Ethnographic Research and Digital Media, an essay by Laura Forlano, explores how researchers can use digital media to collect, analyze and present ethnographic data. Forlano notes that some of the digital tools now available have constraints and affordances that may hinder or enable ethnographic research process. Because of the growing number of tools, she proposes that teachers should train students to not only be critical users of technologies but help them gain a wealth of experience with a variety of tools. One of the ways of achieving such a goal is according to Forlano to have them engage in indepth and personal investigation with the digital tools. Through a repeated exposure to a number of tools, it encourages them to engage in conversations and debates about the tools' affordances and disaffordances. As result, they can make critical choices of which ones will enable them complete their assignments or projects successfully.
In regard to conducting ethnographic research, she notes that digital media can supplement traditional methods of data collection. For example digital cameras can be used to document field work through photos and videos. One can also use twitter and iphone features to document observations in addition to taking field notes. At the same time, she notes that some of these tools have features and applications that can distract students while collecting ethnographic data for example texting back and forth during research. This can make them less focussed. Another disaffordance, according to Forlano, is that there is a high likelihood that some social science peer reviewed journals may reject publishing articles where data is collected using certain digital media tools.
One of the main issues that Forlano focuses on in her essay is how digital tools are used to present ethnographic research. She notes that to do a good job in presenting ethnographic data, the presenter has to be a good story teller. Essentially then, the choice of technology one chooses should be able to capture the fundamentals of narration especially the element of surprise. Unfortunately, according to Forlano, students seem to prefer using Powerpoint despite the technology’s recent bashing by scholars for “its aesthetic failings”. One of the discordance she identifies is that it has a prescriptive linear format for example a title slide, layouts, storyboards, backgrounds and inclusion of texts and image in the slides which might not be the most effective way of presenting ethnographic research. Based on experience she writes:
the most effective presentations of ethnographic research that I have seen relied merely on a rolling slideshow of images without any text, or minimal text indicating the time, place and location that the images were taken. This leaves the storytelling in the hands of the presenter and insures they do not get bogged down with linear sequences of text on slides. Scanned images of field notes can also be valuable in communicating the authenticity of the research process.
Forlano proposes that teachers should let students explore other innovative digital tools/ways to present their ethnographic data- field notes, images, videos and other artifacts besides PowerPoint. Such tools could be Keynote, Adobe Photoshop, Prezi, video etc.
Other issues
Forlanos’s article seems to reiterate some of the issues we talked about during our in-residence sessions a few weeks back. One of the ethical considerations that teachers should keep in mind is that students have diverse technological realities with some having access to high tech equipments while this may not be the case for some students. Similarly, some students will have a high proficiency in using certain tools than others. As such, teachers should create assignments that can be can be accomplished successfully through both high-tech and low-tech ways. As result, this calls for the teacher to be flexible when providing both formative and summative evaluations on students’ projects. Another issue she brings up which we discussed in class is the challenge of evaluating student's individual contribution in collaborative/group work when they use digital media tools.
Check the article at Learning Through Digital Media website
No comments:
Post a Comment