Articles:Video Representations and the Perspectivity Framework: Epistemology, Ethnography, Evaluation, and Ethics

From unthinkMedia

Videos allow for researchers to use differing points of viewing to understand the perspectives of those who design, participate in, and analyze the video artifacts. There is a lot to be learn from video, and there are multiple methods of conducting a study, a method we often refer to as triangulation.

One of the first realizations that an ethnographer must learn to cope with, is how our actions might be affected by the presence of the camera. Instead of conflicting with this possibility we should rather accept the performative actions people demonstrate whenever they are being observed.

Contents

5 Questions

  1. What are the affordances and issues with using video in the learning sciences?
  2. Should video in research be used only as an evidentiary tool or also a media form used to tell a story?
  3. Why do research communities evaluate videos differently?
  4. How do we handle evaluations and "eliciting the value of video research (e-Value-ation)" (pg. 7)?
  5. How do video representations make us more aware of the ethical stances in our research practices?

Perspectivity Framework

The Perspectivity Framework Includes various diverse lens of viewing an environment through the use of a video camera. Both the person(s) filming and those being filmed have have different interpretation of the event. These interpretation are organic, and could change when it is being shared with others, annotated. There is a negotiation of the events meaning through multiple points of viewing. The "layering of diversity produces a clearer understanding of the complexity involved in knowing what happened in a given time and place." (pg. 15). This constant transformation of viewpoints and interpretation makes Perspectivity an open framework.

“revolves around the idea that each person experiences the world from a standpoint, a viewpoint, or what we might call a situated context emerging from years of perceiving and making meaning of experiences” (p. 19)… “The stellar and galactic metaphor provides a way to get a handle on understanding how one event or one particular perspective can also ‘live’ (as a reconstituted entity) in another constellation when viewed from a different ‘galaxy,’ knowing that galaxies are also within dynamic and emerging systems” (p. 19).


Epistemology

Representations is defined as "the production of meaning of the concepts in our minds through language" (Hall, 1997, p. 17.)

Meaning making relies on the representations of objects, people, events, and concepts in our minds. Without these representations, meaning making is impossible.

Most cognitive scientists tend to agree that representations are internal mental constructs, such as described by Spiro and Jehng's (1990) cognitive flexibility theory.

  • Mental representations work in complex and ill-structured domains.
  • The mind "processes" schema rather than retrieves it. This was in conflict to behaviorists believed.

Postmodern Ethnography

e-Value-ation

  1. Wholeness/Particularity
    • "enough" detail without taking the viewer/reader through the entire body of research.
    • Events are fully presented.
    • Details are meaningful descriptions that bring the reader or viewer "inside" the event.
    • The cases are presented as various chunks of events, however these chunks do not exist in isolation but as a collection.
  2. "Being there/Being with"
    • convince viewers that these viewers are "there" and "with" the videographer, either physically or metaphorically connected to the video.
    • use various video techniques, such as cut-aways, pans, Wide-angle shots, and narrative voice-overs to to aim for a connection with others in their place.
  3. Perspectivity
    • The author's point of view
    • The participants being recorded point of view
    • The reader/viewer's point of view
  4. Genre consistency/breech
    • The "form" of the research products breaks convention but is situated in a genre.
    • mixing genres can work if there is a reason for the breech.
  5. Authenticity
    • video shed new light creating an innovation of new connections.
  6. Chronological Verisimilitude
    • The research representations are not an accurate chronological account but are truthlike.
    • The reader or viewer can comprehend an ordering of events suited to the topic being addressed.
    • The product is in sync with the meaning of the events.
  7. Conviviality
    • artifacts are accessible for both public and scholarly consumption.
    • easy to use, assessable, and beneficial to humanity.
    • created for the public good, serving the larger interests of the community.
  8. Resonance
    • viewer of the research is able to make connections to his or her situation
  9. Immersion
    • deep level of engagement and involvement with the topic
    • easily enter into the context that was created by the videographer.
    • Immersion in this sense require "mindfulness", a critical awareness of the video.
  10. Commensurability [not really sure what this means]
    • research video data provide a toolkit for sharing concerns, beliefs, attitudes, and pedagogical practices.
    • inspirational

Ethics

"When we videotape our subjects over and over again in classrooms and informal learning environments, we face an ethical challenge to not repeat with these powerful visually based electronic tools what the tall ships ofyesteryear did to others-capture, collect, dissect, categorize, and construct hierarchies" (pg. 34)

  • Video research in the learning sciences should become a method that integrates the art and science of creating meaning.
  • As video ethnographers we should do our best to use these artifacts to create a connection from our experiences to the experiences of others know in the pursuit of making the boundaries of diverse educational and social systems.
  • Video should serve as a tool for reflection of our methods, tools, and theories.

Suggestions

Regardless of the method used, ethnographic data is always subject to some degree of personal framing/bias.

Ethnography illustrates a person's expression and experience in the context of a community as an event is taking place. In this shared presentation of the learning experience, video re-presentations are not only evidentiary artifacts, but, more importantly, expressive objects of inspiration.

Quisitive Research

"a form of research that included multimodes and diverse research methods, such as mixed, blended, or complimentary methods."

Interesting Quotes

Although it is possible that the video camera may have influenced student behavior, it is difficult to predict in which direction. Being recorded could as easily have been distracting as facilitating with respect to the attention of the student participants. (Barron, 2000, p. 397)

"eliciting the value of video research (e-Value-ation)" (pg. 7)?

We come to know through interpretation, dialog, and negotiation of meaning with ... others, through a conversation with manipulation of the materials of a situation. (2004, p. 43)

Reference

Goldman, R. (2007). Video Representations and the Perspectivity Framework: Epistemology, Ethnography, Evaluation, and Ethics. In R. Goldman, R. Pea, B. Barron, & S. J. Derry (Eds.), Video Research in the Learning Sciences (illustrated edition.). Lawrence Erlbaum.

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