Instructions for Report 3 Psychology Spring 2006 G24 Dr. Leon James, Instructor

Spring 2006 G24 Dr. Leon James, Instructor

Instructions for Report 3:
Monitoring the Information Behavior of Another Person

Due Date: April 24

Purpose of doing this alternate report:
To give you practice in observing and describing the information behavior of another person. Also, to give you practice in writing a report on the interpretation of your observations in a style that is useful to other students who are interested in the topic of information behavior skills and observations. This is your contribution to the cumulative student reports for this course called the Generational Curriculum. Tell the reader a little about the Generational Curriculum and what you found out about it so far. You might want to tell the reader to visit your Home Page (optional).

Method of data collection:
Finding two children (if unavailable, then adults) who are willing to help you out with half an hour at the computer while you are recording with the tape recorder for your class project. After finding out what information behavior or computer task they are very familiar with, you can ask them to do something for you, or to find something for you, or to show and explain something to you. See the prompts you can use that are listed below. Tell them you are going to put the tape recorder on so you can analyze the interaction later for your report. Turn the tape recorder on and tell the person that it is now on and ask them to say Hi to the tape. This will make sure the person knows you have started recording. The recording need not be longer than 10 to15 minutes, but if it is, you still only need to analyze a 5 to 8-min. portion of it, as far as the report is concerned. If you are recording a child, you need the parents' consent first. If you are recording adults, be sure to tell them why you are doing this research so they can consciously agree to it. Do not record the person's name or identification on the tape or on your data transcript and analysis.

You do not submit the tape with your report. Instead you need to transcribe about 5 to 8 minutes of the tape. Be sure the transcript is accurate by going over it a second time while listening to the tape. Number the transcript lines. Each line should begin with AD: for the lines of the adult or CH: for the lines of the child. Your lines should say: IN: for interviewer. Insert in [square brackets] any lines of explanation you want to give to make it clearer to readers what's happening as the transcript proceeds.

Examples of information behavior tasks include both on the computer and off. On the computer examples include, downloading music, shopping on ebay or elsewhere on the Web, using a search engine to find some things, signing up online for something, using a software of some kind including computer or video games, sending several email attachments, making a Web page, finding library references or resources, printing a selection on the screen, drawing a diagram, etc. etc. Examples not on the computer include using some equipment that one has to learn from reading instructions, finding out some information by having to telephone some people to find out what it is, reading want-ads or placing one, etc. etc.

Interaction prompts:
It is important to have the person talk out loud by describing what they are doing. This is the purpose of getting their discourse. You want them to talk about what they are doing as they are doing it. Since this is unusual for most people, you need to keep prompting them every 10 seconds using questions such as these:

What's happening now?
Why are you doing that?
What's the purpose of doing that?
How does one do X or Y?
How did you find out about this?
Was it hard to learn this?
Is it possible to do ......? (save it, copy it, email it, etc.)
etc. etc.

If there is 10 seconds of silence, you need to give your prompt. Make sure the tape recorder is right close by. If the person is talking in a low voice, you will need to hold the tape recorder or microphone in your hand near enough to the person's face. It is very important that you be able to hear every word when you are transcribing the tape portion you select. If you think it's not working out and you are not getting the right discourse, then try doing it again with another task. This might work better.

Method of data analysis:
For ideas on how to analyze the transcript, see the work of prior generations here:

You can also use your own ideas or you can search the Web for different ideas and methods.

Writing up the report:

Note: You will lose points unless you follow these two requirements:
(a) No paragraph in your report can exceed about 7 lines on a normal Web screen.
(b) There must be a blank line between all paragraphs. Check this on the screen with your Web browser.

The file must be called yourname-alternate-report1.htm (note the hyphens, no spaces, all lower case)

(1) The report should say this on top of the document:

Report 3
Transcript Analysis of an Information Literacy Dialogue
by Your Name
My Transcript is at: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2006/xx/xx-transcript.htm
Instructions for this report are at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/g24-report3.htm

Replace xx with your last name, which is also your uploading folder name. Replace yy with your course number.

As you can see from the above, you need to have a separate file containing the transcripts. Do not forget to number the lines of each transcript. Do not forget to put a link from your report to the transcript file and back (reciprocal links must be present to go from one to the other). You can consult prior student reports on this topic, but the instructions are not identical so be sure you follow your own instructions.

(2) Introduction
Explain the Generational Curriculum of which your report is part. Give a link to the Generational Curriculum directory. Explain the purpose of your report and what you think you might find out about information literacy. Relate to the issues you discussed in your Report 1 that you did earlier for the other course, and give a link to that report.

(3) Method
Explain how you got the data. Describe in detail how you got the volunteers, what you told them, how they reacted, and how they acted during the interview recording session. Give the age and gender of your interviewees. Evaluate the method in terms of accuracy, objectivity, and repeatability by others. What did you learn and observe by using this method?

(4) Analysis
(i) Explain how you selected your sample and did the transcript. Identify problems or observations about the recording, the interaction during the recording, etc.
(ii) Explain what was your reaction when listening to the tape.
(iii) Explain in detail how you did the transcript. Identify and discuss problems and observations.
(iv) Explain how you analyzed the transcript. What did you count, categorize, contrast?
(v) Present a Table or diagram to help the reader understand more clearly what the analysis yielded.
(vi) Give links or citations to others whose ideas or methods you might have followed when assessing your findings.

(5) Discussion
(i) Explain what the data mean to you and how it helps you understand what is information literacy.
(ii) Compare your results and conclusions to the research of others. Search the Web and the UH Library Electronics Resources Directory for relevant articles or essays. Topics of relevance include: "information literacy" "transcript analysis" "interview technique" "discourse analysis" affective neuroscience" "cognitive overload" "interpretive discourse" skills analysis" "information behavior" "information seeking" "user behavior" "affective computing" "attribution error" "problem solving" "youth information seeking" 'technology divide" "user studies" "net generation" and some others.

(6) Advice to Future Generations
(i) Tell them how they can improve on what you did.
(ii) Tell them what you learned by doing this, your ups and downs, etc.
(iii) Discuss how you did your research for the Discussion section.

(7) The following links must appear at the bottom of your file:
My Home Page || Class Home Page

Note: You will lose points unless you follow these two requirements:
(a) No paragraph in your report can exceed 7 lines.
(b) There must be a blank line between all paragraphs.

References

Make this a numbered list. Include links where possible.

Appendix
The numbered transcript with appropriate annotations in square brackets to tell the reader what's happening. Put the notes in squared brackets on a different line than the transcript. Italicize the words of the transcript, but not the initials of the person at the beginning of each line, and not the comments you add in square brackets. The Appendix must be a separate file called xx-transcipt.htm (xx is your last name), and must be uploaded along with your report file. Be sure there is a link at the bottom of your transcript file : Back to My Report

Your Report 3 is now complete and published on the Web. Congratulations! You have proven you can gain technical competence in Web publishing and report writing. Now your valuable report will be used by future generations, by students from other places surfing the Web, by researchers interested in data on information behavior, and by the general public looking for ways to improve their information literacy skills.

You will be publishing two other reports on the Web this semester as part of your contribution to the generational curriculum on driving psychology or unity model of marriage or theistic psychology. Thousands of people who navigate the Web find these generational student reports through Web search engines when they are looking for topics on information literacy. Your contribution will contribute first, to yourself for improving your information literacy skills; second, for future students who will be reading your reports, and third, for the public at large. Your research, observations, and conclusions will be beneficial to others who will read your reports in the ensuing years. Long after you're no longer a student, your generational reports will still be serving the public.

Note on Privacy: Students can use a pseudonym on their reports instead of their real name. Students who publish their reports on the Web can delete their reports after being graded. They can also request to have their reports deleted from the Web after the semester at any time in the future by emailing Dr. James. Usually the request is honored on the same day it is received. Students can also submit their reports in typing, privately to the instructor instead of publishing them on the Web. This will not affect their grade.

Back to G24 Class Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/classhome-g24.htm