Rogue Scientists in Edtech

I've often come across a misbelief in our field that methodology and rigor are the antitheses of innovativeness and freedom of research. Quod non.

Ungrounded opposition of methodology is not revolutionary. It is just pointless rebellion (but against whom?) or merely laziness. Those researchers who are not fond of doing rigorous empirical research but who still wish to call their work "academic research" can always choose theoretical research (probably to find out that it is no less tedious than empirical research or engineering). I have no objection to tinkering if it's called tinkering.

A friend of mine sent me a funny story concerning the scientific method, and (alas) I must agree with him that I've seen that attitude in edtech.