Analog in a digital world

Last year when took P&L 966 and conducted hour-long interviews with 3 different students, many of my family members desperately tried to convince me that I needed some sort of software that would make this dissertation process easier. My professor had stated that it would probably take 4 hours to transcribe an hour-long interview; in my reality (borderline perfectionist), it was more like 10.

I resisted. I felt that I got to know my data really well and I learned even more from the interviews when I spent hours and hours listening to their words and making inferences from the inflections in their voices, the pauses, and the statements themselves.

Then my daughter became a toddler and I took a new job on campus. My life is so busy! I took this class to learn more about digital tools that could be used in the qualitative research process. I mean, quantitative research is so easy - you just dump your data into SPSS, right? (heh)

After taking this class, I still feel as if I need to do all the transcription myself. I still believe that this is an important part of the process, especially in terms of the understanding the nature of what I am trying to understand. I am going to investigate how cultural brokering -- when Latinas are in the position of having to culturally and linguistically translate for their parents or guardians -- helps in the transition to and persistence in college. I am super excited about my topic and want to make sure that my dissertation is a high-quality project.

I am very excited by ExpressScribe, especially since Lauren figured out how to use hotkeys on a Mac. :-) I think this will actually be a HUGE time saver. During the transcription process, I tried to use ExpressScribe but it was kind of more trouble than it was worth without the hotkeys. If I can quickly and easily use the keys to start and stop the tape, I can type a whole lot faster!

I actually think I might keep this blog (deleting that awful video of course, geez I thought I lost my NY accent, but not so!!) for processing my dissertation journey. I am a writer at heart, and I think this process of putting my thoughts out there is actually really beneficial to sharpening and shaping my topic and processes. I am also planning on using Google Docs/Notebook and possibly Zotero. I've been on Gmail since the beginning, and I'm only now learning how powerful some of the Google tools are.

One of the challenges is having a Mac. There are so many cool tools out there that just aren't written for Macs. I wonder about the people at Apple - aren't any of them qualitative folks? They are so innovative with all the i products, you would think that they would hop on the qual bandwagon. I may investigate this further.

In my current job, I see that there may be surveys in my future and so I may become friends with SPSS (which, of course, doesn't run on a Mac). Surveys are a good way of obtaining data, but I just don't always trust quantitative data!

I'm glad I took this course and will have access to the researchosu blog. I think it was helpful to learn more about these tools. Thanks, Lauren! Now onto research!

The Elusive Software

It seems that the CAQDAS (Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software) folks think pretty highly of a tool called the QDA Miner, so I wandered over to their website to check it out.

I liked this software because of its various features, particularly because you can also store and code documents, photos, paintings, and artwork. In one of my most favorite courses I took at Ohio State, Studies in Latino/a Literature and Culture, in addition to various texts, we studied different forms of artwork including the graphic novel, film, and murals. The QDA Miner would be extremely useful if part of my research were to include a document analysis or include various forms of art. I also liked the very cool 3D concept maps that grouped themes.

I was kind of geeked because the website offered a demo.

But... It was not to be.

Issue #1: Cost. $1595! I'm sure this program does everything but make cappuccino, but this software would cost more than a mortgage payment or a month of child care.

Issue #2: the dreaded words for any Mac user:
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 98, XP, 2000, Vista.

As I realized this was not to be, I moved on to another type of software. I am an English major at heart (my undergrad degree), so I was drawn to the very-cool-sounding Storyspace. The description even appealed to me; I have scraps of paper and notebooks filled with ideas for stories that I've collected as inspiration has struck over the years. Storyspace strikes that chord instantly by talking conjuring up the image of the disorganized writer jotting down an idea on a napkin. (That's me!)

The website is very simple. So simple that they do not even have a demo or a screenshot! They do offer both the Windows and Mac platforms, but I would be extremely hesitant to buy a product for $295 without knowing exactly what I was getting.

If I were to go the faculty route or conduct research in an administrative position, I would definitely go with NVivo. It's set up to mostly look like Microsoft Outlook, which makes it extremely user-friendly. I also liked that PDFs could be imported (good for journal articles that are downloaded) and that it can contain pictures, audio, text, and video. I liked that you can not only transcribe right in the window as your audio or video is playing, but that you can also annotate, code, or create links right within the same page. I watched a couple of the tutorials and I was impressed by the ease of the software and the support that is offered through the website. (I also like that one of the links at the top says What is Qualitative Research?)

This software also primarily runs on Windows. I've heard (and this website confirmed) that the newest Mac operating system, Leopard, will allow you to run a virtual windows platform. I don't currently have that version, but it may be worth it to look further into running a Windows environment on my Mac.

A final, random thought that doesn't have anything to do with CAQDAS: I love using Macs. I think they are so superior to PCs, which I grew up on. With the popularity of the iPod and iPhone, you would think that more software companies would create their software for the Mac platform as well. It's frustrating to get geeked out by software only to be disappointed when you can't run it on your Mac. When I was pregnant with my daughter, my Aunt Jane got me this awesome software that would allow you to create a digital scrapbook (I love scrapbooking) that she saw on Oprah, I think. I was so excited - only to be crushed when I found out it wouldn't run on a Mac and there was no comparable product. Oh the woes of being a Mac, not a PC!

Trying to get to know me...

Our assignment this week was to become familiar with Audacity and MovieMaker. It sounded like fun to me; I like playing around with technology and trying to figure out how to use it.

It seems like it was not meant to be.

I downloaded the Audacity software (and looking a little ahead, Express Scribe). I went to the Movie Maker website, but I couldn't find a download for a Mac that would work. I have some limited experience with iMovie, so I downloaded the movie I made into iMovie instead.

When I went to work in Audacity, I found out that my Mac would not even show my audio interview file with Seth Fishman that I saved ! It seems I will either need to re-record it on my actual audio recorder (which I had forgotten for last class and had used my Blackberry instead) or to use the PC computers in the lab to convert my audio file to something usable in audacity or express scribe.

So while I was supposed to be trying it out anyway, I tried importing one of the interviews I did in one of my research classes into audacity. That just did some really funky things! On a Mac, it is very easy to just change the file extension, so I made a copy of the interview and saved it as a .mp3. It had the (wait for it...) audacity not to work, either. I also tried saving it as .wav and... nothing. I tried to play around with audacity for a little bit anyway, and it just seemed a little overwhelming to me.

Since it is hard to write a review on tools I can't seem to use, I think this was a good lesson for me. As much I love the user-friendliness of the Mac, it proves once again that it is not necessarily software-friendly. It takes a bit more research to find software, hardware, etc. that is compatible, (such as when I was scouring every electronics store in Columbus for a compatible digital audio recorder!) but in the end, it is worth it. I love the ease of a Mac and its various features (brief tangent... Word for Mac has a template called notebook and it is just like a real notebook! You can tab pages [like in a binder], create check boxes and flags... it is divine).

I look forward to trying Express Scribe and the other transcription tools. For some reason, I really enjoy the - dare I say it - tediousness of transcribing. I really feel as if I get to know my data really well when I transcribe by hand/keyboard, and I'm a little afraid of losing that if I use a software program to help me. It will be really useful to me to see if some "help" will be worthwhile in the long run.