Digital Tools Blog -7/25/13

Reading Reflections

PLD – Chapter 6 – Transcribing Audio and Video Data

            “Because it is impossible to document all features of social interaction, all transcripts should be considered partial representations, selective and situated in relationship to the goals of a partial study” p. 5

            I think this is really important to keep in mind, that even with video and audio, what you are capturing is just part of the puzzle.  How you position the camera, where you put the microphones, where you place yourself as the researcher are all impacting what is collected via the digital device.  

Reflective Practice 6.1 – Consider the study you are designing in conjunction with this book

	RR TL Professional Development	RR Student/Teacher Interactions
What kind of audio or video data might you collect and transcribe?	This would be very complex to capture, as there is the student/teacher interactions happening behind the glass and the teacher leader discussion happening in connection to the student/teacher interaction. As I read about Transana, and the layering it affords, I was wondering if this might be appropriate.  Just getting the audio wouldn’t do the experience justice.  I’d want to capture the video as well. If I am doing a case study, I want info about the activities that take place within the training experience and to get to teacher leaders’ perceptions of the experience.  If I am looking at identity, and how the teacher leaders evolve and change over time, then I would want to capture more of the naturally occurring talk, not just during teaching sessions, but also the conversations they have with one another.	This would be more straight forward to collect, even if I used video.  There is just the interaction between the teacher and child, and they are usually in a room by themselves with little background noise or distraction. Again, I would want to capture more than just the audio, as kids expressions and movements are often very telling. I have been thinking about the coaching interactions that happen between a RR teacher and a RR teacher leader.  This might be something interesting to explore.  These conversations generally take place right after a RR lesson has taken place.  This is “individual professional development” that happens through conversation.  This might be a way to get to professional development …a very different kind of professional development.
What information in the recording do you need to attend to?	Language would be important in both (all) cases.  What is said, how it is said, and the actions that result from the talk would be important to capture.   Often, kids just “act” as a result of teacher prompting and talk – this would need to be captured via video, as there is often no talk from the child, just action.
What features such as rate of speech, pitch, and/or overlapping speech will be important?  How might you capture such features in your transcript?	This would be important and difficult to capture … in the teacher discussion BTG, there is so much going on…the kid and teacher audio is heard and the teachers are just talking about what they see, notice or wonder about.  The teacher leader is bringing issues or questions up and the teachers respond.  Even the most polite group of teachers talk over one another and interrupt one another.  The conversation sometimes jumps quickly from reaction to reaction before it settles on a particular line of thought.   Again, I don’t think just audio or transcripts could capture the complexity.  Video would be much more appropriate.  I am thinking of the snippets in the text about the brainstorming sessions of the film makers comes to mind.	I think video would be best if looking at kid/teacher or teacher/teacher leader interactions, but those interactions could be transcribed.  I am thinking verbatim transcription with some sections transcribed with Jeffersonian – depending upon which aspects of the interactions I plan to investigate.  If I was using Jeffersonian, I could attend to things like rate of speed, pitch and overlapping speech and use the conventions of Jeffersonian transcription to capture those aspects.
How might you represent laughter, pauses, gestures?	I would have to capture as much of this as possible.  Pauses would be captured via Jeffersonian transcription.  There is SO much laughter and gesturing in the behind the glass discussions.  The idea of just coding from the video without a transcript might work here.

Johnson – The Speed and Accuracy of Voice Recognition Software Assisted Transcription versus the Listen and Type Method: A Research Note

            I was surprised here when the voice recognition software didn’t give an advantage in terms of time.  I did wonder if the results were influenced by the fact that the researcher had the benefit of having already heard the information, spoken the information, and typed the information through the voice recognition before he tried the listen and type method.  He was familiar and could anticipate the information and perhaps that made him somewhat quicker. What if the listen and type had been the first method attempted and then the voice recognition? 

            The advantages in terms of the behavior of typing was interesting to think about. I have done transcriptions before and my wrists really got a work out.  It might be worth it just in terms of that aspect.  Also, speaking the information is another mode of input (hearing, speaking/hearing and “seeing”/reading as it appears on the screen) that is not present when you transcribe using listen and type.  How does that additional input impact how the researcher understands the information?  I would like to try out Dragon dictate.

Markle, West, and Rich – Beyond Transcription: Technology, Change and Refinement of Method

            I liked this quote on page 3 – “The actual process of making detailed transcripts enables you to become familiar with what you are observing.  You have to listen/watch the recording again and again … Through this process you begin to notice the interesting and often subtle ways people interact.  These are the taken-for-granted features of people’s talk and interaction that without recordings you would routinely fail to notice, fail to remember, or be unable to record in sufficient detail by taking hand-written notes as it happened.” – Rapley 2007, p. 50 – original

            Working with transcripts really does allow you to become close to the information.  And there are aspects and layers that you cannot notice unless you watch/listen over and over.  Through repeated exposure and experience, there are some aspects that no longer get your attention and you are able to devote attention to aspects that were more subtle.  I have experienced this with viewing teaching videos, trying to get at what was going on for a kid, or how my teaching wasn’t meeting the child’s needs.  I am making the leap to the research setting, but I am imagining the process is very similar.   There is a quote further down and it discusses the ability to “virtually re-visit” the site as often as necessary…and I see that as being a really important aspect of researching.  When you have so much data – daily 30 minute lessons…how possible is it to view over and over and over?  I would need to be very clear about  the scope of my study.

            I thought it was interesting to think about how researchers have interviewed in particular ways in order to make transcribing easier.  That seems rather odd to me – and limiting of the information gathered.

            Oh, it was this article that talked about the brainstorming session that was difficult to capture – even using the CA conventions.  I think this is very much like what the RRTL conversations would be like.  “…the transcript loses much of the meaning, emotion, and humor of the episode as the students laugh and respond ..”

Class Reflections

            I have never Skyped before, so this was a good experience – an especially good one to have in a class on digital tools.   Affordances – it allowed me to be here in Atlanta for my meetings and not miss class. I could talk with my classmates in small group, hear the presentations, and practice the tools that were discussed.  I was also able to ask some questions of Rachel and Ann when I ran into trouble.  Additionally, I was able to practice Skype.  This was great, as I think it will be an important tool for me in the upcoming years.  I will be doing a lot of travelling and will need to collaborate with co-workers who are in various locations.  This experience allowed me to feel comfortable with the tool.  Constraints – I had a hard time seeing the presentation screen, as there was a glare.  Luckily, the Power Point will be posted, so I can get those eventually.   It was difficult to hear other people’s responses to questions, or comments when the small groups were sharing out.   There were also times when the video and audio were out of sync.   Overall, I think the affordances far outweigh the constraints.