[Air-L] Exercises for teaching digital ethnographic methods (remotely)
brook bolander
brookbolander at gmail.com
Tue Mar 17 14:35:34 PDT 2020
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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