karen louise smith

GovCamp 2011 was held in June at Mars here in Toronto. I found I needed an easy web link to my presentation so I embedded it here on my blog.

My day tomorrow, seems to center around Aarhus, Denmark. I am currently collaborating on a paper with IDLab colleagues in Toronto and our friend Nik Borchorost in Aarhus.

In addition to the paper (and the pastries I might pick up from the Harbord St. bakery) the Danish theme continues tomorrow. Nik's use of future scenarios with Susanne Bødker and colleagues through the eGov+ project, inspired my class project for the Knowledge Media Design graduate pro-seminar I am teaching this semester. The student videos are being premiered tomorrow evening.

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In one of my roles at U of T, I work with the Teaching Assistant Training Program in the Center for Teaching Support and Innovation. Yesterday, I proposed running a new workshop in the winter semester, 2011.

YouTube, the website launched in 2005 which allows us to broadcast ourselves allows for new possibilities in the integration of video content in the classroom. This workshop begins with a brief history and overview of participatory media traditions. Subsequently, this (propsed) workshop will cover 4 main topics:

• Incorporating YouTube and Video in the Classroom:
  The skills required to effectively integrate a YouTube video in the classroom will be covered such as: incorporating a hyperlink in PowerPoint and including a screen capture of the images in your presentation.

• Explaining Difficult Concepts Using Video:
  Online video repositories can be a source of videos which explain course concepts, appropriate for post-secondary education. Multiple examples including 'Dance your PhD' will be presented (see below).

• Fostering Discussions Using Video:
  Active learning strategies which allow you to use video to help foster discussions will be practiced within this workshop.

• Using YouTube to Help Teach Participant Observation:
  The use of YouTube to practice participant observation will be role modeled through an exercise in this workshop using YouTube.
  
  

Additionally, each participant of this workshop is requested to bring the URL of a YouTube video and a description of how it aligns with the learning objectives for the course for group discussion.

Selection of a DNA aptamer for homocysteine using SELEX from Maureen McKeague on Vimeo.

I’m at home right now on the couch and Michelle Obama is on CNN and Larry King live. Seeing Michelle on TV reminds me to Google her husband on YouTube to find the Yes We Can music video.

The video is old news by now, but I felt the need to check it out anyways. When I arrived on YouTube, the counter displayed 3,409,935 views. After I played the video, I scrolled down and looked at the comments. As one might expect any political video with over 3 million hits, some of the comments contribute little to a deliberative public sphere. My overall impression of the video however, is that it packs a punch. The simple rhetorical refrain of 'Yes We Can' is inspiring to me. As a Canadian, I cannot vote in the US election but I will continue to watch with interest.

I mean what I say. It is now 12:31 am and Michelle has departed from Larry King. They've moved on to Mike Huckabee and apparently the Democrat/Republican coverage is in balance this evening.

I am always on the look out for Mac friendly software for research. Today, while doing research assistant work (aka comparison software shopping), I came across HyperRESEARCH, a qualitative data analysis (QDA) package that allows for the coding of video as primary text. This software allows you to pick a region of the video timeline and attach a code to it directly. In some ways, this is a huge advantage over having to transcribe video data before coding it. The disadvantage of course, is that the video cannot be output in a code report.

Other QDA software packages of interest are Nvivo 8 (scheduled for release in 2008) and Atlas.ti. Transana, a low-cost, open source package supports video only (not textual data).

Overall, it looks like the HyperRESEARCH package gets my recommendation. The free trial version of HyperRESEARCH is actually robust enough to handle projects where the primary source files and codes can be kept to a minimum (less than 7 and 50 respectively). I will be using this software. I would definitely also consider using the software trial with undergraduates, taking a qualitative methods course.