1. Nicola Beddall-Hill
Informatics ESRC PhD candidate
Attached to the TLRP TEL project
Ensemble
Making sense of (unusual) visual data: Dealing with the
implications of using a head mounted camera to observe learning
in the field
Vital Signs 2: Engaging Research Imaginations, 7-9 September
2010, University of Manchester, Manchester UK
Making sense of (unusual) visual data: Dealing with the
implications of using a head mounted camera to observe learning
in the field
Vital Signs 2: Engaging Research Imaginations, 7-9 September
2010, University of Manchester, Manchester UK
Supervisors: Prof. J., Raper; U., Patel; Prof. P., Carmichael & Prof. F., Webster
2. CONISTON FIELD TRIPS
• April 2009 & 2010 with City University, as part of their MSc in Geographic
Information Systems (GIS). This was based in the Lake District.
• 6-12 students mixed gender, UK & international, varying age & experience
• Two projects each lasted two days: brief, planning, data collection, analysis,
presentation & assessment.
• Devices used; Garmin Geckos, Trimble GeoXM & HP PDA
• Observation via video indoors, head cam outdoors, photography, field notes,
structured observation record, GPS trackers.
3. • Ethnographic observation creating mixed data over time
• The data is the observation of the life cycle of a student
project using technology to enhance learning
• Lots of actors, actants, artifacts and boundary objects
present
• Need to start at the beginning to understand the outcomes
• Mixed media taken simultaneously that requires joining up
• 65GB of raw data!
4. Research Questions
1. What is ‘going on’ in the field trip setting?
1. How does the technology enable, change or create barriers to
learning processes on field trips?
1. How can the role of technology in this setting be theorised?
1. What have we learnt? And how can that be given back to the
educators, designers and students?
5. The head mounted Camera: option 1
POV1.5 Action Camera (POV1)
• Fully integrated point-of-view (POV) video
system (nearly to DVD quality).
• Waterproof, dustproof & shock-resistant.
• Mountable bullet camera with built-in
recorder & wireless remote (3m).
• Used a 4GB SDHC Card (takes up to 8)
• Has its own editing software if required.
• RRP £500 approximately
6. The head mounted Camera: option 2
Kodak Zx1 flip camera and Gorilla tripod
• 720p HD video capture at 60fps, up to 10
hours record time (limited to 2hr by
rechargeable batteries).
• Weather resistant & rugged design.
• Stills & video at variety of speeds in HD &
VGA quality.
• Mountable flip camera with internal memory
(128MB) which is expandable with SDHC
Cards (up to 32GB)
• Has built-in software for editing videos.
• Built-in mono microphone.
• RRP £45 for camera & £12 for Gorilla tripod
7. Using head mounted Cameras – weighing
up the pros and cons…
Advantages Disadvantages
Excellent sound & picture quality (DD) Delicate equipment-easily broken!
Reduced capture of participant’s faces Creates a lot of footage to review-
but can ‘tag’ sections (DD)
Some are water others weatherproof (DD) Difficult to maintain the correct
recording angle
Focused recording of the mobile device &
interactions around it
Not clear what is happening on the
mobile device’s screen
Students are interrupted less by using this
method
Long record times, easy download (DD)
Focus of attention/event is not wholly
selected by the researcher
DD = Device dependant
8. Issues that I have came across
• Technical
Which camera to use, various battery, file format and quality issues
(picture and sound)
• Participant
Student embarrassment and lecturer discomfort at potential interference
and maybe discomfort at lessons being filmed?
• Ethical issues
Strict anonymity enforced by the University committee. What is essential
and what begins to erode the richness of the data?
9. QUESTIONS THAT NEED ADDRESSING
• How to ‘convert’ what is captured digitally into a form that can be
analyzed and disseminated? – there are similar issues with other forms
of digital data, such as data feeds
• What are suitable analysis techniques and software for this method?
• How do you Interpret and disseminate your findings?
And before we get this far…
How to deal with the volume of data produced – hours and GB’s of data
12. RAW DATARAW DATA
DatabaseDatabaseTimeline
Level 1:
Organize raw data
Level 2:
Sort in database
Level 3:
Timeline critical
events
Level 4:
Make critical events
anonymous into
Fedora
Level 5:
Critical events in
ATLAS using
theoretical concepts
Level 6:
Create a model
Level 7:
Test model
13. DatabaseDatabase
RAW DATARAW DATA
Timeline
FEDORAFEDORA
Level 1:
Organize raw data
Level 2:
Sort in database
Level 3:
Timeline critical
events
Level 4:
Make critical events
anonymous into
Fedora
Level 5:
Critical events in
ATLAS using
theoretical concepts
Level 6:
Create a model
Level 7:
Test model
14. RAW DATARAW DATA
DatabaseDatabase
ATLAS ti.6ATLAS ti.6Concepts
to theorize
Concepts
to theorize
Timeline
FEDORAFEDORA
Field trip
test bed
Field trip
test bed
Level 1:
Organize raw data
Level 2:
Sort in database
Level 3:
Timeline critical
events
Level 4:
Make critical events
anonymous into
Fedora
Level 5:
Critical events in
ATLAS using
theoretical concepts
Level 6:
Create a model
Level 7:
Test model
16. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was carried out as part of an ESRC studentship at City University,
linked to TLRP-TEL project Ensemble
(http://www.ensemble.ac.uk/)
The author would like to thank her supervisors Prof Jonathan Raper, Prof.
Patrick Carmichael, Ms. Uma Patel, Prof. Frank Webster and her family for their
support.
