A Smattering of Thoughts

Well, as we are wrapping up the class, I have several thoughts running through my mind concerning last night's class on Centra.  First, I was glad to learn that Centra has a video/webcam feature.  I had a class on Centra in June and we did not use the video feature.  In fact, I did not realize there even WAS a video feature.  It would have been nice to have a face-name connection in a class that only met online.  It would not have made that much difference last night, since we have been meeting face-to-face and I know everyone, but in an online only class it can become difficult and even awkward to try to keep up with who is talking.  With that said, I'm still not a huge fan of the format for class meetings, but can definitely see its potential for allowing research groups to meet together.

I was really fascinated with the readings and discussion surrounding the notion of representing research findings in some sort of art form.  Although I can't imagine undertaking a project such as making a film, personally, I like the idea of being able to collaborate with someone with the technical skills to help create such a project.  It is unfortunate, in my opinion, that such endeavors are not really accepted and/or respected in academia.  I have always felt that most of the research out there is simply there for the sake of research, but rarely transfers into practical uses.  Especially in the area of elementary education, which is my area of interest, I know that there are very few teachers who are going to pick up a professional journal and stay up to date on the research in the field.  So, the notion of finding a way to represent findings in way that would reach more practitioners is really appealing to me.

On the technology front, I also really liked learning about Tagxedo and Many Eyes.  I have worked some with Wordle, and like it, too, but it was nice to learn about similar tools that, perhaps, have more functionality.  I look forward to playing around more with those tools.

So now I am off to frantically continue finishing my skill building activities.  I have worked on cleaning up my Mendeley library a bit more and ventured into some of the online features, as well.  I'm also still working on coding in Atlas.ti.  I have the download and license for the student version, but I am afraid to install it in the middle of my project, since the directions say to uninstall the trial version first.  I have bundled the work I've done so far and have that saved, but it still makes me nervous to uninstall, so I think I will try to finish my project in the trial version and then download the purchased version.  Has anyone else done this yet?

Making the leap--Committing to software

Well, I did it.  I made the leap into committing to utilizing software in my data analysis by purchasing Transana and contacting Ricardo about the discount for Atlas.ti.  Before tonight's class, I was planning to purchase Atlas.ti, but had tentatively decided to stick with Inqscribe, rather than fully exploring the transcription and analysis possibilities in Transana.  Now, however, after seeing the usefulness of creating Quick Clips in Transana, I have decided to commit to BOTH analysis software packages.  I have been coding in Atlas for a few days now, and I definitely still prefer the intuitive functionality it affords.  So, for the time being, I envision using Transana for transcription (I especially like the ease of inserting Jeffersonian notations with Transana) purposes and organization of audio clips via Quick Clips.  I'm really excited about then using the audio and transcript clips in conjunction with coding, commenting, and memoing in Atlas.ti.

Like some of my fellow classmates, I was really hoping to find that one program that does it all, but I'm now beginning to see the benefits of exploring a variety of software packages and taking an eclectic approach to implementing only the most useful features of each (useful to me and my research agenda, that is).  I am going to try to keep this mindset as I continue to encounter new digital tools.