This week, as with every other week, I tried new things and learned a lot. On Monday morning I worked on trying to finish up the formal lesson plan for day 5 and I also reviewed the lesson plan for the day. The day's lesson plan had changed since I last looked at it. If you remember, a couple of weeks ago I learned how to conduct interviews and this week I put that knowledge to the test and interviewed some of the students in our HCI course. During class I interviewed two pairs of students (so a total of four) to find out more about how they use technology and what their career aspirations are. Monday evening I wrote down my initial observations from the class and interviews, and then on Tuesday I began transcribing the interviews, which were 17 minutes each.
I didn't think transcribing would be too difficult, you just type whatever people say. However, I quickly found out that when people don't speak up it is very difficult to hear them on the voice recorder. You also have to transcribe everything that people say like ummm's, ahhh's, pauses, etc. which is difficult because sometimes it is just hard to spell whatever it is that people mistakenly say when they are thinking of an answer. Even with noise cancelling and slowing down the play speed, I found that many times I had to rewind and listen to things numerous times in order to understand what someone had said, and in a few instances I still couldn't figure it out. Transcribing is a difficult and tiring process in general. It takes a long time and a lot of energy to listen to the recordings, understand them, and begin to analyze them. The process of transcribing took me all of Tuesday and all of Wednesday morning.
Then on Wednesday afternoon we had another class. During this class the students learned about interviewing people to find out if they have created a good product and whether or not the product needs to be changed. The students interviewed one another about the digital desktops that they are creating in the course. We gave some students voice recorders to tape their interviews. The activity was very well received because the students were very excited about using the voice recorders.
On Thursday and Friday I transcribed the interviews that the students had conducted the previous day. The transcribing was a bit easier because I had already done it once before. Additionally, the students were excited about the activity so they talked louder than they had on Monday's interviews. I also worked with Sarita in planning the lesson for next Monday. We decided to have the students draw out their designs on poster paper, so we decided to give them some samples. So I got to do a little art time with magic markers and draw out my digital desktop design on poster paper as an example for the students.
Outside of work, I went to the zoo with my mentor Amy, her husband, and two sons. Her sons are absolutely adorable and had a ball at the zoo. We saw flamingos, which smelled terrible, meerkats, giraffes, zebras, birds, turtles, and so much more. We also rode a train that goes all around the zoo. Everyone had a good time and and was very tired from the hot sun.
Week 1
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Week 2
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Week 3
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Week 4
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Week 5
Week 6
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Week 7
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Week 8
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Week 9
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Week 10