Ethnography Tracing Distributed Learning and Interactions

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Lorraine Emerick & Rostati ETAP 887 ~ Dr. Zhang Ethnography for Tracing Distributed Learning and Interactions

What is Ethnography? Barron, B. (2006); Fields, D. A. & Kafai, Y. B. (2009).; Ito, M., Horst, H., Bittanti, M., boyd, d., Herr-Stephenson, B., Lange, P. G., et al. (2008); Leander, K. M., & McKim, K. K. (2003). : 

What is Ethnography? Barron, B. (2006); Fields, D. A. & Kafai, Y. B. (2009).; Ito, M., Horst, H., Bittanti, M., boyd, d., Herr-Stephenson, B., Lange, P. G., et al. (2008); Leander, K. M., & McKim, K. K. (2003). 2 Ethnography consists of studying a place (physical or digital) or a group of people, usually defined as a “cultural group”, which becomes the unit of analysis on which the ethnography is based. Through empirical data- collection, the ethnographer crafts a deeper understanding of a particular culture’s values, worldviews, norms, and ideologies – i.e. role of culture and power in shaping relations and behaviors. Generally, the key method for ethnographic research is participant observation. It involves becoming intimately involved with the group being studied, becoming included as a member or “insider.” At the same time, one must also maintain an “outsider” perspective. Avoiding ethnocenticism is critical (attempting not to judge another culture from one’s own perspectives and values).

Rationale for Ethnography Research Online/Offline : 

Rationale for Ethnography Research Online/Offline Ethnography can be used to develop an enriched sense of the meanings of the technology and the cultures which enable it and are enabled by it. Identity shifts are complicated by being situated in multiple online and offline spaces that are not easily articulated in spatial or temporal terms (Leander, 2003).  Leander (2003) discusses the need for better ethnographic methods that takes into account the continuum of space and time as a “rich process that draws upon multiple material and discursive resources, is imbued with relations of power, and is malleable through individual agency and imagination” (p. 212). http://www.youtube.com/user/windowsphone 3

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Research Examples Using Ethnography to Trace Distributed Learning and Interactions 4

Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project (Ito, M., Horst, H., Bittanti, M., boyd, d., Herr-Stephenson, B., Lange, P. G., et al. 2008) : 

Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project (Ito, M., Horst, H., Bittanti, M., boyd, d., Herr-Stephenson, B., Lange, P. G., et al. 2008) Understanding Youth’s Culture in the New Media Ecology Questions: How are new media being integrated into youth practices and agendas? How do these practices change the dynamics of youth-adult negotiations over literacy, learning, and authoritative knowledge? (p.1) Goals: “to capture the youth cultures and practices related to new media, as well as the surrounding context, such as peer relations, family dynamics, local community institutions, and broader networks of technology and consumer culture” 5

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6 Genres of participation, networked publics, peer-based learning, and new media literacy Learning: Friendship-Driven, Interest-Driven, Peer- Driven Hanging around: to maintain social connections to friends Always on communication Flirting and dating  Transformation in the meaning of friend and friendship Media and Mediation between Generations Messing around: to take an interest in and focus on the workings and content of the technology and media themselves, tinkering, exploring, and extending their understanding Geeking out: an intense commitment to or engagement with media or technology, often one particular media property, genre, or type of technology. Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project (continued)

Interest and Self-Sustained Learning as Catalysts of Development: A Learning Ecology Perspective (Case Study ~ Barron, B. (2006) : 

Interest and Self-Sustained Learning as Catalysts of Development: A Learning Ecology Perspective (Case Study ~ Barron, B. (2006) Goal: “to understand individual differences in learning outcomes and their relationship to access and use of resources across contexts, data collected need to reflect processes of learning better than survey data.” (Barron, 2006, p.196). How is interest developed? Peers Home School Community Work… What processes are identified? Text-based information Interactive activities Explores media Structured learning Builds knowledge networks (Barron, 2006, p. 195) 7

Interest and Self-Sustained Learning as Catalysts of Development: A Learning Ecology Perspective (continued) : 

Interest and Self-Sustained Learning as Catalysts of Development: A Learning Ecology Perspective (continued) Three Adolescent Student Profiles Commonality- all seeking ways to see out resources and creatively utilize computers Three Pathways for Developing Interest Interest arises at school expands to home/community Interest result of informal learning/friends & leads to pursuit in class Interest begins at home and leads to pursuit in/out classroom, community & school Jamal Craig Stephanie Summary Interest development occurs in different contexts Variety of strategies to further learning Interest-driven learning activities are self-sustaining and boundary crossing Video Clip ~ Brigid Barron http://vimeo.com/10371489 Start at 8.5 minutes –total 5 Min 8 Classroom Peers Home Community

A Connective Ethnography of Peer KnowledgeSharing and Diffusion in a Tween Virtual World (Fields, D. A. & Kafai, Y. B. 2009) : 

A Connective Ethnography of Peer KnowledgeSharing and Diffusion in a Tween Virtual World (Fields, D. A. & Kafai, Y. B. 2009) How tweens share knowledge in on-line and off-line spaces in order to progress in the virtual world Whyville. Focus on the travel (or diffusion across people) of a practice rather than the movement of several individuals across spaces Tracing knowledge sharing and diffusion in the club of teleporting Data: Field notes, Videos, Interview, Online tracking/chats 9

Connective EthnographyExamples : 

Connective EthnographyExamples E-science: Exploring connections among different activities (mailing list participation, exploration of web landscapes, and analysis of expectations around information and communications technologies as portrayed in policy documents) offers a means to of understanding multiple dimensions of e-science as a focus of practice and policy (Hine, 2007) http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue2/hine.html Synchrony project: Understanding how teens are developing new literacy practices, new social networks, and new forms of identity by following the naturally occurring communication practices of a group of teens online and offline, across school contexts, home contexts, and informal peer contexts. http://www.vanderbilt.edu/litspace/Synchrony/index.html 10

Next Step ~ Conducting Ethnographic Research : 

Next Step ~ Conducting Ethnographic Research Think about…. What topics do you want to explore? Participant or non-participant? What questions do you have on the subject? What field site would you use to explore this? Do you know you ethical responsibilities? Are you using open ended questions formally/informally? Are you using fieldnotes to transition from observations (general descriptions/specific details) to research paper ? Some research questions might involve: Differences among people (ethnicity, age, residential situation, etc.) (predictors) Different behaviors, cultural beliefs, attitudes, norms, risks (outcomes) Relationships (processes) Processes (community, organizational, problem solving, decision making etc.) Structures (policies, norms, rules, etc.) Historical factors (background variables) Spatial analysis (what does the place look like, sound like, use, symbolic meanings, is meaning attached to social space, memorials, art work… What powers are at work to shape, maintain or change, the place—the market, the State, community?) 11

Research Process(Van Hout, 2008) : 

Research Process(Van Hout, 2008) 12 Develop Research Questions Identify Fieldsite & Participants Overt or Covert Gain Access Collect Data Interpret Data What you want to know Where & Who to Study Participant or Non-Participant Observation Access to group/place Questionnaires, surveys, interviews (individual/groups), diary studies, field notes, content analyses of media sites, profiles, videos, audio recordings, photos, written documents, cultural artifacts... Develop/ Refine Concepts / Theories Collect More Data Refine Question Write up Findings & Publish! Identify and name codes with open coding Collect notes and ideas with memoing Identify categories and sub-categories Find relationships with axial coding Seek the core category Integrate categories with selective coding Triangulation Observation Surveys Interviews

Data Analysis DemoUsing Weft QDA : 

Data Analysis DemoUsing Weft QDA 13 An easy-to-use tool to assist in the analysis of textual data such as interview transcripts, written texts and fieldnotes.

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14 Weft QDA

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15 Weft QDA

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16 Weft QDA

Resource: Data Analysis Tools : 

Resource: Data Analysis Tools Software: Ethnograph 6.0: http://www.qualisresearch.com/ (Single Copy Student  $99.00) Anthropac http://www.analytictech.com/anthropac/anthropac.htm (free) Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ (free) Ethnographic Data Analysis Software Discussion thread on EASA (European Association of Social Anthropologists )Media Anthropology Mailing List August 2-4, 2007 http://www.media-anthropology.net/discussion_QDAsoftware.pdf Maxqda ; (Single Copy Student  $99.00); Atlas.ti (Single Copy Student  $99.00); Nvivo ($199/12mths); Weft-QDA (free) ; Tinderbox; ($249); ELAN (free); Transcriva (Mac Only/free); Journler; (Mac Only/free); Concordancer Pro (free) & Wiretap Pro (free) Other Resources for Qualitative Research: http://www.qualitativeresearch.uga.edu/QualPage/multimedia,qda.html Online QDA: http://onlineqda.hud.ac.uk/Intro_CAQDAS/software_tools.php 17

References : 

References Antrhopac (Version 4.98) [Software]. Available from http://www.analytictech.com/anthropac/anthropac.htm Audacity (Version 1.2.6) [Software]. Available from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Barron, B. (2006). Interest and Self-Sustained Learning as Catalysts of Development: A Learning Ecology Perspective. Human Development, 49, 193-224. Ergul, H. (2007). Ethnographic data analysis software. Messages posted to discussion thread on EASA media anthropology mailing list. Retrieved October 6, 2010 from http://www.media-anthropology.net/discussion_QDAsoftware.pdf Fields, D. A. & Kafai, Y. B. (2009). A connective ethnography of peer knowledge sharing and diffusion in a tween virtual world. International Journal of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, 4(1), 47-68. Horst, H. (2010, February 19). Digital Media and Learning Conference 2010 Plenary Panel [Video file]. Video posted to http://vimeo.com/10371489 Ito, M., Horst, H., Bittanti, M., boyd, d., Herr-Stephenson, B., Lange, P. G., et al. (2008). Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project. White Paper: The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning. Retrieved January 30, 2009, at http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/report Hine, C., (2007). Connective ethnography for the exploration of e-science. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(2), article 14. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue2/hine.html 18

References : 

References Leander, K. M., & McKim, K. K. (2003). Tracing the everyday ‘sittings’ of adolescents on the internet: a strategic adaptation of ethnography across online and offline spaces. Education, Communication & Information, 3(2), 211-240. Leander, K. (n.d.) Synchrony. Retrieved October 18, 2010 from , http://www.vanderbilt.edu/litspace/Synchrony/index.html Microsoft (Video producer) (2010). Really: New windows phone 7 official ad. Retrieved October 29, 2010 from, http://www.youtube.com/user/windowsphone Norris, J. (n,.d.) Qual page. Retrieved October 27, 2010 from, http://www.qualitativeresearch.uga.edu/QualPage/multimedia,qda.html VanHout, T,(2008, September 30). How to do ethnographic research. Retrieved October 29, 2010 from, http://aloxecorton.wordpress.com/category/ethnography/page/3/ Weft QDA (Version 1.0.1) [Software]. Available from http://www.pressure.to/qda/ 19

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Thank You! The End 20