of providers and learners on MOOC accessibility

An effective open eLearning environment should consider the target learner’s abilities, learning goals, where learning takes place, and which specific device(s) the learner uses. MOOC platforms struggle to take these factors into account and typically are not accessible, inhibiting access to environments that are intended to be open to all. A series of research initiatives are described that are intended to benefit MOOC providers in achieving greater accessibility and disabled learners to improve their lifelong learning and re-skilling. In this paper, we first outline the rationale, the research questions, and the methodology. The research approach includes interviews, online surveys and a MOOC accessibility audit; we also include factors such the risk management of the research programme and ethical considerations when conducting research with vulnerable learners. Preliminary results are presented from interviews with providers and experts and from analysis of surveys of learners. Finally, we outline the future research opportunities. This paper is framed within the context of the Doctoral Consortium organised at the TEEM'17 conference

Developments in information technology and their implications for psychological research: Disruptive or diffusive change?

The notion of technology-induced disruptive change has generally been applied within academia to teaching and learning. Less explored is the disruption that occurs to research as mainstream technology develops. This article examines the effects of technological change on research in psychology, in particular focussing on the development of web-based empirical research procedures over the past 15 years or so. I discuss the history, challenges and potential of these developments, and put forward some qualified suggestions for some of the future directions that technology will allow research in psychology to take