[Air-L] Exercises for teaching digital ethnographic methods (remotely)
Radhika G
gradhika2012 at gmail.com
Wed Mar 18 03:32:02 PDT 2020
I've hesitated to chime in here - because - well where do I start?:)
Been teaching online for a while now and have used several kinds of
assignments to get students (undergrad and grad) to think through digital
living and digital immersion.
Others here (Annette, Jill - the usual "suspects" doing this work really
well already:)) have already given great suggestions.
If you need to brainstorm I can email off list too.
r
" The current lecture design is: Intro -> My research background (digital
ethnography of WeChat/Weibo activism) -> Understanding the digital field ->
Ethics -> Q&A -> Doing ethnography in... (FB, WhatsApp, Weibo, Twitter,
WeChat, Douyin/TikTok, Reddit, Insta, hashtags) -> being playful in the
field -> exercise -> feedback -> final Q&A.
I'm putting together a 30 minute exercise, but i was wondering if
anyone had examples of successful digital, ethno/qualitative research
methods exercises they've done. Particularly those that reflect on ethics,
research design and methods.
"___
Radhika Gajjala
Managing Editor: Fembot Collective
Co-editor of Ada: Journal of Gender and New Media (adanewmedia.org)
Professor,
School of Media and Communication
and
American Culture Studies Program
Bowling Green State University,
Bowling Green Ohio
http://www.radhikagajjala.org
On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 6:42 PM brook bolander <brookbolander at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Thanks for sharing these ideas!
> Annette- i‘d love to hear more. I’m just moving my whole digital discourse
> class online and am rethinking assessments, structures and ideas.
> All best,
> Brook
>
>
> On Tuesday, March 17, 2020, Andrew Herman <aherman at wlu.ca> wrote:
>
> > This is fantastic! Thanks so much.
> > ________________________________
> > From: Air-L <air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org> on behalf of Morris,CJ
> > (pgr) <C.J.Morris at lse.ac.uk>
> > Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2020 8:37 AM
> > To: Annette Markham <amarkham at gmail.com>; Jill Walker Rettberg <
> > Jill.Walker.Rettberg at uib.no>; air-l at aoir.org <air-l at aoir.org>
> > Subject: Re: [Air-L] Exercises for teaching digital ethnographic methods
> > (remotely)
> >
> > Dear all,
> >
> > First the ideas shared so far, and then a reply to Annette 😊
> >
> > Recommendations have included:
> >
> > 1. Jodi: trace ethnography https://linkprotect.cudasvc.
> > com/url?a=http%3a%2f%2fstuartgeiger.com%2fpapers%
> > 2ftrace-ethnography-hicss-geiger-ribes.pdf&c=E,1,Skn-lOq-_
> > 49tNQUAdQKxL6LRsUkv9y1mnyhTc8LNlXWipfgiYsjtlAPpJc0l8U-0Eiq_
> > 6rUOzhoe75c3HynBug1YLvHNC9FKg_r8lC1VN6LA8UW3dNuNuryslw,,&typo=1
> > 2. From Crystal:
> > * The exercises invite students to draw on their choice/knowledge
> > of internet pop culture, which can be lighthearted and meta during this
> > time.
> > * On paralanguage short films: https://linkprotect.cudasvc.
> > com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwishcrys.com%2fparalanguage-short-film%2f&c=E,1,
> >
> sfxg2KTsIaAYo_mMHH7OqjYTzznJsUA3UkN0ABqZVExwgZkFTrX0pVSXdOS5FV6VaIxww4C4sz
> > -TiyWfYAFhZUF4Acuztnxx65MmuchAQ14ieXuHo39v&typo=1
> > * On internet paralanguages: https://linkprotect.cudasvc.
> > com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwishcrys.com%2finternet-paralanguages%2f&c=E,1,
> > 9HkXSvHIz7fLcJ7sGMouknwxATgr-UwxgiIVoWKk-OxyvJjnYiybdy6P0NbKVYNVk6NWbow
> > ZcNQPXnwzWCMRdSwZhPhzjc2Cn9ZfMQ0g2eiffDitO_5CY9ga&typo=1
> > * On internet celebrity: https://linkprotect.cudasvc.
> > com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwishcrys.com%2finternet-celebrity%2f&c=E,1,-
> > K1LwMxQlnwNHY74Y-FVNIux2TMq6R0s_xrex053zcuGqzy1NSxzPF74aHWHg_
> > rMtvWzguW5T_282grdYtczw493K1C_GFhkc8Uh5TW_rFC49l_-hQ,,&typo=1
> > * This old but gold selfie syllabus put together by several AoIR
> > members in The Selfies Research Network is a great resource:
> > https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http%3a%2f%2fwww.
> > selfieresearchers.com%2fthe-selfie-course%2fselfie-syllabus%2f&c=E,1,
> > P1mDMxiOIZSo_iN4fUcFmjw-Sp8JiriD0N0BUZUBl46_3sletPzTEjBPfxb8a1_
> > mvaPWJioaf4lLEWi04uiF0G5hNOEoR4ZPirOau0tbEA,,&typo=1
> > 3. Evelina: presented fictive research cases for the students to
> > discuss if the students taught the cases where ethical and how the
> students
> > would go about to gather material in the most ethical way. Following the
> > aoir research ethics guidelines. For reflection and not examination.
> > 4. Jill: design an ethical research methodology for researching how
> > people are using technology during the pandemic. Also, the Selfie
> > Researchers and Deborah Lupton started a crowdsourced collection of
> > resources for Doing Fieldwork in a Pandemic: https://docs.google.com/
> > document/d/1clGjGABB2h2qbduTgfqribHmog9B6P0NvMgVuiHZCl8/edit?fbclid=
> > IwAR3mwwrXMlKTMkJxjPtQaDaHJcTtLGSC49oupIChpSWI2_bnwOtCLolZ04w
> > 5. Kristian: building on Jill's comment, online communities popping up
> > everywhere focusing on corona and life in quarantine, everything from how
> > to help each other to sharing memes. So your students could design a
> > project for researching one of these ad hoc communities.
> > 6. Annette:
> > * Two key questions I would be asking if I were doing this: What
> is
> > the desired learning outcome for this 30-minute exercise? And will it fit
> > into their current skillset?
> > * Consider, what do you really want them to *feel or experience*
> > during these sessions? What can you do in a short session? Could have
> them
> > do something that makes them think about research design in a more
> creative
> > and ethical way. The outcome might be 'to raise questions,' rather than
> to
> > 'build skill' or 'apply'. Suggested exercises:
> > * To get people to consider how much their own perspective
> > matters in what they will see as 'the field,' or what they will notice in
> > whatever they see as the field, I use an exercise called "write the
> room."
> > The goal is to do three timed writing exercises with the verbal prompt,
> > "write the room" and no further instruction. I disrupt their viewpoint in
> > the second and third iteration in different ways so that they might
> > understand the challenges of trying to understand culture in the first
> > place. Hopefully, the exercise helps them appreciate the sensibilities
> > underpinning a qualitative perspective. And helps them consider the power
> > of observing, and the ethical responsibilities that could go along with
> > this power. [I've written this up and am happy to share if it's
> interesting
> > to you]
> > * To get people to think about ethics, I show or discuss a
> > specific case and have them write a reflection essay in response to it,
> > choosing one of the ethical guidelines from a reading like the AoIR
> ethics
> > guidelines or an ethics article by one of our many AoIR members who write
> > about ethics
> > * To get people to think about emic versus etic perspectives, I
> > show a clip from Nightmare Before Christmas, when Jack the Pumpkin King
> is
> > trying to describe the concept and feeling of Christmas to Halloween
> Town.
> > And then, when he fails, he goes to his lab to dissect stuffed bears,
> > analyze the chemical makeup of a Christmas ornament, and reads a book
> > called "scientific method" to try to understand what makes Christmas so
> > special (this only works with certain audiences, and in regions where
> > Christmas is the big celebration)
> > * To get people to translate traditional ethnographic
> techniques
> > to digital environments, I have them choose a typical technique X
> > (interview, observe, participate, examine artifacts) and list what is
> > desired from each of these activities, asking the question "why do we X
> in
> > the first place?" What does X yield?". Then, taking the case of a
> specific
> > app/platform, reverse engineer the "what is desired" into a set of
> research
> > actions/activities that would have a similar yield and would fit the
> actual
> > context of study. E.g., we do interviews to elicit. One thing we desire
> > from interviews to hear information from people directly. Interviews give
> > us an individual's perceptions, more than information of their actual
> > behaviors. So interviews are good for learning how people feel or what
> they
> > perceive. How would we achieve these goals in wechat? Twitter? ....
> >
> >
> >
> > I can add other things to this last as they come.
> >
> > Thanks for your points, Annette. For context, this is an additional class
> > in their methods course, and they have already done 18 lectures and
> > seminars on methods. So I believe that they should already have a decent
> > background in qualitative research methods. I know that ideally this
> topic
> > would be an entire semester, this should not be a cut and paste job, but
> > this is the only time the department can give me it seems (and I have to
> > submit my thesis in 3 weeks time). As far as I can tell, if I don't do
> this
> > session the students won't have a session, and time is short.
> >
> > During the session i aim to familiarise them with debates on digital
> > ethics (your writing included), the importance of understanding the field
> > (how censorship, mobility, surveillance, privacy and visibility work,
> > boundedness and the territoriality of certain sites -> i'm a geographer),
> > several principles to consider (based partly on Pink et al.), how the
> > techniques they already have can be used in digitally centred research,
> > introducing ideas of playfulness in the field (to understand the field)
> and
> > then exploring several potential field sites (Facebook, WhatsApp,
> Twitter,
> > Instagram, Weibo, WeChat, Skype). I hope that this session can be more
> of a
> > provocation, they should not be using it to create a research plan for
> > their dissertations, that would not be possible in such a short time. It
> > should provoke the students to consider what they will need to pay
> > attention to and consider in any digitally centred or digitally active
> > research project, and that 'going digital' is not simple, that one is not
> > prepared for it just because one uses Facebook, and that digitally
> centred
> > or active research needs to take into account many additional points.
> >
> > After what you said, I'm extending the exercise to 45-60 minutes. It is
> > part of a 2 hour session with time for feedback and Q&A in the last part
> of
> > the session. I also have office hours, if necessary there may be follow
> up
> > sessions with the students, but that is out of my hands. I'm going to
> use
> > some of these suggestions as suggested assignments and additional tasks,
> > particularly ethical reflection, writing and analysis. I will share this
> to
> > their programme convener, and hopefully we can do more to prepare the
> > students.
> >
> > Carwyn
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Annette Markham <amarkham at gmail.com>
> > Sent: 17 March 2020 08:39
> > To: Jill Walker Rettberg <Jill.Walker.Rettberg at uib.no>; Morris,CJ (pgr)
> <
> > C.J.Morris at lse.ac.uk>; air-l at aoir.org <air-l at aoir.org>
> > Subject: Re: [Air-L] Exercises for teaching digital ethnographic methods
> > (remotely)
> >
> > I like the idea of focusing on current issues as Jill mentions, but in
> > general, I think this would be difficult in a 30 minute exercise. Maybe
> > that could be built into the main lecture more than the exercise.... In
> any
> > case, I think 30 minutes is too short for designing a study. And if I
> > understand correctly, Carwyn, you're giving a single lecture on the
> topic,
> > right? So how would they get feedback on their research design?
> >
> > Two key questions I would be asking if I were doing this: What is the
> > desired learning outcome for this 30-minute exercise? And will it fit
> into
> > their current skillset?
> >
> > Do you want them to understand the steps in designing a research project?
> > (are they skilled at creating research design generally, so that they can
> > translate this into whatever you're framing as 'digital?) Or do you want
> > them to feel how tough it is to design a study in a short period of time?
> > (cuz 30 minutes is super short). Or to review basic ethical principles?
> Do
> > you want them to practice some techniques? Or consider the size and scope
> > of a possible study? These different goals require different setup.
> >
> > In this situation, you might ask yourself a different question: What do
> > you really want them to *feel or experience* during this 30 minutes? If
> you
> > don't know your audience, maybe you could have them do something that
> makes
> > them think about research design in a more creative and ethical way. The
> > outcome might be 'to raise questions,' rather than to 'build skill' or
> > 'apply'. This is what I would do, but then again, I like exercises that
> are
> > more provocative than anything else.
> >
> > Anyway here are some exercises that take around 30 minutes that I do:
> >
> > To get people to consider how much their own perspective matters in what
> > they will see as 'the field,' or what they will notice in whatever they
> see
> > as the field, I use an exercise called "write the room." The goal is to
> do
> > three timed writing exercises with the verbal prompt, "write the room"
> and
> > no further instruction. I disrupt their viewpoint in the second and third
> > iteration in different ways so that they might understand the challenges
> of
> > trying to understand culture in the first place. Hopefully, the exercise
> > helps them appreciate the sensibilities underpinning a qualitative
> > perspective. And helps them consider the power of observing, and the
> > ethical responsibilities that could go along with this power. [I've
> written
> > this up and am happy to share if it's interesting to you]
> >
> > To get people to think about ethics, I show or discuss a specific case
> and
> > have them write a reflection essay in response to it, choosing one of the
> > ethical guidelines from a reading like the AoIR ethics guidelines or an
> > ethics article by one of our many AoIR members who write about ethics
> >
> > To get people to think about emic versus etic perspectives, I show a clip
> > from Nightmare Before Christmas, when Jack the Pumpkin King is trying to
> > describe the concept and feeling of Christmas to Halloween Town. And
> then,
> > when he fails, he goes to his lab to dissect stuffed bears, analyze the
> > chemical makeup of a Christmas ornament, and reads a book called
> > "scientific method" to try to understand what makes Christmas so special
> > (this only works with certain audiences, and in regions where Christmas
> is
> > the big celebration)
> >
> > To get people to translate traditional ethnographic techniques to digital
> > environments, I have them choose a typical technique X (interview,
> observe,
> > participate, examine artifacts) and list what is desired from each of
> these
> > activities, asking the question "why do we X in the first place?" What
> does
> > X yield?". Then, taking the case of a specific app/platform, reverse
> > engineer the "what is desired" into a set of research actions/activities
> > that would have a similar yield and would fit the actual context of
> study.
> > E.g., we do interviews to elicit. One thing we desire from interviews to
> > hear information from people directly. Interviews give us an individual's
> > perceptions, more than information of their actual behaviors. So
> interviews
> > are good for learning how people feel or what they perceive. How would we
> > achieve these goals in wechat? Twitter? ....
> >
> > I'm happy to talk more about these,
> >
> > Annette
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 3/17/20, 08:22, "Air-L on behalf of Jill Walker Rettberg" <
> > air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org on behalf of Jill.Walker.Rettberg at uib.no
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> > What about asking them to design an ethical research methodology for
> > researching how people are using technology during the pandemic, or
> > something like that? I think they're more likely to be able to focus on
> > coursework if it's directly relevant to the worries and anxieties of
> their
> > current digital life, and this might even help them feel slightly more in
> > control of their situation. And maybe some of them will keep going and do
> > really interesting research?
> >
> > Other resources:
> >
> > Deborah Lupton started a crowdsourced collection of resources for
> > Doing Fieldwork in a Pandemic: https://docs.google.com/document/d/
> > 1clGjGABB2h2qbduTgfqribHmog9B6P0NvMgVuiHZCl8/edit?fbclid=
> > IwAR3mwwrXMlKTMkJxjPtQaDaHJcTtLGSC49oupIChpSWI2_bnwOtCLolZ04w
> >
> > The Selfie Research Network set up an online syllabus with lesson
> > plans that would mostly work online from home. It was developed in 2014
> but
> > I think you could still use some of this.
> > https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http%3a%2f%2fwww.
> > selfieresearchers.com%2fthe-selfie-course%2f&c=E,1,
> > MxEpCjuuwvGdNXubv7TD58Szc3yN_hAt9i7dORTM-g6n46i7ooxIG71mSWBHzN029qcFGFr
> > MQnxcpaqvTYbzWMdlNCAfmWCmxhB_6NrDuOm6rYE,&typo=1
> >
> > Jill
> >
> > On 17/03/2020, 00:16, "Air-L on behalf of Morris,CJ (pgr)" <
> > air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org on behalf of C.J.Morris at lse.ac.uk>
> wrote:
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I'm now putting together lectures on digital
> > qualitative/ethnographic/field methods for my departments undergraduate
> and
> > postgraduate students. This seems like one of the few ways they will be
> > able to safely do some of their assignments. I'll be giving this lecture
> > via Zoom, a digital classroom.
> >
> > The current lecture design is: Intro -> My research background
> > (digital ethnography of WeChat/Weibo activism) -> Understanding the
> digital
> > field -> Ethics -> Q&A -> Doing ethnography in... (FB, WhatsApp, Weibo,
> > Twitter, WeChat, Douyin/TikTok, Reddit, Insta, hashtags) -> being playful
> > in the field -> exercise -> feedback -> final Q&A.
> >
> > I'm putting together a 30 minute exercise, but i was wondering if
> > anyone had examples of successful digital, ethno/qualitative research
> > methods exercises they've done. Particularly those that reflect on
> ethics,
> > research design and methods.
> >
> > I'm currently planning on going basic, asking them putting
> > together the research plan of a digitally centred study. This is open to
> > change, but if I continue with this, does anyone have any recommendations
> > for topics that they could do the plan for? I'd rather assign topics to
> the
> > groups to help focus them in the short time period we have.
> >
> > Carwyn Morris
> > PhD Candidate in Human Geography and Urban Studies
> > Department of Geography and Environment
> > London School of Economics
> > Co-organiser LSE China Reading Group
> > Tweeting @carwyn<https://twitter.com/carwyn>
> > _______________________________________________
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