Digital Tools blog post 7.24.13

Reading Reflections

This blog post entry could be titled – Lots of things I’ve never heard of and/or considered…

 Chapter 5: Generating Data – Lester, Paulus, Dempster

 I liked this quote by Sacks (1992) – “ … if we are to understand and analyze participants’ own concepts and accounts, then we have to find and analyze them not in response to our research questions, but in the places they ordinarily and functionally occur in the activities in which they’re employed”.  This made me consider how I might use only naturally occurring talk if I investigated RRTL professional development or interactions between a RR teacher and student.  I was also reminded of my pilot project I did for my qual class.  We were to do observations for an hour in our research setting and then write up our field notes to give the reader (our professor for class) an idea of what we had observed.  The feedback I got after my first observation was to describe more of the happenings instead of recording the talk of the participants.  This was really hard for me, because I had worked really hard to get what my participants were saying as it was happening.  It was not audio recorded naturally occurring talk … it was my best efforts at capturing all that was said, but, I was focused on the talk that was happening.  That is my interest and my lens, and it was hard for me to do otherwise.

 Here is one of the “never thought about that” aspects of this reading – p. 6 talks about using GPS to do a study looking at kids’ everyday movements.  I thought that was fascinating, and had never even considered how GPS could be used to inform research. GPS Logger sounds very interesting.

 

The more I think about my potential research topics – of RRTL professional development, or RR teacher/student interactions, and the more I consider discursive psychology, discourse analysis, conversation analysis, the more I think they will work well together.  As I read the section on recording conversations, I was thinking about looking at RRTL training over the course of a year or a RR child during his lesson series.  I could audio/video record the sessions and also be present for observations in order to capture the naturally-occurring interactions – both verbal and non-verbal.  I am thinking about how both of those settings are “liminal” spaces where identities are transformed.

Case Study 5.1 helped me think through how I might use similar tools to capture RR TL training interactions – there is so much going on, I’d have to really decide what I was going to focus on in order to situate the camera and microphones appropriately.  It would be much easier to focus on a RR teacher and child.  The interaction is just between them instead of a classroom full of people who are all talking right after one another or at the same time.

I was completely blown away by the smart pens (again, something I had never heard of!).  They would be perfect (along with the special paper) for capturing the notes that a RR teacher takes during a lesson, after the lesson, and in preparation for a lesson.  Amazing!

Reflexive Practice 5.5 – I believe there is a Reading Recovery Facebook page.  I am not sure how that would inform my research study if I chose to look at RRTL training.  Establishing a new page with the particular training group might work…

I had never considered synchronous chatting to do interviews.  Not having to transcribe would be a really big bonus, but the reduced amount of data (due to typing while the interview is happening) might be a disadvantage depending upon what is being studied.   I can see that it is a nice option when finances and limited technology tools are a factor.

Another never heard of – the walk and talk interviews!  Wow, how interesting.  I could see this being really useful in working with children as participants.  They might need something in the environment to spark their ideas about a topic and may verbalize more when not sitting eye to eye with an adult who is asking questions.  

 Ethnographic Approaches to the Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication

Garcia, Standlle, Bechkoff, and Cui

         
            This article completely blew my mind –just so many aspects of researching online cultures that I had never considered before.  The article does a good job of showing all aspects of research that are affected when online communicates are the focus.   The authors talked several times about how many people don’t consider virtual interactions “real” and maintain that they are somehow less authentic than daily face to face interactions.  I see what they mean in terms of people having opportunity to misrepresent themselves – and maybe it is a bit easier online, but people do that all the time in “real” life.  The authors talked about men (more than women) inflating their level of education, job roles etc. in social interactions that are live and they tend do those same kinds of things on line (more than women).   I agree with the quote, “ ‘Virtual reality’ is not a reality separate from other aspects of human action and experience, but rather a part of it” (p. 55).  

            On page 70, the authors include a quote by Whitty and Gavin in which they talk about online communications possibly allowing a “deeper level of engagement with others”.  This made me think of many friends who have met people on-line and their contention that they really got to know a person more quickly through this medium.

            The discussion of lurking was interesting.  The researcher is there and watching the happenings, and they are public, but it does seem like a violation of privacy on a certain level.  I am not really sure how I feel about it yet.  I wondered about the research study into the skin head communications.  If you announce your presence as a researcher, are you really going to capture the authentic interactions of the group members?  If you don’t announce your presence as a researcher, you may glean interesting information.  And, if the group is public, do you have to get consent or come clean with who you are?  A really interesting thing to think about.

Class Reflections (from Tuesday):

            I was pretty overwhelmed by all the apps Everett showed us (or referred us to).  There are just so many that I think if I allowed myself, I could spend gobs of time playing around and looking for new apps. The goal for me will to be aware of what is available and be discerning in what I decide to adopt and learn.

            It was shocking to see all the information that NVivo was able to capture about Facebook participants.  I think Jami was spot on when she was talking about the public nature of all of our communications –“unless you are whispering to someone, what you say is public”.  Could we talk about digital footprints in class one day?  I think there are ways to review and edit a digital profile.

            I thought the discussion our small group had about mac vs. pc was interesting.  Both of my group members use android products exclusively.  I have a PC and an Ipad and an android phone.  Like Ginny, I have had zero problems with linking and syncing between my PC and Ipad.  But, more and more, I want to get an iphone.  Hearing Everett talk about how he uses his phone for audio recording made me want one every more.  I may do that at some point, but I think I will stick with my PC. 

            I believe I will use Atlas ti to do a mini lit review (DP class paper) for my skill builder project.  I will change what I put on the list.