I'm not real sure what to write here. I've been using Google Notebook for a class and have been happy with it, although it will require some discipline to keep up with it, and I'm awfully short on discipline sometimes.
I'm glad to be a blogger at last, but how does one promote a blog? I can tell people I know, but what about people outside of my community? Maybe you could include some material on how to pick good keywords so Google will notice us.
I'm very happy with the utilities that came along with Switch - I downloaded a sound editor if you recall, and I'd been looking for one ever since Vista stomped out the one I used to use.
The transcription software would have REALLY come in handy for my Masters paper, and I am definitely going to keep a copy on my desktop.
I think I'm pretty competent on the video stuff, but having seen some other people's videos, it might be helpful to include some material on how to shoot with a video camera (basic framing, lighting considerations, etc.) It doesn't take much to make a video look professional (or unprofessional). Film producer Roger Corman, who trained directors Ron Howard, James Cameron, Martin Scorcese and John Demme, among other, used to say that if you would take him to dinner and bring your notebook, he could teach you everything you needed to know to direct a movie in two hours.
Thanks again for a great class, and for not assigning ten hours of reading every week!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Getting stuck by a CAQDAS
This assignment exposes my greatest weakness as a researcher, that is, reading technical data and descriptions. Somewhere between the third and fourth paragraph, my eyes start to glaze over, my gears start to grind, and I start to wonder what might be happening on YouTube right now. Still, an assignment is an assignment, so I'll talk a little bit about QDA Miner v 1.3.
This looks to me like someone's attempt to be all things to all people - its is touted as combining numerical and text analysis tools such that the researcher can utilize multiple methods of analysis without having to switch between programs. My past experience with programs that try to "do it all" is that they do a lot of things, but none of them particularly well. But let's put that aside for now and just focus on the QDA Miner documentation.
Evidently, this software requires/give you the option (depending on how you look at it) to define your own variables. That gives me the idea that it might be important for me to know what the variables are and how they're being used, which means I need to know something about what the program is doing when it analyzes my data, which means I am probably going to be pretty lost when trying to figure out how to define the variables. There is an add on word analysis module that can be set to define variables for you, and I'll bet that's what I use. Of course, that becomes problematic if I later need to know what the variables are.
Text data can be imported directly from word processing documents, which is nice, but if I understand what I'm reading correctly, the documents are converted to rich text format before they are analyzed. The program also allows in-line editing of the documents, but I wonder if the original document format is preserved, or if what you get back is .rtf, making it necessary to reformat the text if you want to use it for presentation?
The reviewers quoted at the end seem to like it, but then they also seem to know what something about what this thing is actually doing. I hate to seem so negative, but the fact is that I'm very uncomfortable trying to interpret technical data in a regime where I really don't know what I'm talking about.
By the way, does it work on Vista? The specifications don't say so, and if they don't, you are taking a chance.
This looks to me like someone's attempt to be all things to all people - its is touted as combining numerical and text analysis tools such that the researcher can utilize multiple methods of analysis without having to switch between programs. My past experience with programs that try to "do it all" is that they do a lot of things, but none of them particularly well. But let's put that aside for now and just focus on the QDA Miner documentation.
Evidently, this software requires/give you the option (depending on how you look at it) to define your own variables. That gives me the idea that it might be important for me to know what the variables are and how they're being used, which means I need to know something about what the program is doing when it analyzes my data, which means I am probably going to be pretty lost when trying to figure out how to define the variables. There is an add on word analysis module that can be set to define variables for you, and I'll bet that's what I use. Of course, that becomes problematic if I later need to know what the variables are.
Text data can be imported directly from word processing documents, which is nice, but if I understand what I'm reading correctly, the documents are converted to rich text format before they are analyzed. The program also allows in-line editing of the documents, but I wonder if the original document format is preserved, or if what you get back is .rtf, making it necessary to reformat the text if you want to use it for presentation?
The reviewers quoted at the end seem to like it, but then they also seem to know what something about what this thing is actually doing. I hate to seem so negative, but the fact is that I'm very uncomfortable trying to interpret technical data in a regime where I really don't know what I'm talking about.
By the way, does it work on Vista? The specifications don't say so, and if they don't, you are taking a chance.
Monday, February 2, 2009
WavePad Review
I'm going off the board with my review this week and looking at WavePad, a sound file editor that can be downloaded along with Switch, the audio file converter (and its also free). The program displays the waveform in a very large format that makes it easy to spot where the sound drops out (good places to make edits).
There are a number of effects features - my favorite is the normalizer, which brings the foreground (speaking) and background noises into balance. I tried it on a recording of an interview I did some time ago, and it was much easier to make out the words. You can also de-hiss, fade in and fade out, crossfade, and lots of other stuff that would make the sound better for presentation.
There are a number of effects features - my favorite is the normalizer, which brings the foreground (speaking) and background noises into balance. I tried it on a recording of an interview I did some time ago, and it was much easier to make out the words. You can also de-hiss, fade in and fade out, crossfade, and lots of other stuff that would make the sound better for presentation.
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