Posts Tagged ‘Research’
Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey on March 20, 2008
While in Memphis I will also be co-presenting a paper with Christina Wasson about our online-on-campus research that we’ve been working on for just over a year. The session is on Friday morning (F-10) 8:00-9:50 am in the Nashville room and is entitled “The Scholar-Practitioner in Organizational Settings.” Our paper is titled “Theory and Praxis in an Educational Setting: Building Community Online.”
Here is the session abstract from Crysta Metcalf
“In this session we introduce and model the concept of the “scholar-practitioner,” practicing anthropologists who explicitly draw on theory in their work and contribute to theory development. Although such an integration of theory and practice has long existed, it has been gaining greater recognition in recent years, especially as more and more anthropologists are applying our discipline in organizational settings. The members of this panel draw on their experiences in both academic and organizational settings, presenting case studies and examples in order to explore the challenges and opportunities inherent in working toward the advancement of anthropological theory in applied practice.”
I’m excited about this session because I am co-presenting with my advisor and many of the other women on the panel are the ones that I’ve followed their work for the last four years. It’s quite an honor 
I’ll upload a copy of the paper post-conference but I can let you in on a little secret…
it will be recorded for the SfAA Podcasts. I guess I’ve done a good job in finding my way into cool panels because this is the second year that my session was selected for the podcasts. I do oversee the selection of sessions but the sessions are picked from suggestions submitted by lots of people.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Anthropology, applied anthropology, Grad School, linguistic anthropology, online-on-campus research, Practicing, Research, UNT Online Master's | 1 Comment »
Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey on November 26, 2007
After a little encouragement from those around me (and most importantly from my research team), I’ve decided to attend the American Anthropological Association’s Annual Meeting again this year.
I went to the meeting in San Jose last year and I was less than impressed with it. My main dislike for the conference last year was the general vibe, it felt stuffy, too academic, and semi-dull. After a few days there I felt better about it, but I still did not like it as much as the SfAA conference. People told me that last year’s Meeting was stuffier than usual, so that on top of presenting, convinced me to give it another go. Well, I’ve never been to DC so that is an added bonus!
I’ll be presenting, along with my advisor Christina Wasson and the other RA Megan Bannon, on Saturday morning (8 am is when the session starts!). Our panel is called “Issues in Applied Linguistic Anthropology.” It’s sure to be an interesting session for those of you interested in linguistics and there are some big names in the almost 4 hour long session! We are presenting on our online-on-campus research (and here and here).
I’ll be tweeting during the conference, so you can find me here on Twitter.
Let me know if you’ll be at the conference too, here’s my email.
I’ll be in DC from Nov. 27 – Dec 3.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: AAA, Anthropology, NaBloPoMo, Research, UNT Online Master's | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey on November 16, 2007
We are now in the analysis phase of our research that explores the similarities and differences between an on-campus and online graduate level seminar. The course was taught at UNT and both on-campus and online were taught at the same time, by the same professor, with the same readings, etc. Our data now consists of interviews with all of the students in the course, three weeks of discussion board threads for online, three one hour teleconferences that were part of the online course, and three weeks worth of video recordings of the on-campus class meeting. We chose to focus on the same three weeks in both courses.
From what I can tell so far, there have not been many (well, I have not found any) studies that have focus on both on-campus and online courses taught at the same time by the same professor. I have found a lot of articles in my extensive literature review that compare asynchronous and synchronous elements of an online course.
While the study was met to be more of a pilot (due to only being able to focus on three weeks) it’s turning out to be much more fruitful than a pilot! I would have never imagined we would end up with so much data!
We’ll be presenting Saturday, December 1, at 8:00 am at the AAA conference. Thus, we are working on the paper and presentation now. Much like it has been for the last two months of analysis- we’re finding that it’s difficult deciding what to focus on! There is so much to say, frameworks to use, etc. It’s been a good experience to have to help decide what to focus on, and there has been a fair amount of back and forth about it.
The analysis is somewhat interdisciplinary project in that we are drawing on distance education, education, computer-mediated communication, language ideologies, and of course, linguistic anthropology. This has also been a good experience.
The last important lesson I’ve learned is how quickly data can become overwhelming, both in quality and quantity!
The project is applied in nature and thus we’ve started making design recommendations from the data to inform both course development and the electronic learning software. I think our recommendations are great and when we presented preliminary findings to the department last month, we got some valuable feedback about the recommendations.
For AAA we’ll likely narrow our focus to ‘presence’ (as defined by Garrison and others) online and on-campus. I’ll post more about the actual findings after the conference, but I can tell you that we are finding that both on-campus and online have their strengths and weaknesses
We’ve been doing analysis
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Anthropology, Grad School, NaBloPoMo, Research | 2 Comments »
Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey on November 14, 2007
Yesterday I did a post about ‘Communities of Practice’ (CoP) that I feel could be of interest to applied/practicing anthropologists, anthropologists in the tech field, and design anthropologists.
I created the list as part of an assignment for my pre-practicum course. The professor wanted us to find professional organizations that would serve as our CoP post graduation. For the sake of the assignment, professional organizations were pseudo-synonymous with CoP and vice versa. Professional organizations (the AAA and SfAA would be examples) are those that charge for membership and in return you receive benefits such as publications, and also networking opportunities.
I’m wondering how relevant these professional organizations really are in the age of the internet. There are many, many social networks that can be used to network both socially and professionally. Such networks are very accessible (if you have the internet), are free to join, take as much (or little) effort as you want to maintain, and there are no face-to-face conferences for you to be tempted to attend. Virtual social networks can also be a great way for shy or timid people to begin networking or for people to get to know people in other cities, etc.
Now, these social networks do not offer tangible membership benefits immediately, nor do they guarantee such results BUT if you maintain, nurture, and give to your network you can receive many benefits!
Will social networks replace what professional organizations have to offer? Well, the beautiful thing about social networks is that they are what you want them to be. If you are looking for professional development, connections, inspirations, relationships, job opportunities, etc. then find people to add that can offer those to you – and make sure you give back to them!
I do belong to professional organizations, but I’m not sure if I’ll renew my membership to most. I get more out of my social networks than those professional organizations 
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Anthropology, favorite, Life, NaBloPoMo, Organizations/Conferences, Practicing, Research | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey on September 16, 2007
That was my thought last week as I looked back through my time cards from March – July and realized the amount of time I spent doing transcription over the last few months. I don’t like doing transcription, in fact, sometimes I despise it. Every time I’ve had to transcribe interviews, it’s been for a project with a linguistic focus (read super attention to detail and much harder transcription
Despite my dislike for transcription, I realize it’s part of the research process (well, for grad students any way and thus it is important. But than I thought about all of the hours that are a head of me coding those transcriptions. I like coding better than transcribing, but it’s not really “fun,” and on top of that, I’ve been staring at these interviews for nine months now and have read them all at least five times!
Well, the process does in deed suck sometimes, and that’s why we’re repeatedly told to only do research we love. I do love the research project I’m on and most days that’s enough to keep me going. But not always.
So what drives me? What causes me to push forward? What are my reasons for this seemingly self-torture?
I do anthropological research because I honestly believe that the outcomes may be (hopefully!) beneficial to others and this is why I am an applied anthropologist. As applied anthropologists we can work with the community to put the collected data into action, and the results can be very beneficial!
I’m not sure if it’s because I started out in an applied program, or if it’s the pragmatist in me, or what.. but I believe that it is very important to apply anthropological research. My hopes of helping is what keeps me going. I’m not sure that I understand what drives non-applied anthropologists, or other non-applied social scientists for that matter, to do research if no one will benefit from it… unless of course it’s an ego thing
Posted in Ethics | Tagged: Advocacy, Anthropology, favorite, Field Work, Life, Research | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey on September 16, 2007
I just finished my 7 part series about software and internet resources for research.
Part 1, “Inspiration for an Idea,” can be found here
part 2, “Literature Review,” can be found here,
part 3, “Research,” can be found here,
part 4, “Transcription”, can be found here,
part 5, “Analysis,” can be found here,
part 6, “Write up,” can be found here,
and part 7, “Publishing,” can be found here.
I hope to make the seven parts into wiki pages so that I can add resources as I learn about them and so that others may add their resources as well.
There are a few themes in almost each entry that I wanted to reiterate one last time. I mention the use of wikis and mind maps in many stages as a tool for organization, as well as maintaining PDFs in Yep.
Organization in research is very important and there are a lot of software and online tools that can help!
Related posts:
GTD – anthropology style
How to “network” as an (online) anthropology student
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Anthropology, Blogging, favorite, Field Work, Literature, Research, Software & Applications | 1 Comment »
Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey on September 16, 2007
This is part 7 of a 7 part series about software and internet resources for research. Part 1, “Inspiration for an Idea,” can be found here and part 2, “Literature Review,” can be found here, part 3, “Research,” can be found here, part 4, “Transcription”, can be found here, part 5, “Analysis,” can be found here, and part 6, “Write up,” can be found here.
The internet has the potential to be your most valuable tool in research when you are ready to publish your findings. There are many resources online available to help you and if you do chose to publish on the internet you will make your research more accessible and you will increase the opportunity for others to start a dialog with you about it.
I do encourage you to start a blog, or post on your existing blog, the process of conducting your fieldwork, etc. so that others can learn from you. While the number of anthropology blogs is exponentially increasing, anthropology as a discipline is still underrepresented online. (Could this be because of our ivory tower roots and the nature of the discipline to work independently??)
In addition to creating a blog and blogging about your research, I would encourage people to submit an article about their project to Four Stone Hearth, a bi-weekly anthropology blogging carnival. Four Stone Hearth has been very successful and has a large audience, this will give you an opportunity to hear feedback, thoughts, etc. from others.
There are also a number of online journal that you could submit articles to in the hopes of having them included. Here are two links to lists of online journals here and here.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Anthropology, Blogging, Field Work, Research | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey on September 8, 2007
This is part 4 of a 7 part series about software and internet resources for research. Part 1, “Inspiration for an Idea,” can be found here and part 2, “Literature Review,” can be found here, and part 3, “Research,” can be found here.
After you conduct your research, the next step will likely be transcribing your interviews and/or focus groups, etc. I only have experience with transcribing one-on-one taped interviews and taped focus groups. I’ve tried a few different transcription software programs and Express Scribe is by far my favorite. It’s free software that is compatible with both Mac and PC (so the free part is a benefit). The reason that I love Express Scribe is the features it offers. It’s compatible with Microsoft Word, so you can set up “hot keys” (or short cuts) that allow you to play, pause, rewind, and fast forward while in Word i.e., you’re typing in Word and without switching back to Express Scribe you use “control+d” to pause. It makes the process much easier and you save a lot of time by not having to switch back to Express Scribe. Two other great features are playing in slow motion and automatic rewinding of 5 seconds upon pause.
I do not have any experience with transcribing video, but the other RA in the online-on-campus comparison research project used Transana to transcribe the class discussions in the on-campus class. I don’t think it was her favorite software, but it worked well enough. Transana is no longer free, but you can download an older version from their website for free. You can purchase a copy for $50 and it is compatible with Mac and PC.
I also like to make a few notes about possible themes/hunches while transcribing and to do this I usually use a mind map. I’m always super careful to make these notes because it’s really too early to be thinking about themes- but I always “test” them against the data once it is available.
Related post: My first experience with Express Scribe
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Anthropology, Field Work, Grad School, Research, Software & Applications | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey on September 4, 2007
This is part 3 of a 7 part series about software and internet resources for research. Part 1, “Inspiration for an Idea,” can be found here and part 2, “Literature Review,” can be found here.
So, you’ve found your inspiration for a research project and you’ve done your review of existing literature, so now If you are following a traditional research design the next step is to do your research, or the data collection.
The advice I have for software and online resources for this step is relatively short, so if you’re reading this and have recommendations please add them in the comments!
One thing I have found to be helpful is to tag electronic articles about data collection in Yep with a tag that signifies which method it’s about. This way once I’ve decided what data collection methods are appropriate for my study, I can pull up the appropriate tags i.e., “in-depth interviews” in Yep and refresh my memory.
I also find myself keeping lists of things I want to do while conducting data collection and “hunches” I’m having throughout the process of data collection. As a warning, I’ll remind you to be super careful with your “hunches” you have in data collection- make sure you carefully analyze for them and re-evaluate them after data collection is done! To organize such lists I find wikis to be the most helpful, but I think that mind maps may work well for some folks.
The Radical Anthropologist has recently done some posts about field notes, which might be helpful for you to read at this point.
My recommendations center around data collection methods and organizing data, but don’t forget.. you can CONDUCT your fieldwork online! Here are some links to anthropology research being done online here, here, and here.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Anthropology, Field Work, Research | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Jen Cardew Kersey on August 30, 2007
This is part 2 of a 7 part series about software and internet resources for research. Part 1, “Inspiration for an Idea” can be found here.
I started off part 1 by saying this series would be better as a wiki and I’ve already proven that to myself, I made several additions to part 1 yesterday and will make a few more today. As I flesh out the notes I’ve written for the stages I keep thinking of new things and finding new links.
Now that you’ve spent some time cruising the internet and thinking about what sort of research project you’d like to do, I’m sure your inspired to pursue your project. What should your next step be and how will the internet and software help you? Well, if you’re following a traditional approach to your research, your next step is to do some review of existing literature.
Organization
If you’ve read this blog for any amount of time then you most likely know that I am hyper-organized. It’s very important to be organized with your research from the get-go and if you didn’t start to do this while you were seeking inspiration now would be the time to do it. There is a sea of electronic articles and even if you’re interest lays in an obscure topic, you’ll have many articles to keep track of.
My recommendations for organizing literature are bookmark the articles and to store the downloadable PDFs in a PDF data software program, such as Yep. I’ve also hear of using EndNote to keep track of bibliographies, etc. I have no experience with this software (I tried it and lost interest quickly) but it comes highly recommended.
If you start this early you’ll thank yourself in the long run!
Now is also a good time to consider maintaining a wiki or a mind map to organize your thoughts.
Literature Reviews
One of my favorite parts of anthropology is the fact that its work is best when complimented by another discipline. Many (American) anthropologists specialize in a more focused topic within one of our four sub-disciplines, i.e. public health, policy, environment, etc. Remember when your searching for literature DO NOT limit yourself to articles, etc. that say “anthropology”- think of what other disciplines might have something to offer.
Where to find literature
Don’t forget about the places where you found your inspiration in the first place, look for their recommendations, bibliographies, etc.
Amazon.com typically gives really good book descriptions and most books have customer reviews.
Look for people that work in the area you’re interested in. Some professors share their syllabi online and if they don’t, you can always email them and ask if you can have a copy.
Del.icio.us
Search the bibliographies of related articles.
Anthrosource
AnthroBase
Anthropology Review Database
Open Directory Project
List of anthropology journals here.
Open Access Journals here, here, and here .
This list is by no means exhaustive, so I’ll continue to add to it and I am interested to hear about other resources you all are using.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Anthropology, Field Work, Grad School, Literature, Research, Software & Applications | 1 Comment »
