The major activity across this block is to undertake a small-scale ethnographic study of an online educational community. The purpose here is two-fold: to enable you to experience, in a very light way, what it means to undertake ethnographic research, while at the same time learning about the nature of community online. The very first thing you will need to do, after reading through the content on these pages, is to select an online educational community that you think would be suitable for a small-scale study. In choosing a community we would prefer that you do not choose one that you are already part of. Furthermore, please bear in mind that you will be sharing your study online therefore it makes sense at this stage to steer away from communities where you feel there might be particular ethical sensitivities (and there is more discussion about ethics below). If you have difficulty selecting an online educational community we recommend studying #femedtech.
In keeping with a common interpretation of ethnography where the researcher enters the field willing to be guided by what they encounter, we do not wish to be too strict in setting out what you should specifically be looking for. Rather, we want you to be open to new and interesting questions and ideas as you observe your chosen community. Nevertheless, you might use some of the following question to broadly guide your approach:
- How would you describe the professional backgrounds or interests of the group?
- Do you have a sense of the range of different voices within the community?
- Are there any recurring or prominent topics of discussion?
- Does conversation and activity appear to be informed by particular ideas?
- Can you identify particular networks and relations between individuals?
- Does the community have particular etiquettes of participation?
- Are there any resources or events that are specific to this community?
It would take a quite a considerable research project to do justice to all of these questions therefore they are presented here simply to suggest how you might go about your study.
Presenting your ethnography
Although ethnographic work has traditionally being presented in written form – often described as a monograph – there has gradually been a recognition that communities and cultural practices cannot always be adequately told through words alone. In order to effectively to convey the story they wish to tell, and sometimes with a view to reaching an audience beyond the academic text, ethnographers sometimes present their work in other forms, for instance through video, sound, exhibitions and elsewhere. Taking our lead from these approaches, your ethnography will be presented through the arrangement of artefacts in your assigned gallery space.
As this block unfolds you should be looking to gather material – ‘ethnographic artefacts’ – that enable to you to reflect on the nature of your chosen online community. We are quite open to what this might be, albeit with a sensitivity to ethical issues discussed below. You might curate an arrangement of tweets, blog posts, online news articles, contributions to an open forum, recordings of presentations, details of conference proceedings, interviews, and so on. In selecting and arranging these artefacts remember that they should combine to tell a story about your chosen online community, and that in each case you should briefly comment on the significance of the particular piece of content. Finally, the ‘catalogue entry’ for this block of the course gives you the opportunity to reflect in more length about what you have learned about the nature of the chosen online community, drawing on relevant literature as you do so.
Timing
You can begin your ethnographic study once you have familiarised yourself with the readings and looked through the information around working ethically. You should aim to draw your study to a close a little before the end of the block in order that other members of the group (including course tutors) can see the completed story that you have sought to tell.
Working ethically
Although this is low-stakes exercise that can enable you to only briefly get a taste for ethnographic research, it is still important to work ethically while doing so. To this end, The Association of Internet Researchers guidelines (2019) are a good starting point for thinking through ethical issues in relation to internet research. The questions they raise will help in terms of establishing whether there are ethical issues that have serious implications for your own mini-ethnography. Meanwhile, here are some useful pointers that are specific to our own exercise.
- We don’t expect you to venture too deeply into any online community (for instance by joining in classes or conversations) as these approaches would normally involve you gaining ethical approval and the consent of participants before doing so.
- If you do have the opportunity to speak to a member of your chosen online community it is important that you explain your interest and intentions before doing so (and we recommend doing this by email so that there is a record of your request and the participant’s reply).
- Although it is not feasible to anonymise the identity of individuals when you are linking to videos, tweets or similar content published on the open web, it is a good idea to do so when writing about the community yourself (for instance in your catalogue entry at the end of the block).
- Bear in mind that your study will be searchable on the web therefore your approach should display the normal conventions of academic decency and respect.
- Remember that you have a personal responsibility for the work you share, and that your work also reflects on EDC course and Course Organiser, the Digital Education programme and the University of Edinburgh.
- Finally, try and keep in mind that you are not looking to pass judgement on your community, but rather looking to more generally tell a story about this community, while also learning about the nature of educational community online.