The announcement predicted splendidly
an event that unfolded in lovely spring in Madison. “This unique event is for
anyone teaching qualitative methods at any level and wanting to include
software, and anyone who works with them and helps them. The conference will be
strictly limited in numbers, to ensure interactive discussions and networking,
in a secluded environment.
It offers an opportunity to
discuss pedagogy and methodology with other teachers using the same tools, share
and improve teaching and supervision approaches, develop strategies and course
outlines and contribute to new materials for teachers and students, report and
critique software effects on methods, meet and debate software directions with
the software's developers and trainers.” It did.
The papers from that first
conference were published in an extraordinary special issue of the
Qualitative Research Journal,
which is still
available free on the web as a resource to teachers.
This conference
continued with this focus every two years – new initiatives but the same
emphasis on networking. The focus on QSR tools ended
in 2007, but watch the website for developments in a wider range of discussion
of qualitative computing.
