Transcriptions

I did more transcriptions today, I will be so glad to get them finished! I only have about 4-5 left. As Dr. Sickel mentioned - we had a conference call/ lab meeting today - to work out some details on the projects. We have been debating the best way to do the ecomaps. This is a graphic representation of a person's social network. We are requiring students to get referrals for participants from their family and friends - then update their ecomap to show who participated and who referred them. Last quarter, we wanted to students to use Microsoft Publisher - it turned out most students didn't have that. So we have been thinking about the best way to do it - one low tech alternative is simply to have them draw it out, which may make the most sense.

We also debated what do with data from a student researcher who did not follow protocol. As mentioned above, we wanted students to interview people they did not know based on referrals, but one person interviewed a couple of family members (we did not realize this until we saw the ecomap). We decided to not include that data in the analysis. There is an important reason for this rule. Someone you know answers differently than someone you do not know. You also respond to them in a different way than someone you do not know. Picture the difference between interviewing your grandmother vs. a stranger. You may not push for an answer in the same way with grandma as you would with the stranger. She may be more likely to share info than others may be.... or the reverse - she may be more likely to withhold embarrassing info than a stranger. This is why you should establish research protocols and insist that they be followed.