Potential for technology to support qualitative and quantitative research

As society transitions from the computer age into the information age, digital technologies continue to emerge at an accelerated pace.  Today,

…the World Wide Web, Internet, email and videoconferencing are now used routinely in our workplaces, our homes, or both.  and a variety of other new digital technologies and applications are proving themselves as powerful new tools for communication, learning, sharing information, entertaining, and conducting business (Covell, 1999, Introduction section ¶5).   

The convergence of leading edge computing capabilities, the evolution of multimedia technologies and the ongoing digital communications revolution is defined as digital convergence (Covell, 1999, Digital Convergence section ¶7).  Digital convergence is evident in education as the computer becomes a common teaching tool opening up new worlds of exploration and interaction that are significantly influencing the teaching and learning process.
        Within the last decade, qualitative and quantitative research methods have experienced the power of digital convergence as technologies begin to play a vital role throughout the research process.  Technology tools such as electronic databases, online access to research, and data analysis software that assist the research process are becoming common place.  “Tools provided by computer software to assist qualitative analysis have become acceptable, even assumed, just as it is assumed that one will use a word processor for writing or a statistics program for quantitative analysis” (Bazeley, 2000, Preface).
      Within the teacher education program at Kennesaw State University, we have seen an increase in the number of research projects using qualitative methodologies, as well as the in the use of technologies throughout the research process. The literature classifies software for analyzing qualitative data as CAQDAS:  Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software. Modern technologies can support the stages of the qualitative and quantitative research process including planning the study, literature review, study implementation and data gathering, analysis and interpretation, discussion and reporting.