Chapter 12: Virtual Research Practices and Phenomenologies of the Internet

While a great deal has been written about on-line learning in education, very little attention has been devoted to its role in postgraduate research degrees—PhDs, Professional Doctorates and Masters by research¹. For research students, however, whose program of study is largely self-defined and for whom keeping pace with the latest ideas both nationally and internationally is pivotal, new information and communication technologies (ICTs), principally the Internet, have much to offer. The use of such technologies has, and will, change the nature of the research degree, as use of the Internet, in particular, re-orders our relation to each other and to knowledge. This re-ordering has significant spatial dimensions.