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Lifestream, Liked on YouTube: Netnography – An Instructional Guide

via YouTube

Still concerned about the process of netnography, I found this student video on youtube.com. It provides considerable insight into the process of netnography, outlining the following steps:

1. Planning and entrée

2. Ensuring ethical research

3. Data Collection

4. Data Analysis

5. Providing opportunities for feedback

 

These steps are outlined in greater detail in this Google Presentation.

Important take-aways:

  1. observe the group before you declare your intentions, so as to establish what kind of behaviour is acceptable (and avoid being ‘shunned’);
  2. provide opportunities for feedback, through member checks, after your initial data analysis.
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Lifestream, Liked on YouTube: Netnography: Social Media for Cultural Understanding

via YouTube

A light introduction to Netnography and one of the core readings for the block, Robert Kozinets’ chapter ‘Understanding Culture Online’, from Netnography: doing ethnographic research online. London: Sage. pp. 21-40.

I’ll blog about Kozinets’ chapter at a later point, and link to it here. Whereas the chapter focuses on developing social understandings of online spaces, in the video Kozinets provides a brief introduction to netnography, and describes a case study in which netnography was used as a marketing tool. Key (pragmatic) points for netnographic process (from the video):

-establish research question

-identify potential fields and choose which you will focus on

-observe (swimming in the data)

-analyse for key themes

-(when using netnography for marketing) respond to collected data with marketing strategy.

 

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Lifestream, Liked on YouTube: What is a MOOC?

via YouTube

In Massiveness + Open = New Literacies of Participation (2013), Stewart identified 3 integral components to MOOCs:

“the connectivity of social networking, the facilitation of an acknowledged expert in a field of study and a collection of freely accessible online resources” (McAuley, Stewart, Siemens & Cormier, 2010)

Yet, as Stewart further highlights, the story of MOOCs is often (misleadingly) told through that of online education in general, globalization and networked learning (p. 228), and the original values (autonomy, interaction, exploration, contribution) and characteristics (’emphasizing networked practices, knowledge generation, and many-to-many channels of  communication’) MOOCs subverted or overlooked. The video explores the history, nature and values of MOOCs, as per McAuley, Stewart, Siemens & Cormier’s (2010) research, in more detail.

Reading/watching this research unfold today, with the proliferation of so-called xMOOCs that frequently focus on delivery of information or course content (Stewart, 2013), it seems almost idealistic. Yet, it is true that networked technologies have the capacity (and indeed are, though less frequently) to be used in the way McAuley, Stewart, Siemens & Cormier (2010) propose: a reminder that technology cannot be separated from social practice and context.

Looking forward to observing how networked practices come into play in my MOOC next week..