Ethnography Results - Week #2

Ethnography Results Week #2
Over the past week we have acquired a better approach to our ethnography, diversifying the people and events we will be attempting to capture. Originally, we were primarily interested in the interactions of educators with the technical equipment and their abilities about using it for conveying their subject matter. We have now expanded our study to include those who are in the classroom watching (students) and those who assist professors with troublesome technology (technicians).

We conducted some usual remote observations during the week, finding a few technically interesting issues. We also finalized our access to technicians and set up a schedule for working with them. Our plans for integrating into their work life were also setup.

Finally, we conducted a couple of in classroom observations during this week. One of particular interest involved a professor teaching a large class (~200) in one of the more highly equipped classrooms. To maintain the integrity of the study, the specific technology the professor was interacting with cannot be posted at this time. However it was interesting to see the Professor cope with the continuous failure of the system. The professor appeared to be using the system correctly, with the malfunction likely due to low battery in one of the components. The professor first joked about the situation, and then after about the tenth failure resorted to an older technology to finish conveying his information. This professor is very intent on using the latest technology and often arrives 20 minutes early to class to setup. Additionally, a tech was onsite prior to class, helping the professor with the technology. It was overall a very frustrating experience for the professor, and students, who became verbally annoyed with the failures.