Researching students across spaces and places: capturing digital data 'on the go'

Criticisms have been levelled at e-research that limited knowledge has been produced helpful for guiding educators in using digital tools more effectively for teaching and learning. This issue has become more acute with the emergence of mobile devices that enable learners to transition across different learning spaces and times. Traditional data methods are challenged to adequately capture the dynamic and collaborative exchanges occurring in flexible, technology-saturated environments, such as Bring Your Own Device or innovative learning environments (ILEs). This article details the development and use of an innovative digital data system in a series of studies exploring elementary students' learning using iPads in two ILEs in a New Zealand school. It explains the system, and evaluates its efficacy for capturing data representing use of the devices across learning spaces and tasks. While the system was highly effective, a number of barriers to its use existed. Ethical challenges were also encountered, and difficulties experienced managing and working with the volume of data produced. Although yielding high-quality data, it is up to individual researchers to assess for themselves the pros and cons of using a system such as described in this article, given the resources and time at their disposal.