9.24 Discussion of ethnographic notes

We started  class with a discussion of notes on the in-class even taken by the other section.  I have pasted in my notes on our discussion of what we saw,
Jottings

Content

What observer did

What others did

Used positin in room + who was talking as jottings

Trigger = note on professor

Names

Form

Single/word phrases

Whole sentences

Sometimes more like headnotes (long sentences, whole thoughts)

Strategies for taking jottings

Strong participation (direct what others will say)

Write down what will trigger recollection of the whole event

Write down what will be forgotten

Write down everything

Organized jottings by experience (see 8)

Head notes
content

Inner reflections

Generalizations

Details

Unpack jottings

Move between close-in and far back

Form

Paragraphs

Chronological

Generalizations

Short phrases

Strategies

Go from the beginning to the end to write down everything that you didn’t have time to write down while you were there

Use your jottings

Associate to what you do remember

Remember later

Fill in details

Conversations!  Names! Realizations about general behavior

Far back observations

We then had a discussion about what kinds of questions we might ask about these data sets and you came up with the questions in the next post.