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Originally uploaded by nfujita.
I’m still trying to get my head around tag clouds that
Chris suggests I could use instead of Nvivo:) While I read about semantic tagging, social bookmarking, collaborative tagging, etc., I’ve also been making progress on other analyses for my dissertation.
The tagging seems to me potentially useful for following development of concepts in collaborative discourse over time. The NVivo analyses can also be used for this, and the advantage of the latter is that it lets me coordinate it with other analyses I’m doing to answer my research questions. I’m also looking at the development of selected participants (case studies) over time. So, I’ve been preparing relevant data and importing it into NVivo7.
Clare reminds us that the dissertation “is often circular and emergent process that often leaves people feeling panicky and incompetent…” Definitely. I had already played around with this data in NVivo 2.0 many months ago, but I now have a clearer idea of what I want to do. While I know what I want to do for now (funny how an impending deadline can bring about conceptual clarity!), it still takes time to prepare the data properly for the analyses I want to do, and I realize may need to keep changing things.
Much is uncertain, but for me, meeting with Clare regularly and working with others help. In trying to figure out NVivo, for example, working with Wendy, who is also analyzing her dissertation data in NVivo, certainly makes my data preparation and analysis less nerve-wracking. Bruce, who is almost done (right, Bruce?), shared his coding scheme for metacognition with me, and I’ve found that helpful in refining my thinking around that aspect of my own scheme. I’ve been reading adult cognitive development literature and that part is sort of coming together better. Now, if only I can get more coherence around the tag clouds…
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