3.28 Informed Consent + Designing interviews

Informed Consent materials. The previous post has a pdf for the signature page of the informed consent form (with my signature).   You will need to sign this page and get your participants to sign it as well.   It should be presented as the last page of the Informed Consent Form .   You will need to print the first two pages of the Informed Consent Form , and then attach a copy of the signature page for the informed consent. 

At your preliminary meeting with your participants, talk through the purpose of the study, information about being a subject, and procedures sections, and all that follows, making sure to answer any questions your participants might have.  After you have made your presentation on your project = get 2 signed copies.  One for your participant, one for you (that you will then turn in to me).

If you are doing interviews, you will use this preliminary meeting to provide a copy of the interview protocol, to arrange a time for the interview, to make sure your participant knows the interview will be recorded, and to answer any other questions your participant might have.  Be sure to make clear that participating in the study is voluntary.

Developing the interview protocol: We spent a good chunk of class talking about how interviews are organized.  Interviews are conversations - and they work like conversations.  Like conversations, it takes people a while to "warm up" to a subject and generally they will have lots to say if you provide lots of chances to follow up on the ideas and language they have associated with the topic of conversation.  Your primary role as an interviewer is to keep the participant focused on the topic of conversation.  If they go "off-topic", listen carefully to make sure it isn't really "on topic" but just somethng you weren't thinking of - and if you need to re-direct the talk - do it generously (Wow, that was interesting) and tactfully bring the focus back (could you tell me some more about what you said earlier about. . .).

Your interview should be no longer than 30 minutes.  You will need a good, rich body of talk to have enough material for your project, but transcribing is time consuming so you don't want to bury yourself. 

To make sure you have the kinds of questions that will "work" for you:

• Design them carefully using the "pointers" we discussed in class
• Test/time/voice record your interview questions with a "practice" participant
• Listen to your recording for your "test" and think about what worked and what you can do better
• Remember that each interview will depend on your participant - and be prepared to be flexible,

Interview features for "conversation" interviews:
1.Lead (short - less than a minute).   Begin with your "lead" = write a statement of the project's focus as part of your interview protocol (like on the sample).  When you  actually DO the interview, be sure to state your name, get your participant to state his/her name, state the focus of your project, where you are, and the date.

2. Set up questions. (2-5 minutes) These should be short, factual, easy to answer questions.  (Think back to the examples we gave in class).  They might be information about the participant's background, identity, training or memberships assoicated with your focus.

3. Orienting question  (5-7 minutes).  Often, the first story will give you a preview/foreshadowing of where the interview will go.  This question gives your participant a chance to let you know how they see your focus.  Pay attention to this answer and as you talk, pick up on your participant's language and ways of seeing things and work those words/views into the questions the form the body of your interview.

4. The main section of the interview (about 15-20 minutes)
We noticed in the Literacy narrative interview protocol that the questions were organized chronologically and by setting = and that some of the same questions were asked about experiences from different times and places.  Give some thought about how you organize your questions.  Choose about 2-4 big categories or subjects/focuses for your questions.  Spend about 5 minutes on each set and cycle through and back through a related point of view.  Think of the examples from class.

5. Closing (2-3 minutes).  Your last question should again invite your participant to open up your focus in any way they want - check to see if there is anything that you might have forgotten to ask that they feel is important.

I'm afraid I didn't leave you much time to work on your interview protocols in class - but if you post them on your blog I will give you lots of feedback - and we can talk about them in class.

For Tuesday:
Blog 16:  If you are doing an interview as part of your research project => post your draft interview protocol.

If you are not doing an interview, look back through your research plan, and write up any data collection tools: you might need.  These might include surveys, plans for making your observations (what, where, who, how long etc you will observe), timelines for completing your data collection, ideas about how you might focus and analyze your data = the more writing you get up on your blog the more I can help you with your project.

I will return your short analysis essays and give you some general feedback on what we need to work on in terms of analysis.

Research paper grading criteria.  We will review/write up the specific criteria for the research paper and negotiate how we will assign the grade.  To do this we will take into account what we learned about the form for research papers (reading the model essays) =what information needs to be included in what order, what  we learned about doing analysis (the rubric + what we learned from doing the short analysis papers), how much credit you want for your research process (collecting + analyzing your data) versus how much you credit you want for the paper itself, and anything else you think should be counted for your grade.  We will also set up a timeline for completing the project + doing your presentations.

We are definitely getting to the fun part of this course!   Have a great weekend and see you on Tuesday.

3.28 Signature page

This is the link for the signature page for the informed consent forms.

3.26 Oral History + finishing up short analysis papers

We started class by talking about how to include references to the texts you are analyzing.  If you are going to refer to a "quote" that is more than two lines long - you should include it as a block quote.  Conventions for putting quotations into the flow of an essay, both for short quotes and block quotes are at the Purdue OWL = a great place to look up how to do most anything related to writing.  Set up your quote by introducing what it will show, insert the quote (as described at the OWL) and then develop your discussion and state the point that you make regarding what the quote SHOWS with respect to your focus. 

Oral History
We reviewed the introduction to oral history at the link (posted to the right).  We talked about how oral histories can open up mainstream ideas of "what happened" in the past - or what counts as history.  We noted that all history is written from the perspective of whoever is writing the history - and that oral histories represent a move to include more and different voices in accounts of "what happened" in the past. 

We talked through, step by step, what to do if you are going to collect an oral history from your pre-interview preparations (researching the historical period - what was going on in the time/place you want to talk about); finding a suitable archive/repository => some place where you can "file" your oral history so people can read it, identifying who you want to talk to, and designing a set of questions.  At this point you will want to contact your participants to set up a time and place to meet, give them about how long the interview will take and let them know you will be using a voice recorder, and to send them a copy of the informed consent forms (see forms under course documents).

During the interview - you need to find a quiet place (recorders pick up EVERYTHING), and as you begin your recording - set it up with a "lead" = a short statement that identifies you and your participant, the focus of your conversation, and the date when you talked.
Then talk through your questions in a conversational manner (you might want to review the suggestions listed at the Oral History link posted to the right).

After the interview, provide your participant with a debriefing form (posted to the right), and answer any questions. Make any notes you may need to help transcribe your interview, and label or tag your interview so that you will be certain about what it contains.

After this introduction you talked with a partner about your experience of 911.  We then came back together as a group and we talked (briefly) about some of what yout
Great class!

For Thursday:
Due: Short analysis.   I know I said to post your paper  in my last blog - but I meant to say to send it to the course email as an attachment.  I will grade your papers over the weekend and hope to return them with comments by April 2.

Blog  15:  post your sound file/notes from your oral history interview - along with your observations about what you learned about doing oral history

Come to class prepared to learn about writing interview protocols.  After we go over interviews - you will have a chance to set up the details for your research projects (check in with me on how you will collect data + what data collection tools you will use, who your research subjects will be).  We will also go over the protocols for getting imformed consent - so you should be ready to go on your research projects by the beginning of next week.

3.21 Workshop on short analysis

Today we went through a sample paper using the workshop sheet.  You then worked with a partner on your paper. 

I have talked with most of you about your papers and I feel like you are doing a great job on this.  I know it is overwhelming and new to analyze data to LOOK for what your finding (instead of already knowing what you have to prove). I am so pleased at how well you are doing at trying this new approach = where you look at the data IN DETAIL - and then figure out your questions from what you see in the data.  AWESOME.

For Tuesday:
If you want written comments => post your draft paper by Sunday night - and send a request for comments to the course email.  Otherwise the paper will be due posted on the blog on Thursday, March 28 before class.

If you want to schedule another conference - anytime before next Thursday - you are also welcome to do that. 

Read: Oral Histories => In class we will be starting on creating, conducting + analyzing interviews.

Sample Paper

Technology can be a very touchy subject when it comes to many people. This can be for a variety of reasons. One reason that people can feel apprehension towards technology is because they do not know how to properly use a device. A second reason is because the person trying to use the device may be an adult and may not be used to today's technology. In the interview between "Ch" and "M" these are demonstrated. In the first excerpt "M" seems to feel uncomfortable discussing his use of computers when "Ch" is asking him questions regarding them. In the second excerpt "M" seems to feel a bit more comfortable talking about computers with "Ch" because he has learned more about it. From the first excerpt to the second excerpt there are different language patterns that allow me to read how "M" is feeling towards "Ch" and the topic at hand, technology. I will use textual analysis in the two excerpts to demonstrate why adults may be concerned with computers and technology.

In both excerpts "Ch" is posing all of the questions and "M" is answering them. Right off the bat in excerpt one "Ch" asks "So in 2002, you were word processing, typing papers. But in that math class you didn't want to use that math program?" "M"s immediate response is "No." "M"s short and quick answer of a "No" demonstrates that major apprehension towards the topic of technology. Then, "M" proceeds to respond to "Ch" with mental verbs whenever asked a question regarding technology. The two mental verbs that "M" uses the most are "I guess" and "I think." For example, in excerpt one, "Ch" asks what his feelings towards technology are. "M" responds, "I guess thought that I couldn't do it, I didn't trust myself, I didn't trust the computer, I was afraid." Then, "Ch" asks what about himself that he could not trust. "M" responds, "I guess I didn't think that I needed to use a computer in that way." Also, "Ch" asks what about the computers that "M" did not trust. "M" responds, "I guess that putting all of my information in there, and trusting the computer to, you know, analyze it, the way that I could have done it myself." Once again when "Ch" asks "M" about why he could not relate computers to education, "M" responds with, "I guess I thought I could go through without - without having to do this." Lastly, in excerpt one, when "Ch" asks about why it seemed like something extra, "M" responds, "Yeah, and even though I guess I wasn't you know comprehending that this was supposed to make my life easier, it made it more difficult." These mental verbs that "M" continues to use, "I guess" and "I thought," are indicative to which "M" is still processing his thoughts while answering the questions.
In excerpt one there are also de-intensifiers that "M" uses that provide evidence that he is not comfortable using technology. "Ch" asks "M" why he did not want to learn how to use the programs on the computer. "M" responds, "Maybe I didn't relate the computer to education in the right way, that I didn't think it was necessary." "M" seemed to use the word "maybe," which made him seem helpless to the fact that he did not want to learn. Also in excerpt one, "M" indicates that he is not comfortable discussing technology when he keeps jumping around from present tense to past tense. For example, "M" says, "That I could do it, I guess I didn't think that I needed to use a computer in that way." "M" says that he could do it then in the same sentence says that he does not think that he needed computers. A second example of "M"s insecurity towards questions about technology is when he says, "Yeah, and even though I guess I wasn't you know comprehending that this was supposed to make my life easier, it made it more difficult." The fact that "M" continues to not keep one tense shows that he is apprehensive towards the subject at hand. "M"s uneasiness with computers is mostly demonstrated in excerpt one when he repeats "I guess" multiple times. "I guess," shows that "M" does not have a straight forward answer to "Ch"s questions.
In excerpt two "M" seems to feel more comfortable discussing technology and computers with "Ch." Right off the bat, "M"s response to how he felt about taking a computer class is much longer than any of his responses in excerpt one. In excerpt two, "M" continues to use many mental verbs, such as, I think and I guess. "Ch" asks "M" what he thinks it was that got him over his fear of technology. "M" responds, "Ahm, I guess what could happen, you know? You know, what could happen, you put your work in you press a button, and you just - what's going to happen?" Also, "Ch" asks if they helped him get help on the internet. "M" replies, "I think so." This proves that "M" is still processing the question while beginning to answer it. A major example of "M" changing tenses continuously is when he responds to the question, "How did things change when you bought a computer?" Throughout "M"s answer he continues to change from the present tense to the past tense and visa versa. As well as constantly changing tenses, "M" used the mental verb "I guess" in his response. These two factors together give excellent evidence that "M" is not fully comfortable discussing computers and technology.
Lastly, in excerpt two, "M" uses many intensifiers that provide evidence that he is unsure of certain things or or is very sure of certain things. "It was different, and ah, it was a fun experience because the teacher was very good, very willing to work with us." "M" stating that the teacher was "very" good and was "very" willing to work shows that he enjoyed the class. "Ah, well like where us word. I would type in Notepad, you know, and then maybe somebody showed me" "M" using the word "maybe" shows that he is not positive of what he learned when he used word.
From excerpt one to excerpt two, "M" demonstrates a consistent hesitancy when it comes to the topic of computers and technology. Even though "M" seems a bit more comfortable in excerpt two than he did in excerpt one, the uneasiness is still evident. "M"s repetition of the lines "I guess" and "I think" regarding every question about computers and technology proves that he is afraid of it. After carefully analyzing these two excerpts I can conclude that adults can not easily learn a new technology that they have no background knowledge about.

3.19 Workshop on Short Analysis

In class today we reviewed the criteria for the Short analysis project and created a rubric (pasted in below) for evaluating drafts for this project.  We then used the rubric to evaluate the draft so far - and to come up with some clear specific statements of what the writers needed to work on in order to produce a stronger essay.

Short analysis evaluation rubric:
Focus - 30 points: should be set up in the beginning and pulled together in the end, may a statement for the research questions + the importance of those questions, identification of the data that will be analyzed, any relevant definitions, an overview of important categories/findings).  This may take more than one paragraph. The focus should allow the reader to know what the analysis is 'about'.

Indentification of categories - 15 points: should name & provide detailed definition of all features that are relevant to the research question + that the researcher will discuss in the analysis of the data

Identification of patterns - 15points: should connect two or more categories and features by defining the relationship between those categories and features.  For example, in the SHS analysis the writer identified how the story's length correlated with both the use of all the story elements (another category), and with funniness (the feature of SDSs he was writing about).

Explanation of patterns - 20 points:  this is a more detailed discussion where the writer identifies multiple patterns and explains how they work together with respect to the focus of the paper. 

Use of examples - 20 points: Examples should be used to identify categories and patterns and to explain/discuss the connection of the patterns to the research question.  Use of examples is evaluated based on whether the writer has chosen an appropriate example, whether it fully illustrates the point s/he is making, and whether it fits within the focus of the overall papers.

For next class:
Blog 14:  post a complete draft suitable for workshopping in class

Attend your conference (as scheduled below).

Thursday: 12:15 Jillian; 12:30 Corinne; 12:45 Sharrelle; 1:00 Krista; 1:15 Stephanie; 1:30 Janeida; 1:45 Joanna ; 3:00 Kimberly; 3:15 Arlette; 3:30 Dana;

The final paper is tentatively schedule as due on Tuesday, March 26.

3.7 Short analysis project

We spent today's class tying up loose ends so you are ready to work on your short analysis project.

1.We talked through the list of language features you might want to look at as you work on the language in your data set.

2. We looked at the assignment sheet for the short analysis project

3. And we talked about how you might want to choose a data set for "practice" on your short anlysis project => the idea is to choose a data set that is similar to the data you will be analyzing for your research project.  One purpose of this project is for you to PRACTICE analysis language data (and get some feedback on how to do it better), so you will have that part down for your research project.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Because the purpose of this project is practice = unless you are coming up with a radically different question about the chat room transcript & unless you are analyzing features different from the ones we discussed in class => you need to pick a different data set. 

For next class:
Blog 13 (I fixed this - I put up blog 14 but it should be 13): develop writing for your short analysis project.  This should include:
your research question
your analysis of your data
what ever writing you have developed to discuss that patterns you see in your data that provide an "answer" or ideas about your research question.

If you want written feedback on your "draft" => send me an email by Saturday, March 16 (I had the dates wrong in the last post) telling my your work is posted on your blog.

On Tuesday, March 19, we will workshop what you have written so far, and you will schedule conferences (if you want to) on what to do next.

Have a great break!