talk-in-interaction

shiva

2012-01-03T01:06:00.001-08:00

shiva, a photo by angie cat on Flickr.

I have promised myself that I will start addressing some of my technology "weaknesses". This image represents my first attempt at getting better. For some time, I have been unable to post from my Flickr account because the images were too large and would fill the entire blog screen (that is both the post and the sidebar information). I'm not sure why this problem developed. Anyhow, I couldn't seem to fix it and so I just stopped posting images. That was a pity because the blog became very print oriented.

So, this evening I decided to see if I could learn to make images smaller on Flickr so that I would be able to post images again. As you can, I was able to do it. The image I've posted is one that I took this afternoon after a trip to Bunnings hardware shop to purchase some things for the garden. I saw the statue which is not made of stone but looks as if it is. It is about (my) knee height and is very light. I think it looks neat.

Literacy and ethnomethodology

2012-01-02T18:44:00.001-08:00

I try to keep my eye on special issues of journals that are coming up. I had been watching this one for a little while and decided to put up an abstract for consideration. My thinking was that if it got accepted I would have another publication for 2012. So, I wrote this in late November and sent it off to the editors:

Ethnomethodology and literacy research: A methodological ‘road less travelled’
This article examines ethnomethodology in order to consider its particular yet under-used perspective within literacy research. Initially, the article outlines ethnomethodology, including its theoretical position and central concepts such as indexicality and reflexivity. Then, selected studies are used to illustrate the application of the methodology and related research methods to the examination of literacy and literacy instruction. This section delineates a number of constraints on the application of the methodology. Constraints include respecification of topic as practical accomplishment, bracketing by researchers of a priori interests and background information to produce unmotivated looking, and meticulous analytic attention to locally produced social phenomenon often only made visible in minute details of transcripts. Ethnomethodology’s contribution is discussed then in light of criticisms concerning the overly restricted nature of the methodology, or some versions of it. It is concluded that despite ongoing critique, the application of ethnomethodology to literacy research may: reveal taken-for-granted ways that literacy lessons are accomplished, lead to the description and explication of social actions that constitute literacy instruction, and enhance existing theoretical models of literacy learning and teaching.

A couple of weeks ago, I received an invitation to complete the full article for possible inclusion in the special issue. I'm especially chuffed because it gives me an opportunity to start thinking more about literacy research and ethnomethodology in preparation for supervision of two new doctoral research students who will begin with me this year.

Another reason for feeling happy about this is that the timeline for the article is short. It will be published in May so only six months from my conception of the idea to publication in the journal. I recommend this strategy to all those early career researchers who are painstakingly trying to shape up their publications profile (at a time when publishing timelines seem to be longer than ever).

making much of a little

2011-11-22T13:07:00.000-08:00

The end of the year draws near ...

For the last five years I've forced myself to lock into a cycle of activity that sees me trying to get the NEXT year in train in relation to publishing. Given the long cycle from submission to publication, it is highly likely that nothing sent in later than November has a hope in hell of getting publishing in the following year (and sometimes not even in the year following that). So, I am for a flurry of activity around this time of year.

With that in mind, I was looking over conference papers for this year and came across the one I presented in AERA in New Orleans, back in April. I was actually surprised by the finished quality of the paper and realised that I could submit it to a journal without a lot of reworking. As luck would have it, earlier in the week I had printed out some blurb about a journal article I wanted to read. THis morning I found that print out and noticed that the article was from the Journal of Research in Childhood Education. I think it would be a perfect place to submit my article. So this evening I will work on the paper and then submit it.

the chapter

2011-11-11T16:31:00.001-08:00

It was with some relief that I met my deadline yesterday for delivery of a book chapter. I don't like missing deadlines and try to avoid doing that wherever possible. So, I had the chapter together in draft form by around Wednesday and then took to some editing up until yesterday. The chapter does need some more work but hopefully I will get a chance after the reviews come in (fingers crossed).

This is the first time that I have seriously written about young children's disputes so I needed to (again) get on top of a body of literature that I wasn't all that familiar with and of course I also needed to do my own analysis. I liked doing the analysis a lot - for some reason it seemed more straight forward than some of the analysis I've needed to do in the last few years.

I also have a student who is now analysing disputes in her data so my own work with dovetail nicely with her supervision. The student is also examining talk in the playing of a game, as I did, so lots of connections and flow on from the work I've done in the last month on the chapter.

I've kept files as the work progressed and it is really interesting to see the very first rough transcript and annotations that I made on that using Maynard's work to help me initially identify some of the sequences. I also presented a paper on that developing analysis when I was in Freibourg in July. My work moved on again with the actual development of the chapter and, hopefully, will receive some good reviews that will help me refine it just that little bit further.

Now I'm going to switch to reading about literacy and new media.

the fellowship

2011-11-08T14:15:00.000-08:00

Since July of this year, I have been on a research fellowship at RIPPLE. It has been a marvellous opportunity to devote sustained time to my research work. So, apart from writing I've also been able to do quite a bit of reading. This appears like a luxury but will stand me in good stead for the next couple of years of research. It is amazing how quickly you can get out of touch with certain bodies of literature. For me, there was the need to get stuck into literature on CA. Most recently that has been in relation to work on young children's disputes. I like the work a lot and think that I will possibly write some more in this area down the track. Meanwhile I am busy finishing my chapter titled:

When ‘Yes’ turns to ‘No’: Young children’s disputes during computer game playing in the home

I have a number of disputes between children during use of the computer but this is the first analysis of them that I have done. As usual, I have used single case analysis and produced a detailed analysis of a long spate of talk. At the moment the draft suggests that it is still a challenging read because of the length. So, I am working on that today. Associated literature that I have really enjoyed reading?

Church, A. (2009). Preference organization and peer disputes: How young children resolve conflicts. Surrey, Eng: Ashgate.

Hester, S., & Hester, S. (2010). Conversational actions and category relations: An analysis of a children’s argument. Discourse Studies, 12(1), 33-48.

Vuchinich, S. (1990). The sequential organization of closing in verbal family conflict. In A. D. Grimshaw (Ed.), Conflict talk (pp. 111-138). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

pretty chuffed about this!

2011-10-20T16:41:00.001-07:00

I always check my emails first thing in the morning over coffee. This morning I found this and felt pretty happy.

Anyone interested?

2011-10-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

This morning I received notification of this conference

I've had a hankering to attend one of these meetings for a couple of years now. The first call is for symposium proposals. Any EM/CA/MCA researchers interested in being part of a symposium on application of the methodology/ies to the examination of young children's social worlds?

On a related note, I've just been reading a paper by Carly Butler and Ann Weatherall. It has this lovely concluding statement:

"What matters in the playground is being able to recognize a game and its associated categories , knowing how to become a member of a device and category, and understanding the rules and regulations of category membership such as relevance and consistency. These skills involve the systematic deployment of cultural understanding and the moment-by-moment production of a shared cultural order. Children's culture can be understood in terms of these methods and practices with which they coordimate their talk and action (Goodwin, 1990). Children's talk in interaction is a prime site for further examination of the situated production of children's everyday lives.: (Butler & Weatherall, 2006, p. 466)

Working out “how come they said that thing and what they could be doing with it” (Sacks, 1995,p. 312)

2011-10-05T14:37:00.000-07:00

Off to a good start to the day by taking in some Sacks. For some reason, I found the following both explanatory and comforting (smile):
"the rate at which you solve problems is not at all given by the fact that you had some problem you wanted to solve. So, for example, I had the sense a year ago that 'therapist/patient' is an omni-relevant device here. I didn't know how to show that this was so, or even how to find that this was so. There were bits of data that looked like it, but until, as it happened, I was working on these things without any intention of dealing with the issue of omni-relevance, not much was happening. It was when I was working on the priority character of those insertable sequences, and asked, ' how is that priority invoked, and what allows this one or that one to do it?' that it became apparent that it was material which was very much related to the phenomenon of omni-relevance. Now that happens in many cases. It means that you often have to wait for some data to strike you, or to occur in some sequence for you to be able to solve some ongoing problem. Or you may have solutions sitting around to problems that you haven't been able to pose." (Sacks, 1995, p. 316)

the hardest thing

2011-09-12T17:09:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm making the final final changes to my revised book chapter on restricted interactional activity. I'd have to say that it has been very challenging to do. Part of the challenge for me was returning to data from my PhD and re-analysing some of it. I also needed to get up to speed with literature produced since I last wrote from my PhD. I wondered today if I am still missing some of it because I don't appear to have a lot (still) of CA work around classrooms in the early years of schooling when children are working on individual tasks - such as writing (although there is considerable literature about other classrooms. It was hard going back to thinking about classrooms and realising that got me thinking about how much I've enjoyed analysis the data recorded of young children interacting on the computer. I will be happy to have more of that once our ARC data has been collected early in 2012.

Meantime, this morning I have started thinking about another article I might write on methodology. i think it could be a lit review about the application of methodology in literacy research. there has been a call from a journal that I wouldn't mind writing for and an abstract is due in Dec. that could be a good deadline for me.

Now where was I?

2011-09-11T15:42:00.000-07:00

I've just read through the last post I made here. The good news is that I've completed everything on the list except for one thing (the revised book chapter). the fact that I started a research fellowship here has really helped me start to focus again.

For the last two weeks I have been in Brisbane meeting with the ARC Discovery team led by Professor Susan Danby. This project promises to be very exciting, in part because we have such an interesting team. For me it is particularly exciting to be working with other conversation analysts. Although the recordings of home and pre-school interaction won't me made until next year, we have already spend time talking about aspects of the data collection. It has been very rewarding for me to see how the work from my CQU seed grant has enabled me to make a useful contribution to discussion of data collection, particularly in the home.

at this point in time

2011-05-27T14:25:00.000-07:00

It's time for a list I think. Here are the writing/research tasks that need to be completed before the end of June:
-revisions to a paper on helping during computer use
-revisions to a paper on transcription
-revisions to a chapter on restricted interactional activity
-paper for this this conference
-paper for that conference
A list always makes me feel that tasks are doable as does "biting off" a chunk of work each day. So, for now it is back to the revisions on the helping-during-computer-use article. One reviewer's comments have required me to go back to revising what I have said about EM/CA in the article. The information needs to be more accessible for readers who do not have a previous understanding of the approaches. The biggest task I will address is the question of the analysis becoming drawn out ("tedious" was the actually word used). An analysis of a long sequence presents those challenges for the reader and for the analyst. I will try to write over the current middle section analysis in order to draw out points that can be found in the data.

back on the chain gang

2011-05-22T15:04:00.001-07:00

I haven't blogged for a long time. In fact, this is the biggest break I've ever taken from the blog. It wasn't intended - somehow time just slipped away. I thought to blog today because I'm just about to start work on a revision of an article that I had submitted to a journal at the end of last year.

I have been asked to give specific attention to the comments of one reviewer and to address these specifically in my revisions. So this morning I printed out those comments which are indeed very thorough. I could feel my heart sinking a little as I read through - not because they are unkind or difficult but because they substantial and the revisions will take a fair bit of work.

For me this is the hardest part of writing. It is one thing to revise one's own draft and quite another to work on revisions based on the feedback of another. I can already tell that some points will be challenging for me to address. For example, the reviewer makes the comment that the transcripts are difficult to read for a non-specialist reader. So, wha tdo I do about that. One solution is to take out a lot of the symbols and to note somewhere that while Jefferson notation as employed in the transcripts that were analysed, the transcripts used in the article have been modified for an audience potentially unused to Jefferson notation.

Well that was easy! I knew it was a good idea to blog.

What I'm doing

2011-01-27T18:01:00.000-08:00

It's such a busy time of the year. Here's some info about what I'm up to just now.

I'm reading:
Husserl, E. (1969). Ideas: General introduction to pure phenomenology. London: Allen & Unwin.

I'm viewing

I'm enjoying eating veggies I've grown:

ladyfinger
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I'm spending time with my closest companion:

handstand
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I've just had a paper accepted:
Davidson, C. (accepted). Young children’s disputes during computer game playing at home. Proposal for symposium: Disputes in everyday life-children engaging with peers, for the 10th Conference of the International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, University of Fribourg, Switzerland, July 10-14, 2011.

I'm thinking about the revisions that need to be made to:
Davidson, C., & Moore, T. (under revision); How transcription is taken for granted: An analysis of transcription in doctoral theses in education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.

Fruits of my labour

2011-01-15T20:10:00.001-08:00

tomatoes and dish
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I've finished a draft of the book chapter. I should have given myself a little bit more time but that is how it goes when there is NEVER enough time. I sent the chapter off with six minutes to spare before the deadline. Another day would have been fabulous but there you are.

The funny thing is that I've been "mucking around" with the analysis of this data for almost ten years and I still find things to say that are new or that I have missed or not said precisely enough.

Does the pic look a little oriental? It's a beautiful dish and a Xmas present from Gillian. It could have many functions but for the moment it will do very nicely to house my tomatoes that I pick in the morning and eat in a salad in the evening. Thanks Gillian.

last day of the year

2010-12-30T21:43:00.001-08:00

Angie
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Well, I can hardly believe that 2010 is almost done. This time a year ago I was in Rockhampton and pinching myself with disbelief - had I really been offered and accepted a job at CSU in Wagga Wagga?

And what a year it has been. My highlights? The move, of course! Attending the conference in Mannheim, Germany, with Gillian and Maryann, friends and conversational analysts. then, the ARC Discovery (and I'm still blown away by that). Getting to know Chris, Gerald and Wayne at work was pretty good (ongoing hits of enjoyment). I'm happy that Angie has settled so well into Wagga and made a friend in Pirate. And of course, I'm especially enjoying being back with Jenny, one of my oldest (older-smile) friends).

Today, I've spent time working on the chapter again. I'm not pushing it but really just aim to do reasonably good work each day and then pull it together towards the end of the time line. This morning I wrote a few hundred words about independent writing and this afternoon I read some online articles about CA and institutional talk, and I made notes that can then inform the production of a few good words tomorrow morning.

It is over forty degrees here today. This morning I thought about going for a swim. I didn't do it but it is now on the cards for sometime on the weekend. I might go to Coolamon and back to the pool I swam in during the summer many years ago.

Work for 2011 begins

2010-12-29T20:36:00.000-08:00

Here's wishing everyone a happy New Year. Mine has begun a little early with today's start on the book chapter that is due on 15 January. It was REALLY hard settling down to work today after relaxing since 24 December. When I unwind I come undone! However, I managed to make a start today and have written a few words.

The background to the chapter is this. Some months ago, I proposed an abstract for a panel paper at the International Pragmatics Conference in Manchester 2011. I was happy that the chair of the symposium accepted my proposal and then I was over the moon when she asked me to write a chapter for a book (based on my abstract). So, I have a plan of sorts, however, I read over the book proposal today and it differs a little from the panel for the conference. Actually, it differs in a way that makes it a little easier for me to write the chapter (that's good).

The main thing now is settling into writing the chapter. I've managed a few good words today (about three hundred) and have mapped out the overall shape of the chapter. I've also done a bit of reading. I think the main thing is not to let the chapter "blow out". I've circled around this particular analytic work for some years although have never published the analysis itself. It's my favourite piece of analysis from my PhD so fingers crossed that I can pull off the chapter and finally see it in print.

By way of surprise

2010-12-02T20:52:00.000-08:00

I just went down to check the mail and found a copy of a journal in my mail box. To my surprise it contained an article of mine and was hot off the press!

The surprise was that I hadn't realised that it was about to be published.

Growth

2010-11-22T17:18:00.001-08:00

Baby
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Here's pic of one of the tomato bushes that I planted in a wicker basket. I'm very happy that there are now little tomatoes, and plenty more to come judging by the number of flowers on the plant.

I'm working at home today on my Uni website. I'm building up an online subject that is running in Semester 3 (now). I have three modules in the subject and I'm half way through the second. this one is on methodologies and today I'm working on information and activities about ethnography and grounded theory. To finish off the ethnography, I've made some notes and recordings from two ethnographies. One is by Philip Jackson (1968) and is titled Life In Classrooms. The second is by Harry Wolcott and is titled The Man in the Principal's Office. I've enjoyed reading both and I hope that the students will enjoy the snippets that I'm drawing on, including short segments that I have read aloud and commented on.

I'm making good progress by doing a fair bit of work and then running out to check on my tomatoes and other veggies. I also have a very nice eggplant (with one flower) and several zucchinis. I'd be thrilled if I could actually get some zucchinis because I battled snails with the seedlings. Fingers crossed that snails have new retreated. BTW, I didn't use poison pellets to fight them off. I used crumpled up eggshells and they seemed to do the trick.

Young children’s disputes during computer game playing at home

2010-10-31T16:37:00.001-07:00

portrait
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Young children’s shared use of the computer can lead to conflict (Yelland, 2005) although little is known about the social organization of their disputes while using computer technology. This paper examines disputes that arose between two sisters during the playing of a computer game in their home. The children were aged four and six at the time. The recorded data was transcribed using Jefferson notation and two extended sequences selected for analysis after repeated viewing of the recording. Disputes occurred in both of these sequences. Antecedent events in disputes were either the physical action of clicking the mouse or the appearance of an on-screen image. Oppositions to these made apparent presumptions (Maynard, 1985) held by the older sister about the younger child’s ability to play the game. Specifically, she presumed that the younger child didn’t know how to play and needed to watch to learn how to play. Through oppositional turns, the younger child asserted that she did know how to play. These differences contributed to several disputes during the beginning stages of the game playing. Methods used in the design of oppositional turns included elongation of vowel sounds, stress given to words and raised pitch. It was the younger child’s accounts that lead to resolutions and closure of the disputes. That is, her accounts justified (Cobb-Moore, Danby & Farrell, 2008) her actions competently to her sister who allowed her, ultimately, to become the player of the game rather than an observer. This consideration of the interaction between the sisters and during their interactions with computer technology extends previous work on young children’s disputes; the paper explicates how the girls negotiated the local social order that sharing the computer game disrupted, and establishes how ownership of the computer mouse and observation of on-screen images were consequential in the occurrence and course of their spoken disputes.
Cobb-Moore, C., Danby, S., & Farrell, A. (2008). ‘I told you so’: Justification in disputes in
young children’s interactions in an early childhood classroom. Discourse Studies, 10, 595-614.
Maynard, D. (1985). How children start arguments. Language and Society, 14, 1-30.
Yelland, N. (2005). The future is now: A review of the literature on the use of computers in early
childhood education (1994-2004). AACE Journal, 13(2), 201-232.

A dispute

2010-10-27T16:33:00.001-07:00

setting and pirate
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I have been invited to be a part of a symposium for the EM/CA conference in Fribourg. This means that I will need to develop an abstract by 1 November. I've started with some reading about disputes (because the symposium focuses on disputes in children's everyday activity). So I have disputes in the recordings of children's use of computers. Disputes are not surprising, in a sense, since the young children were usually sharing the computer (always potentially tricky).

This morning I've been reading Maynard's (1985) paper on the ways that children start arguments. That was a good starting point. It suggested to me, for example, that a non-verbal action such as making a move with the mouse, can be considered as an "antecedent event"
and the next turn after as the opposing action in the following:

H: =do you wanna start with all these crocodiles?
(1.0)
H: yep
K: yes
→ (6.0)↔((H clicking the mouse at intervals))ANTECEDENT EVENT
K:→ >no Hannah don’t< OPPOSITION
(1.0)↔((H still clicking the mouse))LETS OPPOSITION PASS
K:→ don’t SECOND OPPOSITION
(1.0)↔((H continues to move the mouse))LETS OPPOSITION PASS
K:→ o:::wh oh no:::: I said do:::::n’t
(2.0)
H:→ why?
(1.0)
K:→ because I wanted to ( ) the crocodiles
H:→ I did!
K:→ I::: want to
C: one of the animal tiles has fallen sick you need
to use this tile when you can to make sure the
sickness does not spread the sickness spreads
every few moves you make these score zero points
when you ( ) with a sick tile
(7.0)↔((H clicking on various tiles at intervals))
K:→ Hannah I know=
H: =whoops
K:→ Hannah I know how to do it
H:→ >do it< then
(0.4)
H: just call me when you’re ready

As you can see, I've only begun a rough analysis but it is more than I had done when this day started! More to come.

Died and went to heaven

2010-10-26T00:22:00.000-07:00

The ARC Discovery grants have been announced. Here is one and I will leave it at that!

Queensland University of Technology
DP110104227 Prof Susan J Danby, Prof Amanda H Spink, Prof Karen Thorpe, Dr Christina R Davidson
Approved
Project Title
Interacting with knowledge, interacting with people: web searching in early childhood
2011 $160,636.00
2012 $161,836.00
2013 $141,499.00
Administering Organisation
Project Summary
Queensland University of Technology
This study investigates the extent of pre-school children's Web searching, what they access and in what social contexts. Findings will inform educators and families about Web use for socially interactive learning and knowledge-building.

playing

2010-10-24T18:54:00.001-07:00

tomotoes
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Here's my first attempt at an abstract that encompasses the work on sack's gloss and a perspicuous setting:

This paper draws on the concept of a perspicuous setting (Sacks, 1995, Garfinkel, 2002) to explicate an aspect of children’s everyday activity of computer game playing in the home; in this case, how young children differentiate between playing a computer game and showing someone how to play. The distinction is an important one for avoiding or resolving disputes or arguments that can arise during children’s use of the computer. This single-case analysis considers how a child who is supposed to be showing another how to play is taken by that child to be playing. The analysis describes and explicates methods used to accomplish doing “showing how to play” as distinct from playing. Methods include: accounting for what you’re doing as you play, designing turns to encompass watching and listening as mutually accomplishing showing how to play, and requesting permission to play on behalf of the other in order to show how to play. Discussion establishes young children’s on-going interactional work (ten Have, 1999), as they negotiate the problem of sharing the computer, and extends understandings of children’s interactional competence.
Garfinkel, H. (2002). Ethnomethodology’s program: Working out Durkheims aphorism.
Lanham, ML: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Sacks, H. (1995). Lectures on conversation/Harvey Sacks; edited by Gail Jefferson; with an
introduction by Emanuel A. Schegloff. Oxford: Blackwell.
ten Have, P. (1999). Structuring Writing for Reading: Hypertext and the Reading Body’, Human
Studies 22: 273-98

What is a perspicuous setting?

2010-10-21T14:48:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple of days I've been doing some thinking and reading because I want to get up a solid proposal for the EM/CA conference in Fribourg in July 2012. My starting point was acknowledging that my recorded data of young children's use of computers is fairly unique with the field. In other words, it presents an opportunity to make a contribution to EM/CA only I have to strengthen my take on it.

First off I looked through a list of EM/CA papers on technology that I have been putting together. I then downloaded a few of those to read. One paper bu Suchman, Trigg and Blomberg made use of the expression ""praxiologically valid courses of instructed action". This concept was coined by Garfinkel, so my "paperchase" then spread to his book "ethnomethodology's program: working out Durkheim's aphorism". and finally that led me to a neat section of writing by Garfinkel where he talks about perspicuous settings.

Garfinkel writes:
"To find a perspicuous setting the EM policy provides that the analyst looks to find, as of the haecceities of some local gang's work affairs, the organizational thing that they are up against and that they can be brought to teach the analyst what he needs to learn and to know from them, with which, by learning from them, to teach them what their affairs consist of as locally produced, locally occasioned, and locally ordered, locally described, locally questionable, counted, recorded, observed, etc., phenomena of order, in and as of their in vivo accountably doable coherent and cogent detail for each another next first time." (p. 182)

Garfinkel says that that one way to find a perspicuous setting is to use Sack's gloss. He then describes it.In brief, Sack's made a distinction between a possessable and possessitive: The former (again, in brief) is a thing that you see, that you want and you know you can have. A possessitive, on the other hand, is see and desired but you know you can't have it because it belongs to somebody else. Sacks sought to find a work group, where members' methods entailed -as an aspect of their daily work -making this distinction. Sack's eventual found that perspicious setting in the work of police in the LA Police Department who made decisions about whether cars were abandoned or just delapidated cars that were nevertheless owned.

So ... how might the gloss be applied to settings that I am interested in? Or should I say, do I have a gloss for which a setting might provide a way to know the thing through examining the work of the people who must decide whether it is one thing or the other? Whew!

Dispute? Argument? Disagreement?

2010-10-14T18:50:00.000-07:00

Today, I've been thinking about sections in recordings where interaction between children "broke down". It often led to one of the children walking away from the computer. Anyhow, today I transcribed a little section of one recording in order to look at the talk more closely. the children were playing a game where cartoom images of Australian animals had to be linked if they were the same. The older child, Hannah (H)had played the game and she was showing the younger child, Kaydie (K) how to play it. Throughout the game, Hannah played it in order to show but eventually she let Kaydie play because the younger child insisted that she knew how to do it. the computer (C) also gave directions.

I've copied the first draft transcript here although the transcript doesn't yet include a lot of interactional detail that can be represented in a transcript. For example, Kaydie was very adamant that she didn't need Hannah telling her about the game because she knew what to do. Her talk shows heavy emphasis on the words 'know' and 'away'. So far, I've indicated that she elongated sounds in these words. I will add in other symbols later to show loudness.

H: now Kaydie you just can’t (0.4) you can’t link anyone
(0.4)
H: actually it’s like you have to link two devils together or
maybe you have to ( )
K: I kno↓:::::↑::w
H: so why did you do this? devil crocodile echidna
crocodile kangaroo devil devil
K: because I’m trying to get the sickness awa:::y
(2.0)
H: mmm (0.4) that (0.2) so okay Kaydie you hafta ( ) that one
(0.4)↔((click of mouse))
H: that one
(0.4)↔((click of mouse))
H: that one
(0.4)↔((click of mouse))
and that one

A second example involving the same children looks a little like this:
H: are you ready
K: yes
(1.0)↔((H clicks the mouse))
C: you must fill this container up to the top by making
links on the board (0.4) the more animal tiles you link
together the more points you get (04) to finish the
level you must reach the total points showing above
the container
(2.6)
H: ready
K: yes=
H: =do you wanna start with all these crocodiles?
(1.0)
H: yep
K: yes
→ (6.0)↔((H clicking the mouse at intervals))
K:→ >no Hannah don’t<
(1.0)↔((H still clicking the mouse))
K:→ don’t
(1.0)↔((H continues to move the mouse))
K:→ o:::wh oh no:::: I said do:::::n’t
(2.0)
H:→ why?
(1.0)
K:→ because I wanted to ( ) the crocodiles
H:→ I did!
K:→ I::: want to
C: one of the animal tiles has fallen sick you need
to use this tile when you can to make sure the
sickness does not spread the sickness spreads
every few moves you make these score zero points
when you ( ) with a sick tile
(7.0)↔((H clicking on various tiles at intervals))
K:→ Hannah I know=
H: =whoops
K:→ Hannah I know how to do it
H:→ >do it< then
(0.4)
H: just call me when you’re ready

Anyhow, I will try to do a little analysis so that I can see what I have here. Any thoughts?

Another door opens

2010-10-12T17:55:00.001-07:00

door
Originally uploaded by angie cat

This week I am finishing of semester 2 teaching and getting ready for semester 3. The latter entails developing an honours subject which is the first of the subjects in the honours program. It will be a lot of work but I'm looking forward to the involvement.

Another door has opened for me recently. I've been asked to be a co-author on a book chapter for a handbook on children's literacy. it will also be a lot of work but I can't wait to start the collaboration with my very experienced and esteemed co-authors. It is such a privilege to be asked.

So, the summer (semester 3) will be devoted to writing two chapters and it will be a good balance. One will require serious engagement with CA analysis and concepts, and the other will require a lot of reading, and thinking and writing about media and children's literacy.

All good.

production machinery

2010-09-29T14:51:00.001-07:00

Brussels
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I've been happily updating my CV this week as a few things have turned over. Following my acceptance for a panel (symposium) at the International Pragmatics conference next year, I've also been invited to contribute a chapter to a book that is being written by panel members. I am very, very excited about this wonderful opportunity and will work hard to make a really strong contribution.

Yesterday I sent off a draft journal article for review. I have sent it to a journal that has published one of my articles previously. It would be good to be published again in the same journal. My writing is definitely getting faster (and clearer). Or, maybe my thinking is definitely getting clearer and so my writing is faster?
So what will I do next? I definitely want to produce a strong abstract for the EM/CA conversation next year. It would be really good to have back-to-back conference papers to give (why go all that way to Europe and pay all that money just for one paper, right?). I am waiting with fingers crossed to hear about AERA (New Orleans, 2011). Successful abstracts will be announced at the end of October and that will give me time to try for another conference if I need to do that. I have in mind a big qualitative research conference in Illinois as a very acceptable alternative.

back to Reader Rabbit

2010-09-20T14:19:00.001-07:00

playing
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I'm now back to working on my draft of what I hope will be a published journal article in the future. I'm looking at helping talk during use of the computer. Some of it looks and sounds a bit like this:

107 H: °Kylie° (0.8)↑oh and Kylie
108 (2.0)
109 H: remembe::r
110 (1.0)
111 H: when you get to::: the mon:th
112 (1.0)
113 H: press go::: ((pointing to screen))
114 (1.0)
115 H: um (0.6) click the ↓do::wn button
116 (0.6)
117 H: and look for the one that looks ↑li::ke (0.4) tha::t
118 (0.4)↔((A pointing to screen))
119 H: okay?
120 (0.6)
121 H: starting
This section of talk occurs during a part in the game of Reader Rabbit where the young child Kylie (4 yrs) is going to have to type in her birthday. Her sister, Hannah (7 yrs) anticipates a problem and gives Kylie instructions for what to do next. It's a nice little section of data consisting of a series of directives for what to do next.

I've completed the analysis and now need to draw out my key points for discussion. That is always challenging for me i.e. taking the analysis where it needs to go. The rest of the article is in good shape and I hope to have it concluded pretty soon. This morning I'm going to work on it from 7-ish until around 9 and hope for a break through.

A big week

2010-09-19T18:45:00.000-07:00

I'm just now recovering from a busy few days. First off, I had a presentation for the staff here on an aspect of my research. I spoke about ethnomethodology and conversation analysis and some of the challenges presented by applying them to the examination of young children's use of computers. the day after I did a presentation for a (very) small group. The presentation was initiated by Christine Edwards-Groves who is keen to get up a local chapter of ALEA.

On Saturday I had some good news. I had recently sent off an abstract for this. Although I haven't published in the area of restricted interactional activities per se, I have certainly examined examples of institutional talk in my PhD. So I thought to have a go for the symposium which is proposed for the International Pragmatics conference in Manchester in 2011.

Anyhow, Fabienne Chevalier got back to me with an acceptance and I was really chuffed about it. I put a lot of time into the abstract and so felt "rewarded" for that effort. Really, however, I am very happy at the prospect of presenting with folk I don't know (yet). After that success, I have decided to put up an abstract for the CA conference which comes back to back with the one in Manchester. Now I will have to think of something very good for that!

Plenty to do.

More intricate words

2010-09-11T17:08:00.001-07:00

saddle bag embroidery
Originally uploaded by angie cat

This morning I've been reading a book by Susan Speer. I've really enjoyed it a lot:
Speer, S. A. (2005). Gender talk: Feminism, discourse and conversation analysis. London, Eng; New York, NY: Routledge.

I've mostly been reading sections that address her take on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. She presents ideas very clearly plus gives some words over to discussion some of the bigger issues and points of disagreement within the approaches. Her comments got me thinking about how to do my own writing more ethnomethodologically (something that I have been toying with lately). This morning's reading has generated some fresh thinking (for me) about how I want to shape up the paper I'm currently working on (Social organization of helping talk during computer use in the home -working title). It was amazing to return to my own writing and see how much I had missed in my analysis to date, and how I might shape up the paper in a richer way.

Something fell into place during the reading of the book (it was a pretty loud noise when the penny dropped). I hadn't made the (now obvious) link between feminist CA work and Garfinkel's ethnomethodologu -it was Agnes!

"One of the earliest studies to shed lght on the situated accomplishment of gender, was conducted by the ethnomethodologist, Harold Garfinkel .... Agnes learnt how to be a woman by studying behaviour and becoming highly attuned to, and aware of, conventions and expectations around gender, and the habitual but typically unnoticed working of social structures. In this sense, Agnes had become a 'practical methodologist' (1967: 180), applying her findings to her own actions. " (pp. 67-69)

Note here: Carolyn Baker suggested to me in the early days of her supervision of my PhD, that the young boy in my study who constantly approached others asking them how to write was like an ethnomethodologist. I didn't get it at the time but I think I do now.

In my own work using EM/CA, I have not addressed many of the complexities of the approaches although I do understand some of the tensions. Speer's work goes deeply into the former. She considers, for example, she considers ontological matters concluding that "ethnomethodology is relativist to the extent that it highlights the work that gives gender dualism its appearance as natural.

Further,
"Many conversation analysts, like the ethnomethodologists discussed in Chapter 3, typically resist the suggestion that their work is constructionist (Wowk forthcoming). However, others (e.g. Buttny 1993; Potter 1996b) have argued that there is a significant constructionist undercurrent in CA. Indeed, in her CA work on male-female laughter, Jefferson (2004) notes that she tends to think of the categories of 'male' and 'female' as something like careers rather than conditions i.e. as constructed rather than biologically intrinsic' (2004: 118, emphasis added)." (p. 91).

Speer goes on to say that she treats CA as "compatible with a constructionist agenda" (p. 91)

Wish I'd said that but I said this

2010-09-09T14:37:00.001-07:00

flowers
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I'm always on the lookout for writing that describes what EM and CA work is about. Today I found some in an article by Pilnick et al., (2009) who provide an overview of the CA work in the field of medical encounters. Here are a couple that I circled as I read:

"In particular, CA notes that in all interaction, people are ongoingly attentive to the talk and visible conduct of their co-participants. Indeed, they rely on each other to make sense of emergent conduct by virtue of what has happened immediately before; that is in light of the sequential context." (p. 788)

So, those familiar with CA will recognise that the ideas here are not new and in fact are central to doing CA, however, the way the ideas are put is particular and specific to the authors on this occasion of its use.

"A related aspect of the collaborative nature of interaction is that actions are typically accomplished via sequences, where one participant initiates a sequence (e.g. asks a question, makes an offer, presents a proposal), making it relevant for the recipient to produce the second part (e.g. to answer the question, accept or decline the offer, agree or disagree with the proposal (Schegloff and Sacks, 1973)." (pp. 788-789)

I liked the sound of "systematic study of medical interactions and detailed specification of recurrent international processes ... " (p. 788)

The article was written to introduce a themed issue in Sociology of Health and Illness. For me, it provides a very good example of how guest editors would do such work. So, there is a long-ish introduction which introduces EM and CA using some of the ideas I have quoted above, and concluding with implications for the application of CA to medical encounters. The article then provides a paragraph that draws out major themes of thirty years of CA work in medical encounters, and then considers key issues addressed in the work such as:
* how patients are able to put their concerns into talk
* "how to direct the doctor's attention toward and away from certain diagnostic possibilities" (p. 789)

The authors then extend the consideration of issues beyond doctor-patient interactions to those encompassing other medical personnel (so, practitioner-patient, including healthcare practitioners). The authors then consider new technologies and healthcare interactions.

After this scene setting, the authors introduce and briefly consider the contributions of each of the articles that form the themed issue.
"The papers that we have selected for this special issue build on the established tradition of applying CA to medical interaction, and many draw heavily on the key themes and findings that we have summarised above. Critically, they advance this work by unpacking some of the distinctive practical problems or institutional dilemmas that arise in different healthcare settings. The authors of these papers also reflect upon the practical relevance of their work, and the ways in which the understandings they present may be used to address these dilemmas. As the title of the collection suggests, the themes of policy, participation and new technologies are at the forefront of the analyses presented here, just as they are at the forefront of many recent developments in healthcare." (pp. 793-794).

I was surprised to see policy etc described as being "at the forefront of the analyses", however, I am also interested by this way of describing and presenting CA work. By that, I mean that I've always shied away from "the bigger picture" aspects that I can't find in the data (even though I might suspect they are there). There were a number of examples in my PhD work for example. The analysis of classroom talk provided a number of illustrations of encounters where interactions might have been influenced by literacy policies, professional development or ideas. However, I struggled over how much could be made in relation to those. For example, I had a number of sequences of talk where the teacher avoided providing specific information when it was was requested by students ("How do you write like?"). The insertion of a question ("What does it start with?") enabled the teacher to direct the student to a way of working out the spelling of the word, without spelling it for him/her by naming the letters. I also noted that a number of older children never asked the teacher how to spell words. Was it possible for me to claim that over time these children had learnt not to ask for the spelling of words? Further, were these interactional encounters linked to policies and understandings about literacy education that sought to promote children's working out of spelling as an aspect of independent activity during writing lessons?

Today, I'm back to thinking about some of those questions -promoted in part by the article I've been reading this morning. I've produced this working (rough) abstract:

Studies have established the restricted interactional activity that occurs during teacher-led lessons in classrooms (Freebody et el., 1995; McHoul, x). However, little attention has been given in conversation analysis to the interactional accomplishment of classroom activities during lessons when children work alone or in small groups. This paper presents an analysis of restricted interactional activity during an independent writing lesson where young children aged between five and seven years of age produced individual written texts. During this time, the children frequently needed help and sought help from others; some children asked the teacher for help. The analysis of these interactions during an independent writing lesson establishes two related interactional dilemmas managed by the teacher and children and illustrates how institutional activity may be constrained by institutional representatives orientations to policies and perspectives, in this case by curriculum guidelines that inform teaching and learning in classrooms.

Initiating help from the teacher presents one interactional dilemma that is managed and mutually resolved by the teacher and children during occurrences: the teacher avoids providing specific information that would help, and the individual children seek other means for working out how to write words they don’t know. The recurrence of these sequences of interaction illustrates one way that the teacher’s activity during independent writing was restrained so that children would learn to solve their own writing problems; that is; they will seek other solutions rather than ask the teacher. Some children never asked the teacher for help or information, although they did ask each other. A second dilemma resulted when the teacher directed what children should do during interactions with each other. When children complied with the teacher’s directive, they systematically withheld information in many of the same ways as the teacher herself did during her helping activity with individuals. Constraining help by not telling produced interactional trouble for the children and resulted in sequences of talk that extended over many turns at talk when providing information by telling would have addressed the trouble in talk.

Discussion considers how the teacher’s orientations restricted the interactional activity of helping and reflected institutional policies about instruction including: learning by working out rather than learning through telling. Although children oriented to restricted activity when directed by the teacher or interacting with her, their other interactions during independent writing establish their practice of telling when not in range of the teacher. It is concluded that interactional encounters with the teacher during independent writing produced interactions and activity that were restricted and produced the practical accomplishment of more extraneous institutional objectives.

back to practical action

2010-08-28T17:01:00.000-07:00

Angie sunday
Originally uploaded by angie cat

For sometime now I've been thinking about trying to orient my analysis more evidently towards ethnomethodology. To this end, I've decided to return first to some reading about ethnomethodology itself. I found a book by Eric Livingstone in the library -Making Sense of Ethnomethodology-and this morning I've been reading through it. it's a good practical read. Here are some of the quotes/expressions that I have liked so far.

"The orderliness of practical action is an omnipresent phenomenon. That orderliness resides in and makes up the everyday activities of the everyday society, whether that activity is standing in line, having a conversation, walking down a crowded corridor, proving a mathematical theorem, or producing and maintaining social distance, body orientation, directed attention and volume of speech during a conversation. The orderliness of practical action also makes up the constraining and moral character of the social order. A person feels these constraints and this morality when she attempts to avoid standing in line by butting or by going directly to a service bay. The morality of the queue permeates the queue." (pp. 12-13)

"Ethnomethodologists study the problem of social order as a production problem" (p. 56)

"Ethnomethodologists see practical action and practical reasoning -the work of producing the observed and accountable orderliness of the social world - as social science's fundamental problem." (p. 56)

"For the ethnomethodologist, the production of social order is both unavoidable and a hopelessly situated, local accomplishment." (p. 57)

"The ethnomethodologist wants to study how the society -or social order - is built from within the building of it.She views the larger structures of the social world as being locally produced and as, in fact, always witnessed and observed locally. She wants to investigate how the always, and only, locally available global structures of practical action are produced and exhibited locally, in situ, as global structures" (p. 58)

"In retrospect, we see that we now have two apparently different definitions of ethnomethodology: one, that is the study of practical action and reasoning; the other that is the study of the production of the social order. The first was presented as the phenomenal domain; the second, as the theoretical perspective. The two are interchangeable. We have seen that the social order is already incorporated in practical action and reasoning ('the work which is needed to get the job done') as the unmotivated work of producing the witnessed, practically accountable orderliness of the social world. And we have seen that the problem of specifying the actual orderliness of the social world involves us in the examination of the work of their production - practical action and reasoning. The heart of ethnomethodology is the discovery and research recommendation that the ways in which the orderliness of practical action are produced and managed are identical with the ways those orderlinesses are made accountable - that they are the things that they accountably are. Ethnomethodology's fundamental phenomenon resides in the inseparability of practical action and its witnessed, produced, accountable orderliness." (p. 18)

Well done!

2010-08-26T14:40:00.001-07:00

Gillian
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Have received news that my friend Gillian has now defended the first full draft of her PhD and received feedback that will enable her to polish off her final draft, ready for examination. This is fantastic news and I can't think of anyone who so richly deserves the rewards that getting a PhD will bring.

forum at CSU

2010-08-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

footy
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Today I will be presenting a session to Faculty of Education staff and students on getting a life after completion of a PhD. I will be drawing on my own experiences to draw out some salient points. Many of these have been captured in this blog over the last five years.

Ballarat
Originally uploaded by angie cat

THE BLOG
EARLY CAREER RESEARCHER PROGRAM
AERA

beef1 008
Originally uploaded by angie cat

LINES OF RESEARCH WORK
SEED GRANT

The summary will include these points:

-not everyone has the same PhD experience
-post PhD can be a flat place but it is also a beginning
-start to bring about the researcher that you want to be
-make everything count –don’t waste anything
-get a rhythm to your research activity and work to keep it

Seriously interesting

2010-07-14T08:30:00.001-07:00

london 010
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I've come to the pub again in order to access the internet and put up my proposal for AERA. To write the proposal I have stayed longer in my student accommodation, spending about eight hours on the writing of it today. The proposal is not as tight as I would like but obviously I am short of time. Once I post this, I will head back to my room, pack my bags and then head for the airport. This journey will take some time -a bus, and then a couple of journeys on the underground. I'm due to fly out of Heathrow at 9.30 so I have some time but I'm not sure how much time. I also have to find out which terminal I leave from.

Meantime, I've been uploading my aera proposal and listening to talk occurring around me in the pub. four Sikh men provided the most entertaining talk - how to please wives and still please each other. mmm

redefining stress

2010-07-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

I'm in the pub again, in order to access the internet to submit a proposal to AERA Proposals are due 15 July but I will be in the air for the next couple of days so needed to submit today. In fact, I needed to write a proposal today - so, I stayed longer in my cheap student accommodation in order to write (for about eight hours today). It cost me a few extra pounds but was worth it - otherwise, I would have been wandering around London town looking for internet access when in fact it is easily accessed at The Fox on the Hill.

I don't like writing quickly and gave always taken a lot of time to develop my proposals for AERA, however, this time I am operating on a desperately short time line. I will have fingers crossed although have done the best I could given a short time line.

Somewhere in South London

2010-07-12T08:45:00.001-07:00

local street
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I'm now in London and staying in student accommodation at King's Hall. It's in the south of London and from what I can see is accommodation for university students who are studying medicine. The room is cheap -$143 for three nights with breakfast included. The room is basic (see below) but is good enough for my purposes. It's quiet and I have been able to do some writing.

Breakfast this morning was a hearty English breakfast - juice, cereal, yoghurt, scrambled eggs, bacon, baked beans, toast, coffee. I could have had some other things, but thought that enough for one meal.

I worked for about three hours after breakfast and then took a break to head into Central London. I took the bus and it was a snip at only two pounds. I wandered around, mostly in Covent Gardens. [Gillian, if you are reading this, there are STREETS of shoe shops there. You must go there when you return to London].
I'm writing this post from a local pub which has free wi-fi. All I had to do was to buy a drink and set up my computer. Within two minutes I had free access to the internet. All hail to this pub -The Fox -because hotels continue to rip off people for access to the internet even when they are paying a lot of money to stay. In our hotel in Germany, for example, internet access was something like $20 per day. Outrageous.

Here is a picture of the pub that supplies free internet.

The Fox
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Out of support for this pub, I am just about to order another glass of wine and a meal (smile). I think I will have Chicken Tikka Masala. Oh, here's a pic of the room I am staying in.

my room
Originally uploaded by angie cat

my room

2010-07-10T11:23:00.001-07:00

my room
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Here is a picture of the building where I am staying. My bedroom is the one nearest the white wall. So, you can see just a bit of one window and the tiny window on the side. It's a lovely room and I've been very productive while staying in it.I've got a very nice desk and an internet connection, so I've been able to do a bit of writing and some analysis each night and in the mornings before the conference starts.

It might appear that I'm a bit driven, but it is really nice to be in a contained and quiet spot and have some time to think and write. Besides, the proposals for AERA are now looming (due 15 July). I have become accustomed to going to America each year for that conference and my writing has certainly been helped by locking into the AERA cycle (which basically occurs over about about nine months of the year - smile). Each year I try to put up more than one proposal to ensure my chances of getting to the conference but this year I haven't written a single proposal yet. So, that's my focus for this evening and the next two days. I've been doing some analysis of new data (that I used today in my workshop presentation at the conference here in Winchester). It will take some work to go from that to a proposal of 2,000 words but I think I can make a good start on that here this evening. It's a pleasant night and my head is clear although I'm pretty tired. Conferences ARE tiring.

And to finish off, here's a picture taken from the front of the student rooms. Gorgeous, no?

student digs
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Up for a fine day in Winchester

2010-07-08T23:59:00.000-07:00

Looks as if it will be a good day in Winchester today:

Winchester weather

I've been working on my presentation this morning by doing some detailed analysis of the segment of the recording that I am going to use. I am also making notes as I do the analysis because I will try to develop a journal article from the presentation, and perhaps a couple of related conference papers about aspects that are emerging. One, for example, might be about transcribing young children's actions during use of the computer. There isn't a lot written about transcription of on-screen activity by young children so that might be a logical follow-up to the article I had published recently here.

When I was in Mannheim, I received notice that I have had an article accepted for publication in the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy. I am absolutely chuffed about this as I have been reading this journal since I started working on my PhD. I admire the work of many people who publish in the journal so I look forward to being in very, very good company.

Thanks Tracey

2010-07-08T11:47:00.001-07:00

eurostar
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Three days ago, I went to the Mannheim railway station to book my ticket back to London via Paris. I had a wait of an hour before it was my turn to get served. When it happened, the ticketing person turned out NOT to speak English. So, I had a further wait. Finally, I got someone who could speak English -Tracey.

Tracey was very good at her job. First of all, she suggested that my intention to go to London via Paris wasn't the cheapest option. She then busied herself and came up with the price for that trip (a lot of Euros) and then a price for a ticket from Mannheim to Brussels and then London (on the Eurostar). The latter journey was about $150 cheaper BUT was first class (smile).

The pic I have posted is the meal I was served on the Eurostar. Yes, champagne was included. I asked for sparking wine but the attendant said that they only had champagne. Okay!

It was a fantastic trip and I'm very grateful to Tracey for putting the suggestion to me.

After arriving in London, I went straight to Waterloo and hopped on a train to Winchester. I'm writing this blog post from my room in the student accommodation at the University. As you can see from the picture below, I have a lovely view from my window. I'll sleep well tonight after a long day of travel and will hopefully be in good form for the start of the conference (United Kingdom Literacy Association conference. I'm presenting a workshop on Saturday and will return to London the next day.

winchester
Originally uploaded by angie cat

from Mannheim

2010-07-07T01:42:00.000-07:00

I'm currently sitting up in a room in the University of Mannheim where the CA conference is being held.I've had a great deal of difficulty using the internet since I left England -today is the first day that I have been able to get online. The wireless is free in this room and I have managed to fix my computer after a few days of trying.

The conference has gone well. This morning we have attended a keynote by Lorenza Mondada. She was a fantastic speaker and did a very detailed job of analysing and describing pointing in meetings. I think that she has done the best job so far of thoroughly addressing multimodality.

I"m not presenting at this conference but it has certainly been worthwhile attending. I have met some new people who are working in the field of conversation analysis and caught up with academics from Australia. In particular, I was pleased to discover that there is a discourse analysis group that runs in Canberra. I spoke to Maurice Neville about joining that group and -in chatting- discovered that he once held a lecturing position at Charles Sturt Uni. It's a small world. After another session yesterday I met Libby who turned out to be an academic of the Albury campus of the uni. It is funny to come so far to meet people who actually live or work so close to me in Australia.

Each evening we have been out to dinner and tried out some of the local cuisine. Last night it was dinner with Gillian (Central Queensland), Maryann Theobald (QUT), Val Williams (Bristol) and Libby (CSU). We had drinks sitting outside a quaint pub in the middle of the city and then a meal after that. I went for liver dumplings and bratwurst. Delicious.

I'm leaving here tomorrow. I've had a slight change of plans. I was going to take the train back to London via Paris. However, a very nice railway ticket seller persuaded me that going via Brussels was a better option. She showed me that there was a substantial difference in the fair because going via Paris is more expensive. So, she saved me around $300, and I will still be travelling first class. I will get to London around midday and then head straight to Winchester. It's a hard life!

willy nilly in London town

2010-07-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

I'm home after my first full day in London. I ALMOST went to Windsor but decided to go with the first bus that came along. The one I got on took me to Terminal Four and from there it was the Piccadilly line into London. It was a good day. I walked around and took in the place. I'm familiar with Central London so today it was a matter of walking around, soaking it up and noting how things have changed since the last visit. So, Charing Cross first off and to some book shops. Then I wandered through Soho and Chinatown. I had some Thai soup for lunch and then made my way down Shaftesbury Avenue and into Piccadilly. By then my feet were starting to blister so I opted for a bus to South Kensington and then the train back to Heathrow.

This evening I am going to get into some work. I need to work some more on my workshop presentation for the United Kingdom Literacy Conference. Here's the abstract:

Examining how digital literacy practices are situated: Young children’s computer use in the home
Young children’s digital literacy practices are integral to contemporary understandings of the changing face of literacy. Children engage in a range of practices including computer activities such as game playing, use of the Internet, and desktop publishing. While we know what young children like to do on the computer, we know rather less about how they do it. This workshop will enable participants to examine how young children accomplish their activity during computer use at home. The workshop examines a recording of two children aged four and seven. Participants will use the recording, and a transcript of it, to examine the children’s interactions with each other while playing a computer game. The specific focus for analysis will be on the ways verbal and non-verbal actions situate their computer activity during turns-at-talk. Questions that will guide analysis are: What aspects of context do the children orient to and use? How does this contribute to the course of their computer activity? Analysis will enrich understandings of digital literacy practices, including how talk indexes prior knowledge and experiences and situates these in the here-and now of digital literacy practices.

I will be using data from by cyberspace project. The recording that I am using is of two young girls from Rockhampton who regularly used the computer together. It is the final recording that I want to analyse and I am looking forward to getting into analysis again. The conference workshop will be interesting. I plan to show a small section of the recording and then work through some analysis with participants. I hope that the workship will enable some interesting insights for participants and also allow me to share some of my ideas and work.

in England

2010-07-01T13:58:00.000-07:00

So, I've arrived at my hotel and I'm exhausted. I've just calculated that I arrived here at the equivalent of 3am Friday morning, Wagga time. So that means that I was travelling for over 36 hours. That is too cruel.

I'm looking forward to a good night's rest and then a day in Central London, or Windsor tomorrow morning. I'll see how I feel when I wake up. I've been for a walk and purchased some milk and Wheetabix (yes, that's the right name -Wheeta). So that is breakfast taken care of. This hotel is right near the airport and I selected it cos it is cheaper than most and because I will be flying to Frankfurt/Mannheim the day after tomorrow so it is easier.

I quite like checking out different places, even if it is the rundown suburb at the airport. So, I've my walk and made a cup of coffee and I should think I will probably be asleep within the hour. btw, the time difference between here and OZ is nine hours. So, it's a little after ten pm here and my computer (Still on Wagga time) says that it is little after 7am.

Anyhow, it is good to have arrived.

Thailand

2010-06-30T17:57:00.000-07:00

Here I am in Bangkok airport. I've been here about two hours and I have another four to go (weep). It's a huge airport and there is plenty of shopping but I'm too tired. I've decided to leave the shops until my return journey when I will be in this airport for twelve hours. I've already decided that I will get a manicure and pedicure because it is around $20 (cheap as chips)and will fill in time.

The first time I was in Bangkok airport was around 1979 and the last time was about ten years ago. It still had an old world air to it but that has gone now. It is all chrome and windows with the usual shops - Gucci, Dior etc etc. There is still a bit of authentic silk to be had - in the form of scarves and cushions-and some Thai food. I think I will have some of the latter a little later in the morning.

Meantime, I have no idea how I an connected to the internet but presume the airport must be wireless. Anyhow, it connected up pretty easily and has enabled me to fill in a bit of time.

The flight over was very good and I think I will try to fly Thai in the future. They serve great food and are also very generous with free alcohol. My usual airline doesn't seem very generous these days.

from melbourne airport

2010-06-30T04:15:00.000-07:00

well, here I am at on the next leg of my journey to London. I left Wagga at 5 o'clock this afternoon and it is now 9.15 pm. I've had a spot to eat, checked in and passed through customs into the inner area.I have approximately 1 hour and 14 minutes to go before boarding. time passes quickly when you're in a herd! I've already done more standing up in line than I care to do.

So here's my agenda for the next 16 days.
1 July arrive heathrom and head to the holiday inn arial (to recover)
3 July fly to Frankfurt and then catch a train to Mannheim (where I will be staying at the Park Inn)
4-7 July I'll be attending the International CA conference at the Unviersity of Mannheim
8 July I'm taking a train back to London and then a train to Winchester
9-11 July I'll attend the United Kingdom Literacy Association conference at the University of Winchester and I am staying in student accommodation there
12 July I head back to London where I will spend three days in student accommodation in South London
14 July - in the evening I head home.

That will be a lot of travel in a short time. Still it should be interesting and just in case it isn't, I have brought plenty of work with me to do. In fact, I've already starting by reading two chapters on a book on Phenomenography while waiting for the check-in line to open this evening. it was actually hard to concentrate - I'd forgotten how delightful Melbourne is (yes, even the airport). Actually, it is the mix of people that I had quite forgotten about. So, I read and did some people watching. The time passed pretty quickly and I am hoping that it passes just as quickly on the flight to Bangkok, and then London.

Can't wait to arrive and go to bed!

Thinking about phenomenology

2010-06-02T16:55:00.001-07:00

This morning I've been reading a book about phenomenology and nursing. It was written by the late Michael Crotty and is a good read. As some of you will know, Garfinkel's development of ethnomethodology was influenced by the work of phenomenologists. So, I'm keen to further my knowledge of that influence.

I've just read a section which considers intentionality - a concept central to mainstream phenomenology (as Crotty refers to it). He quotes Psathas:
"Phenomenology does not divide or separate the knowing subject from the object of study in order to concentrate on one or the other. The world is not filled with objects that have appearances independent of humans who experience them, nor does subjective experience exist independently of the objects, events, and activities experienced. There is no pure subjective subject or pure objective object. Phenomenology recognizes that all consciousness is consciousness of something (where 'thing' is not to be taken to literally mean an existential object). Intentionality is the term used to refer to this relation" (Psathas, 1973, p. 14; cited in Crotty,1996, p. 46)

it's moments like these

2010-05-29T21:34:00.000-07:00

I had a nice surprise today. I needed to write to inform a journal editor that my contact address has changed. I went into the journal to find the address and decided while there to check the latest issue. and there it was - my article on transcribing young children's talk for the purposes of conducting conversation analysis.

Here's the link to my article.

It was such a surprise to see the article given that I was unsure as to when it would be published. I had thought it was going to be last year but these things take time! Anyhow, the editor has done an excellent job because getting the transcripts right is extra important in an article about transcription. For once, I have been surprised by a publication! I want more of that please!

past and present

2010-05-23T01:29:00.001-07:00

footy
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Today I visited Coolamon, the town I always refer to as the place where I grew up. I wasn't born here but moved here in when I was in Year Nine.
I say I grew up here because many of my milestone teenage events occurred here (first boyfriend, first friendship ring, first kiss). This place is special to me although I have rarely returned to it.

I decided yesterday that i was going to visit Coolamon because the football was on today. It's forty five years since I saw Aussie Rules for the first time at Kindra Park in Coolamon. So I thought a visit was fitting and would be good to do. I was right. Watching the game was easy to do, brought back memories and generated some thinking on my part. The Coolamon players looked so young. Then I did my sums and realised that most players were probably around the age of blokes I watched all those years ago, so I put that down to an age thing (smile).

The oddest thing. There was an old guy sitting near me at the game. I'd noticed him because he looked so weathered and down beaten. He walked past me when he went to get a pie, and someone called out his name and asked how he was. Kind of like this "Hey, Shorty, how's it going?". At the mention of his nickname, I knew instantly who he was although got quite a shock - handsome bloke in his mid 20s when I knew (of) him, now ageing man struggling to walk onto the footy field at half time (although determined to do it and he did). That bloke was a young man when I saw him last - fit, handsome, and a bit of a football hero. Today, I saw an old bloke limp heavily onto the field for a chat with the boys. I wonder if he saw me - an old girl sitting by herself near the goal posts at the canteen end of the footy field.

house
Originally uploaded by angie cat

looking back

2010-05-11T13:35:00.000-07:00

I had good intentions to blog my daily doings at AERA but that didn't happen. The conference seemed to go very quickly this year, I suspect in part because my papers were on the Monday and so everything (for me) was leading up to those. They were co-authored papers and so some time prior to Monday was needed for working on powerpoints and the nitty gritty of who was going to say what.

Overall, I think this was my best AERA ever and there were several reasons for that. This year I again completed a workshop. This one was on designing qualitative methods courses/subjects. The workshop went for four hours and was conducted by three experienced academics from the US. Since I designed and wrote a number of courses on research when I was at CQU, I was interested to see how others (including much more experienced others) approached this kind of postgraduate instruction. The session was informative and included a new of opportunities for interaction with the presenters in small groups. The workshop was definitely a highlight of the conference.

I attended a couple of paper sessions from the Doctoral Education SIG and I also attended their annual meeting. From what I can gather, this is a relatively new SIG. It also has a number of OZ academics in it. People are very friendly and enthusiastic about the opportunities that a focus on Doctoral Education provides. I've joined the SIG this year and will do some thing in the near future about how I could develop research which might allow me to present papers in this SIG at future meetings of AERA.

Now to my own sessions. Both co-authored papers focused on transcription. One reported research that examined the use of transcription in PhD thesis in education. This has been a very interesting study and certainly a useful one in relation to my own understandings of "the thesis" and how various methodologies inform doctoral work. More specifically, our paper showed some interesting differences across methodologies in relation to how transcription was reported and how transcripts were used (both in the conduct of research and its reporting).

The second co-authored paper with Dr Robyn Brandenburg was presented at a paper session for the Self-study SIG. The paper examined Robyn's experience of transcription in her own doctoral work - we used the literature on transcription to draw out and examine aspects of Robyn's approach. The actual presentation was interesting (although challenging in some ways). Usually, presentations at this SIG are to small groups so they are as interactive as possible. Robyn and I had therefore planned out session with that in mind. However, the chair of the session decided that it would be better to do a whole group presentation and so this meant that all presenters had to quickly rethink how they were going to do things. For Robyn and me, this meant that we alternated commentary between the two of us. With Robyn sharing her recollections and me chiming in every now and then to make connections to the literature. Our discussion points encompassed the ways that Robyn had actually used transcription as the beginnings of analysis and (importantly) how she had arrived at a definition of transcription that had a good fit with the methodology of self-study. for me, the latter point was the most exciting because it illustrates the way that understandings of transcription can and should align with all aspects of study design, including the methodology that informs the study.

On the last morning of the conference, I attended another self-study session. I was pretty impressed with a couple of the papers. I'm an outsider to the self-study group but I have noticed that there is an increasing interest in developing/extending the approach in certain ways (and I've leave self-study people to articulate what those need to be or might be). Again, the members of this SIG are very welcoming and supportive of each other.

So, that's twice now that I've referred to specific SIGS being 'friendly'. I guess it comes to matter at AERA because it is a big conference and making connections with other folk is important. A number of friends of mine have spoken about their first AERA conference as a lonely and alienating experience. Seeking out a responsive SIG is one way in.

Having said all of that, I still acknowledge participation in AERA as one of the most important steps in getting my publications going. I've thoroughly embraced the cycle of developing the big proposals for the conference(2,000 words), then uploading the final paper some weeks before attendance in order to get feedback from the discussant. and then of course, turning at least one of those papers into a journal article. I like structure and AERA has provided that for me with good outcomes. Along the way, I've connected with some good academics and seen some great parts of the US (San Francisco, Chicago, New York, San Diego, Denver). Now, it's almost time to start thinking about New Orleans or 2011.

from Denver

2010-04-30T16:35:00.001-07:00

This post comes from Denver where I am currently attending the annual AERA conference. I'm sitting up in my hotel room - it's pretty cold and from the window of this room I can see mountains that have snow on them (although they are in the distance).

I always find AERA a pretty demanding conference although try to make the best of the opportunities that being here affords. This arvo I attended a very good presentation on Doctoral Research. I am a new member of the SIG and so will try to attend as many presentations as possible. There seem to be a few Australians who are members and so attending the presentations and the SIG business meeting allows me (perhaps to meet some of those folk). More broadly, I am interested in the experiences of other academics whose teaching (and research) is focused on the doctoral experience.

More mundane things that being at AERA presents? It always has to be coping with jet lag. My first evening was fine because I was so sleep deprived that I slept like a log. Last night (and the second night in the US) was a different story. At 4 am I was still awake. It's an awful feeling and certainly doesn't help concentration during the day. I expect another bout of sleeplessness tonight and then I will be okay.

Denver seems like a pretty nice place. It reminds me a bit of San Diego but that is probably because of the trams and the fewer numbers of highrise buildings. I hadn't realised that it is a mile-high place so some of us have experienced a little shortness of breath. I was glad to find out that cos having a heart attack was my first thought when I experienced it!

on the move

2010-04-27T02:15:00.000-07:00

Today sees me back in Brisbane. I'm heading towards AERA. This conference has become somewhat of an annual event for me. This will be my fifth year in a row and because of the conference I've experienced something of San Francisco (2006), Chicago (2007), New York (2008) and San Diego (2009). The cycle that AERA attendance generates has been a very useful one for me -so far I'm managed to publish something each year as a follow up to the conference.

This year I'm presenting two co-authored papers on transcription. One is with Robyn Brandenburg and is for the self-study SIG and the second is with Teresa Moore and is for the Qualitative Research SIG. I'm looking forward to getting those presentations done, catching up with some folk and seeing a bit of Denver.

I left Wagga early this morning and it took two flights to get to Brisbane. I'm staying at the Royal Albert, an old favourite. I've just had a glass of wine and a vegetarian moussaka in the restaurant that sits under the hotel. it's a warm evening here and it was very pleasant.

Tomorrow I will meet up with Teresa and we will make out way to Denver via LA. on the way we hope to work on our powerpoint presentation. We have only 10 minutes for our talk and then 20 minutes of questions. It's going to be interesting. our paper examined transcription in PhD theses informed by grounded theory, phenomenography, critical discourse analysis and conversation analysis. it was only a pilot study but threw up some interesting findings in relation to how researchers address transcription. I hope others will find it interesting when we present in Denver.

seriously nice glass

2010-03-28T12:35:00.001-07:00

glass2
Originally uploaded by angie cat

My friends Jenny and Warwick have just returned to Wagga after six weeks travelling in Europe. Jenny gave me this lovely little dish which she bought in Venice. It's handmade (blown). Thanks Jen.
The AERA conference in Denver, Colorado is looming and that means that I have to work on the two papers that i will be presenting with my co-authors. Both are on transcription and resulted from my interest in transcription and the review of transcription literature that I published last year. One paper is for the self-study SIG and reports the use of transcription in Robyn Brandenburg's self study. The second paper is with Teresa Moore and reports a small study that we conducted to examine the use of transcription in doctoral research.

Doormen

2010-03-25T18:24:00.000-07:00

I've just been into amazon books to check a reference. While there I took a look at a couple of books that caught my fancy. One of those was:

Bearman, P.(2005). Doormen: Fieldwork encounters and discoveries. London: The University of Chicago Press.

The book begins with these words ...

"Residential doormen can be found in most major cities, but like bagels, they are quintessentially New York. While it surprises New Yorkers, for whom doormen are a critical element of their sense of self and place, no one has thought to study them or the larger social ecology of the lobby, where tenants and doormen meet."

Yes, I'm purchasing the book.

Meanwhile, I am intending to finish the last of my revisions for my journal article. One reviewer commented that the child's talk reminded him of Vygotsky's concept of private speech. I didn't know what I was going to do with that comment (and actually wasn't specifically required to do anything), however, I went back to my analysis and re-examined places to identify where the child could be said to addressing an adult and where talk may have been for himself. This exercise proved to be useful -resulting in some fine tuning of my previous analysis. That's the kind of feedback I like.

back on track

2010-03-14T16:40:00.001-07:00

front yard left side
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I've now been in Wagga Wagga for just over a month. That time has flown and I am now feeling quite settled. I think it took much longer to reach this same "spot" mentally when I moved to Rockhampton because it was such an unknown place to me (think, moving across three states from Ballarat to Rockhampton -that's pretty extreme!).

I've just received a positive response about an article that I submitted to an an early childhood literacy journal. It is probably my favourite piece of writing to date so I am very happy that i only need to make some minor revisions. Having said that, there were four reviewers and so quite a lot of feedback and points that I need to address systematically.

I started today by writing out a list of suggested revisions. As I did this I realised that some points -while different - could be addressed by reworking the same small sections in the draft. That helped to make it more manageable.

Doing revisions is a stage of the journal writing process that i still find challenging. This is mainly because I have "left" the paper once I send it off and usually go on to submerge myself in other data and another focus for writing. In this case, the review has only taken two months so I dont' feel quite so distanced from it. It is important to get onto this paper straight away - hopefully, it might make an issue for 2010. This will be my first article written under the Charles Sturt University "banner".

Screen

2010-03-04T12:51:00.001-08:00

screen
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I've had two main things to address this week. The first was the beginning of teaching for semester 1. My main teaching load is for a first year subject - Language as social practice. While the content is pretty familiar to me, the construction of a good context for teaching is still demanding. Since my administration load at CQU was much heavier than my face-to-face teaching, it has been interesting making a shift to more interaction with students.

The second big task for the week was revising a journal article for publication. This one is for a journal about research and new media technologies. I was pretty chuffed to have my paper accepted subject to "a few amendments". As usual though, even a small amount of revision can be tricky. In my case the single required revision appeared (to me) to be out of kilter with the CA perspective on things. So it was a matter of trying to address the required revision adequately while staying true to the thrust of the article itself. The useful thing about the required revision was that it DID suggest to me that my own take in the article was not clear enough. So, I also went back and tried to draw that out.

It was slow work but is done now.

new place, new plants

2010-02-27T18:11:00.001-08:00

new plants
Originally uploaded by angie cat

This post celebrates my successful transition to Wagga. As you can see from the pic, I've begun setting up a bit of a garden in pots. I had to leave my own plants behind in Rockhampton because my belongings were in a container for a week due to train travel. So, it was highly likely that my plants wouldn't have survived. most went to good homes though (smile).

Of course, new plants are but one part of getting established again. I am happy to report that Angie is now OFF the leash. I always go back to walking her on a leash outside when we move. This time I only had to do it for a week before she was pulling away from me and wanting to do her own thing. I did it for about a month when we moved to Buninyong many years ago but then she was still only a feral kitten and so it was the move and the need to domesticate her that was the challenge. The leash helped outside.

When I left CQUniversity, I had to forfeit quite a lot of research incentive money because it was intended to promote me as a researcher there, right. I was able to purchase some books for my research library however and I was very grateful for that since books are so expensive. I got a few books on CA, an older one on narrative analysis that I have wanted for some time (Catherine Riessman)and Schiffrin's Discourse Markers. I wanted the latter because of my ongoing analysis of the children's digital data that I have. Since it is tricky to get at acquisition of new knowledge, I had figured that words like "oh" and "okay" were important during interactions between kids and between kids and adults when they were using the computer. For example, "oh" can indicate a change of state (for example, now knowing something you didn't know before, or getting something that wasn't clear before). anyhow, the book will be useful to me.

This week I started reading another of the books: it's Johana Rendle-Short's The Academic Presentation: Situated Talk in Action. I'm interested in this cos I recently transcribed (roughly) a recording of an academic presenting a seminar to other academics. It was fascinating and I wouldn't mind going back to it later and doing a proper CA transcript and further analysis.

Here are a few bits that I noted and liked in the first couple of chapters of the book:
"Although the subsequent analysis has limited itself to only examining the talk and nonverbal actions of the presenter, the analysis is not suggesting that the audience is a passive, non-responding group of individuals. Rather, the audience are co-authors to the talk-in-interaction, as demonstrated by the recipient design of the interactional event." (p. 10)

"Seminar talk is not therefore simply a series of written paragraph-like chunks of talk, it is a stream of utterances that are designed to be listened to by a particular audience, within a particular context. As a result, although presenters do talk for a bit, stop, and then talk for a bit more, they are not doing this because they are drawing similarities with written texts, but because they are designing their talk for recipients, and as such are orienting to an internal structure of the talk." (p. 32).

Of course, conversation analysts will seek to show that orientation and how it has consequences for the ensuing talk. Discourse markers are of great interest here as well.

What matters when you move?

2010-01-26T23:42:00.001-08:00

alert
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Moving is a very stressful time. Paramount for me is getting Angie out of one place and into another with as little stress as possible,

pinch me

2010-01-09T13:38:00.001-08:00

wagga backyard
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I'm currently experiencing email problems so decided to let my bit of the world know what's going on by posting my recent news. The picture is of the house I will be living in from 12 February when I make my move to Wagga Wagga. Yes, I'm moving on. The new job at Charles Sturt happened rather quickly and so I am surprised but ecstatic to find myself returning to Wagga Wagga after a long absence. I have a lot of history with the place (smile). For example, forty years ago (!!!!!!) I left home in Coolamon to become a residential student at wagga Teachers College. Thirty years ago this month I left Wagga for the big smoke. So going back after 30 years is going to be very very interesting. I've always loved the title of the novel "You Can't Go Home Again" and I think at a literal level that might be true. However, I'm also pretty sure that in this case the place will have changed a lot in 30 years and I've actually had a lot of homes in my life so maybe I can go back happily and successfully.

My other news as of yesterday ... I received an email from the journal Convergence to say that my article has been accepted for publication. It's titled Click on the Big Red Car: The Social Organization of Playing a Wiggles Game. I'm absolutely over the moon about it. It's a long paper (over 9,000 words)and the analysis is of an entire sequence of game playing by two young children. In a nice co-incidence, the recording was made in Wagga.

new year

2010-01-03T13:47:00.000-08:00

Today marks the beginning of the academic working year at CQU for 2010. Mind you, since much of the documentation for our first term courses are due this week, I suspect that many folk have been working away on them over the holiday break.

February this year marks forty years since I started teachers college (on my 18th birthday). I left home on that day as I needed to live on the campus of Wagga Teachers College. It's a long time ago but my memories of it, and my first night in Kabi (the residential college) are still very vivid.

I like the way that a new year brings feelings of a fresh start and I certainly have some things that I want to do. First there is the last of the recordings from my seed grant to organise. I hope to do some of that in January. I have sent off an abstract to the ukla conference based on that data so I have my fingers crossed that I will get accepted. That would help to get me focused. I have had a good run out of the recordings and certainly feel that I have used the grant to move my publications and profile forward. One of the interesting tangents has been thinking about how to make use of ethno/ca in order to examine digital online doings. That is still a challenge for me and one which I am addressing in the publications that I produce. For example, in my most recent draft journal article I tried to draw out the situatedness of the children's activity because CA is useful for doing that.

There is certainly plenty to keep me busy in 2010.

lizards publication

2009-12-20T14:27:00.000-08:00

I've just had an email to say that my first publication on the digital kidz data is now available at:

English Teaching: Practice and Critique

I'm very,very excited about this particularly because I am in such good company. What a great xmas present.

Do Not Disturb

2009-11-17T19:26:00.000-08:00

I've been mooching along this week trying to decide on my next lot of work. I want to get up a book proposal on transcription so have starting thinking about that. I've had a look around at some of the publishers to get a sense of what is required. I have done some research and publishing around transcription so that is a good beginning point but there needs to be some conceptual work done around it for the purposes of a book. Since I intend the book to be for an education research audience I will probably do an article around transcription in education research to try to situate it in a productive way.

I also need to do some more transcription of data from my kids and computers data so I will start that next week I think. It's a bit daunting starting new analysis because the CA work is always so slow (well for me, at least). Not knowing exactly where something is going to head, or end up, is interesting but also challenging in relation to relating that "thing" to the existing CA work.

Bottom line is that I am feeling pretty tired and "over" the year. However, there is still a month to go before xmas and the official end of the working year so it is time to put head down and get on with something substantial.

Time away

2009-11-12T13:08:00.001-08:00

I'm not sure why I haven't blogged for so long but I had to really think to put in the correct details to get into the blog just now. and I won't try and catch up here on three months of work but just pick up where I left off.

Last Friday was an exciting day because AERA acceptances came out. This year I put in three proposals. In part, that was to ensure that I got to Denver in 2010, but also I figure that if I"m going to an overseas conference I might as well making the going worthwhile. So, I have had to co-authored papers accepted for the conference. Both of them are on transcription:

Brandenburg, R., & Davidson, C. (accepted). Transcribing the unsaid: Finding silence in a self-study. Proposal for Self-Study SIG. Annual Conference of American Educational REsearch Association, 30 April-4 May 2010, Denver,Colorado.

Davidson, C., & Moore, T. (accepted). How transcription is taken for granted: An analysis of transcription in doctoral theses in education. Qualitative Methods SIG. Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, 30 April – 4 May, 2010, Denver, Colarado.

Each of the proposals was around 2,000 words so it is good to get a positive outcome. And two out of three ain't bad.

I've also got two abstracts under consideration for July next year. One is for the CA conference in Mannheim, and the other is for the UKLA one in Winchester. The latter was yesterday's effort. I've proposed a workshop which would make use of some of my digital kidz data. The blurb for the conference said that it shouldn't be too theoretical so I have proposed a workshop that would be driven by two CA-like questions but I did not shape the proposal overall as a CA one. I also plan to write a second abstract for a paper (in keeping with my idea of two for one) but that will be a task for next week.

archaeology of a garden

2009-08-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

This is a very recent picture taken of my garden in Buninyong. The property has been rented out for three years and so the (former) veggie garden appears to be no more. However, if you look very closely at the picture you might notice the following:
a surviving passionfruit vine which is to the left at the back near the fence
a big rosemary bush in the middle garden bed
an apple tree to the extreme left

I woudn't be surprised if closer inspection revealed some veggie plants that have descended from the crops i grew when living there.

It looks overgrown but not too bad for three years. the garden beds used to house all manner of things including: potatoes (lots), spinach (100 plants one season), beetroot (enough to preserve), zucchini (can't they get away on you!), pumpkin, lettuce, tomatoes (more preserving), and of course lot of herbs and chillis.

oh okay

2009-07-25T20:28:00.000-07:00

After a writing frenzy over the last two months, I am now going to turn my hand to some new analysis. Yes, it is time for more conversation analysis and then the article I have promised myself ie a proper CA article. From experience, it takes several months for a new line of work and so I think it will take the rest of the year to produce that. I am going to use the children in cyberspace data and data that i haven't analysed thoroughly yet.

Today I have been looking over the recording and transcript of the children doing the lizard searches. There's such a lot in that. Previously I had completed a kind of rough characterization of the work of each turn in the interaction however i saw different things today. I think that is in part because of having attended the pragmatics conference where I attended a number of CA conferences. Anyhow, my attention was taken by the use of "oh", and "okay" and "oh okay". For example, in the following roughly transcribed section you see examples of these:

[M is a young boy not quite six, L is his mother and R is the researcher (me)]

M: ((looking at R)) it's pretty hard to find some letters
R: do you need a ↑help
(1.0)
M: yes
R: what are you looking for
(1.0)
M: 'r'
R: this
(2.0)
M: u::::::m
(3.0)
M: I definitely know where that is (2.0) 'e' again
((typing and looking at keyboard))
(8.0)
M: 'n' errr
(24.0)
M: okay what's the:::r letter that faces that way okay?
(1.0)
R: ['b'
M: [that ?
M: ((types))oh yeah
(3.0)
M: oops (2.0) I need to clear one out
R: can you do that?
M: I need to do a space
R: do you know how to do it
(1.0)
M: nuh
R: oh
L: ooh what don't you know how to do darl?
M: ((pointing))um:::: clea::r that letter out
(0.6)
L: that one (0.2) it's this one remember (0.6) is that the one
M: because I need to leave a space
(0.4)
L: oh (0.2) oh okay (0.2) yeah that bar which the- which one are you trying to:: to spell in
M: that one (0.4) °'b'°
L: okay so it's green that's right and that's the space (0.4)and then you do the next letter
(9.0)
M: ↑uh ↓oh
(3.0)
L: °now that°
(16.0)

So, okay is used in interesting ways here. I may make it the focus for my analysis and have started doing some reading. Schegloff has this to say:

"As "oh" can serve a possible closure to a sequence in which informing and information figure centrally, then so can "okay" and its variants serve for sequences in which various other actions .. figure centrally. AS we shall soon see, many sequences feature both of these characteristics, and parties oriented to closure in third position in such sequences may then deploy combinations of these closing "moves"" (2007, p. 123)

Schegloff's use of 'informing' and 'information' sparked my thinking since these seem central to many aspects of the children's use of computers as suggested in the transcript above.

I did a search and came up with the following which provides some excellent leads for further reading:

Same token different actions

okay!

To melbourne and back

2009-07-19T00:26:00.000-07:00

I've had a busy week at the International Pragramatics Association conference in Melbourne. It was a great conference i.e. good papers, great venue (University of Melbourne), fantastic accommodation (a two-bedroom unit just 30 metres from Lygon Street that I shared with my friend and fellow conversation analyst Gillian Busch), a catchup with other friends and colleagues including my friend Kathy Roulston from the University of Georgia) AND a visit to Ballarat to see my current writing partner and friend Robyn Brandenburg and to check out my dearly beloved house in Buninyong (just near Ballarat university).

So, it was a full week and a fantastic time. There is something to be said for smallish conferences and a tight focus (in the case of this conference there were a number of conversation analysts presenting and that was very very good for making connections and for thinking more about the method/methodology).

My preparation for the conference was seriously hampered by a writing agenda over the last few months that has seen me criss cross between various bits of research (transcription, children and cyberspace and independent writing). It hasn't been the best way to work although I am pretty happy with the results (two journal articles and two conference papers for the first half of the year). I also have developed a number of draft journal articles and conference proposals that are on the go, including two for AERA for 2010. so i've been busy but all over the place and it took its toll on my leadup to the pragmatics conference.

Over the next six months I want to work on the production of a good CA paper. I will use my kidz and cyberspace data but channel my energies into getting on top of an aspect of CA analysis that emerges from my analysis of data that i haven't yet analysed. I've been working for two years to establish a core of publications and I've done that although the papers aren't all CA focused but instead addressed to a readership that encompasses literacy (so papers that draw on the application of CA to inform literacy). So now I would like to get back to CA focused work.

My focus for the next few months will be to analyse the rest of the kidz and cyberspace data, write a CA paper and develop a conference proposal for the CA conference in Mannheim in July 2010. that should keep me busy and in a tightly focused way. let's see what pans out (smile).

check it out!

2009-07-09T15:48:00.001-07:00

Transcription

Theory as tool

2009-06-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

I'm frequently thinking about theory and its uses in research and now and then I come across examples of theory put to 'good use'. I found one yesterday.

Hassett, D. (2006). Technological difficulties: A theoretical frame for understanding the non-relativistic permanence of traditional print literacy in elementary education. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38(2), 135-159.

What Hassett does in the article is to use Foucault's notion of 'technologies' to explore "how it is possible that early-literacy programming maintains traditional print literacy as the primary focus of instruction in an age of multiple literacies and multi-modal forms of communication." (p. 136)

In her examination, Hassett examines the 'literacy myth', Clay's concepts about print, shared writing and independence as an aspect of literacy instruction. I loved the last two. By coincidence, I have previously tried to address aspects of early writing instruction currently said to provide scaffolding for learning. I never quite pulled it off (don't think I was using the right tools), however, Hassett does using theory. For example, she examines shared writing and points out how teacher construction of texts in conjuntion with students is likely to produce written texts that are strongly located in print-based notions of writing (so linear, left-right placement and so on).

Even better was her examination of independence as a construct in early literacy education. It's too length to quote but here is a snippet from the argument:

"If the learning environment and the training have been done 'correctly', the individual functions in self-motivated and self-regulated ways -with high self-esteem and a sense of self-worth for jobs well done. if an individual is not using the well-appointed, print-rich classroom, not a problem of pedagogy, not a problem of the curriculum content, not a problem of the training, but a problem of the individual. Given that the classroom and routines are structured in such a way that students are to feel secure, happy, and motivated, then, from the beginning of the school year on, the expectation is that individuals ill be enthusiastic about being an individual who is learning in the classroom. Those who aren't have 'problems'! (p. 152)

Anyhow, anyone who is interested in thinking outside the current literacy regime would find this article a very, very good read.

Reading

2009-06-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

Recently, I had the luxury of purchasing a lot of books from amazon using some consultancy money. One that I am enjoying is an edited collection by Hester and Francis on 'respecifying sociological knowledge'. Last night I was re-reading the first chapter (written by the authors)which forms an introudction. Here's a bit that i really liked and try to keep in my head,

"... the general thrust of Garfinkel's argument is exemplified by his remarks on the use of the 'first rendering theorem' and so we will comment briefly on this. Thus by, 'the first rendering theorem' Garfinkel refers to the practice amongst social scientists of transforming ordinary actions into analytic objects, or more precisely, instances of theoretical phenomenona. The process of transformation is premised on the position that there is 'no order in the plenum'. In other words, ordinary 'concrete' social life can only properly be understood by being transformed into analytical objects since only the latter enable orderliness to be displayed. In this transformation, the original orderliness of the phenomena, as it was produced by the parties to it such that it was intelligible as the phenomenon it was, is lost from view." (Hester and Francis, 2007, p. 8)

So, you see why I can't keep it in my head. At the same time, the idea is the core of ethnomethodological work so I need to.

beefing things up

2009-06-09T18:35:00.001-07:00

beef1 005
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Here is another pic that i took during Beef week. I loved the way the owners had set up a living area and then placed their cattle in it. How calm are they btw?

I'm into escalated writing at the moment. I've just been working on an article with my friend Robyn Brandenburg. It is another article about transcription but drawing on Robyn's experiences of it during her phD. The tentative title is:

Transcribing the unsaid: Finding silence in a self-study.

We are also hoping to develop a conference proposal out of it for AERA in 2010. I will also be working on another proposal for AERA and will use my kids in cyberspace project for that. Probably I will use more of the lizards transcript and recording.

Most importantly, I need to get into writing my symposium paper for the pragmatics conference in 12-17 July. That paper will take me back to my PhD work and hopefully I will get a proper CA paper out of it. I'm giving myself a month to do the paper and will definitely need all of that. It will coincide with getting ready for term 2 so things are going to be hectic.

Last week marked three years in Rockhampton for me. What can I say?

beef1 003
Originally uploaded by angie cat

At last

2009-05-23T17:15:00.001-07:00

journal
Originally uploaded by angie cat

This journal arrived on Friday. I was pretty happy - it has taken almost two years to get my article published in it. I made things a bit interesting by selecting a journal that only takes 9-15% of articles submitted.

Meanwhile, I've been busy doing marking. I've got a few more days of it to go but then it will be time to turn my hand to writing a conference paper for the pragmatics conference in Melbourne. For that I will be returning to my PhD analysis and examining some (as yet unpublished)sequences where help was accomplished by children.

beautiful

2009-05-15T20:35:00.001-07:00

beef1 007
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Last week I had the pleasure of attending Beef Week in Rockhampton which is held at the show ground. While the displays are extensive, I was mostly taken by the actually displays of cattle. This pic captures some of the best of it - cattle (beef) lying in close enclosures but appearing to be at peace.

swanning around

2009-04-28T15:57:00.001-07:00

swan
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I've been back in Australia for seven days now and finding it a little hard to settle back into solid work i.e. writing. Today I am going to start on the revisions for my journal article on transcription. Presenting the paper on transcription at AERA has helped me clarify some of my thinking and notice some taken-for-granteds in my work so far. For example, I realised that a lot of the literature in the last decade has been produced by researchers from the US. Once realised, this surprised me. I am going to check British-based journals today to see what i can turn up. Meanwhile, my article on school literacy will be published this week in the Journal of Classroom Interaction.

San Diego conference

2009-04-17T07:48:00.001-07:00

new room
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Here is the view from the room I've been staying in for the conference in San Diego. Great view, no? SD is a great place and it has certainly been fun having the time here. I presented my paper Thursday morning at 8.15. I think it is always a bit stressful when the paper isn't presented until the dying days of the conference - it kind of weighs. Still, the session I was in went well. There were three other speakers who were addressing aspects of interview in qualitative inquiry. My paper was on transcription. The third speaker was an old friend from PhD days. Kathy (Roulston) is now an academic at the University of Georgia, Athens. We caught up afterwards and managed to talk for several hours over coffee. Since Kathy was also supervised by Carolyn Baker and does CA and MCA, we had a lot to talk about.

Oh, btw the paper was well received. The discussant said some kind things and a few people came up afterwards wanting a copy of the paper. I think my instinct about transcription has been a good one - there is plenty to be said and written about it from the perspective of qualitative research.

There have been a number of highlights for me at the conference. One was meeting Gordon Wells. I have long admired Gordon's work, particularly The Meaning Makers, the book he wrote about young children's talk at home and school. Another was hearing Eisner share his thoughts on his past work in the session "If i knew then what i know now". Eisner's words were very touching and reminded that conferences should be places where you think and share, rather than just present.

long time no blog

2009-03-28T12:40:00.001-07:00

jewels
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I haven't blogged for some time but I have been doing a lot of other writing. It's that time of the year -AERA time - and this year I am heading to San Diego for the conference and three days of R and R. So, a paper had to be written. This year I am presenting a paper on transcription. Actually, it's a literature review of transcription and a discussion about qualitative research and transcription. It has been some time since I did the review so writing the paper meant dropping other things and getting my head back into the transcription space. It's done now.

One of the things I dropped temporarily was a journal article about children's game playing. I'm hoping to finish that today and send it off to Convergence.This journal takes longer articles and mine is about 9,000 words. I have analysed the playing of an entire Wiggles computer game and I am hoping not to have to cut out sections in order to get it published.

For about eighteen months I've had my eye on this journal and this issue. With themed issues like this, the editors request that you send off an abstract and if accepted then you go ahead and write the article. So that is what I did. I am going to use some of the lizards analysis because I think that the children's use of texts (online and in an information book) can be developed into some nice points about the teaching of English in the early years of schooling. Actually, I've written about three quarters of the paper including all the analysis section which contains four segments of transcript that I will use. It's great working with post PhD data although CA work is labour intensive.

When I return from San Diego I will need to shift into another gear for
this conference. I'm looking forward to this one because it is in Melbourne (smile) and I will be presenting as part of a symposium.

Davidson, C. (paper accepted). Accomplishing help: The social organization of children's activity during a writing lesson. Symposium presentation for 11th International Pragmatics Conference, 12-17 July 2009, Melbourne.

Gillian Busch, another conversation analyst from cqu, will also be presenting in the symposium. Gillian will be drawing on her analysis of family mealtime talk and interaction. The symposium is going to be fun because it will draw together a number of other analysts who focus on young children's talk and interaction.

Some more analysis also has to be done. I still have about an hour's interaction to analyse from the At Home in Cyberspace project. I have word only transcripts but will need to develop more detailed transcripts using Transana, and then begin the analysis. I have some ideas about the analysis as I have watched the recordings numerous times. I will probably analyse some entire sequences and then I would like to focus on one aspect of talk that runs across all the data. If i can do that, I would try for the level of analysis that might allow me to publish in a CA journal. I'd be very happy with my work if I could do that.

So ... all of the above should keep me busy for the next couple of months.

What is dat?

2009-02-12T19:22:00.001-08:00

my pets_59
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Recently I have been transcribing and analysing young children's talk about lizards. This occurred while they were using the computer in their home. Today I found the picture/image that the children were talking about at one point in the recording. I have copied it from the website and wish to acknowledge that I did not take the picture/make the original image. The address of the site is:
http://www.mypets.net.au/flex/articles/59/lizards.cfm

Below is an excerpt from the transcript where the talk about the image begins. Here is the way I've noted speakers:

L is the younger child who was 2 years 11 months at the time of recording
D is the Dad
M is the M
R is the researcher (me)
W is the older brother

What I haven't noted in the transcript (so far) is that the cursor (produced by the mouse) is used by the younger child to point to lizards that he is talking about.

(5.0) ((L clicks on a picture on the wikipedia screen)
L: what is dat?
((enlarged image appears on the screen))
R: wo::w
L: hey
(1.0)
M: oo:::h
(2.0)
L: what's dat one
D: I can see some we know don't we (.) can't we there Will
L: he::y (0.4)look
D: who’s that
(0.4)
W: frill neck
(0.2)
L: fri::ll neck
(0.6)
D: who’s that [spikey
L: [hey
D: whose that [spikey one
L: [a diney devil
D: well done
L: diney devil
(0.2)
D: good boy
L: hey a plying lizard
D: he sure is
(2.0)
W: I know that one ((pointing))the one (0.2)that one
D: do you know that one what's it called (0.4)°I've never seen him before°
W: that one's the running on top of the water lizard
D: ↑o::::h is [it
W: [he runs on top of the water
D: °oh yeah°
L: what's that one called ↑Da::d ((pointing))what is dat one called
(0.4)
D: I don't know either
W: that's the flying gecko:::
M: sit on your seat mate
W: a::nd
L: ( ) Dad
W: I::: need to (tell you something)
D: it's a shame because [you can't see that one
L: [(amealilen )
D: what's that?
(0.2)
L: amealilen
D: chamealeon isn't it
L: [yes
D: [yeah that's right [sure is
L: [↑he::y
(1.0)
M: sit on=
L: =what's dat one called
D: I'm not sure=
L: =skin lizard
D: is it like a::h (0.4)some sort of dragon?,
(0.4)
L: yea::h (0.2) or plying lizard
(0.6)
D: a::w I think that other one's a flying lizard (0.4) flying gecko
(3.0)
L: no dat is dat one eider
W: Dad
D: no
(0.4)
W: °go go go go go°
L: hey it's a ↑gink
(0.4)
D: some sort of skink do you think?
(0.2)
L: yeah [maybe
D: [o::h it could be too
L: it's a [gink lizard
D: [could be (0.4) could be a skink lizard
(0.4)
L: °yeah°

Fantastic data to analyse and I'm having a lot of fun doing it.

dogged

2009-01-31T13:09:00.000-08:00

So, if I am going to get some more publications up for the year, it is important that I get working fast. Since I am analysing new data I will have to work hard on the transcription and the analysis.

Today I am working on a new transcript. Here is some of the talk that occurred between a father and his young son (aged 2 yrs 11 months) as the boy looked at a Wikipedia site on lizards:

D: I wonder if that's that's the giant cave gekko
(0.8)
L: maybe he's a modo dagon
(0.6)
D: komodo dragon you ↑think
(0.6)
L: maybe he's a special lizard
D: who a special lizard (0.4) a special [green one
L: [yeah
D: he's a pretty one isn't he
(0.2)
L: yea::h maybe he's (0.8) a green one
D: green ↑one (0.4) ↑yep ((nodding head))

It's great interaction and I'm enjoying the work.

the year of writing carefully

2009-01-28T19:43:00.000-08:00

This week I've returned to office work after several weeks of leave. In some ways it was good to get back to the schedule of the working day because i have a lot of things to finish.

Most importantly, I've had three journal articles accepted for publication since December and two of those since my return from the trip down south.

So, the state-of-play is:

an article for the Journal of Classroom Interaction (in press)
an article for the Journal of Early Childhood Research (accepted and have made corrections)
an article for the International Journal of Qualitative Methods (accepted pending revisions)

I blinked over the latest and last one in the list because it is my review of transcription literature. So, I have some work to do but it was absolutely thrilling to receive the feedback which acknowledged this "important area" of qualitative research. The timing is also useful because it means that I will be working on the revisions at the same time as I am writing the paper for AERA around the same topic.

Meanwhile, I have in mind to publish an article in a literacy journal this year and that will be using data from my cyberspace project (young children using the internet). I will focus on two children's use of google searches and wikipedia.The younger child was 2 years 11 months at the time of recording.

from Peter to Patience

2009-01-18T22:52:00.000-08:00

As the posts below this one detail, I've spent the weekend translating a braille message. It was on the front of a card that my grandfather sent or gave to my grandmother around 1915 or 1916. Here you will see the pic of my grandfather that was in the card, a pic of the braille message that he wrote on the card, my "translation" of the braille message(thanks to the help of Wikipedia) and a picture of my grandmother taken around the same time.

grandfather0833
Originally uploaded by angie cat

May every blessing life can know
inbold the newborn year
leave not a vacant hour for woe
nor cause to shed a tear
except it be thy will to weep
for joy

Grandma
Originally uploaded by angie cat

wower

2009-01-18T00:07:00.000-08:00

bloody hell, I'm excited now because i just figured out some words using the contraction search. it's brilliant.!! vact h-- vacant hour!!!!!

May every blessing life can -
inbold the newborn year
leave not a vacant hour for woe
nor cause to show a tear
except it be thy will to weep
for joy

So .. what would be the missing symbol in the first line.

I've made a guess, keyed it into the contraction program and i am right. marvellous really -know. the missing word in the first line is know.

May every blessing life can know
inbold the newborn year
leave not a vacant hour for woe
nor cause to shed a tear
except it be thy will to weep
for joy

And there we have it, the message on the card that Peter wrote in braille to Patience from Broken Hill at xmas around 1915 or 1916.

peter
Originally uploaded by angie cat

wow!

2009-01-17T23:13:00.000-08:00

continuing the saga of the card message in the post below - I found a site that translates words into contractions. So it allows you to put in a word and it gives the braille symbol or word. in the verse on the card i made a guess at some missing words that i could figure out. for example in one line i had previously:

be thy _ to weep

I guessed that the missing word was 'will' so I typed in the word and up came the symbol and yes i was right -the card reads 'be they will to weep'. I also guessed 'not and was right on that.

now the best bit. remember there was a symbol that had all the dots filled in, and i thought it represented italics or emphasis:
..
..
..

I wrote in the word 'for' and up came the braille word for it:
..
..
..

So a guess was right for that.

I now have:
except - be thy will to weep for joy.

I think that - in this case is 'it' and so will try that out next.

Drum roll, and yes...
so the last two lines of the poem read

except it be they will to weep for joy

All up I now have this:

May every blessing life can -
inbold the newborn year
leave not a vact for woe
nor cause to show a tear
except it be thy will to weep for joy

That's so much clearer, except for 'vact' and i don't have any ideas about that right now.

Why this now?

2009-01-16T19:20:00.000-08:00

This pic is from the front of a card that I have. It was sent or given to my grandmother (Patience)by my grandfather (Peter). I am guessing that it was written around 1915 or 1916. I've had the card for years but, being in holiday mode, I decided to take a closer look at it today. The message on the front is written in Braille which I don't happen to read but my grandmother did because she was blind.

A wikipedia search using the word braille gave me the alphabet and I have been busy translating the dots into words. first off though i had to discover the right way to read the page because it wasn't obvious which was top and bottom of the page. Once that was done I was able to start to pick out words. The last word on the left hand side of the pic has three letters and it spells out 'joy'. Other words I've found are 'bless' and 'newborn'. These three words were easy. Others didn't make sense and seemed not to be spelled correctly. I read more on the wikipedia page and it seems that braille uses contractions or a kind of shorthand way of writing that people develop for their use - a bit like texting.

Previously, I'd assumed that it was a commercial card because it does have
"Christmas greetings from Broken Hill" written on it, very faintly,in small gold lettering. now i think that it also has a personal message that was written by my grandfather in Braille. it's an interesting puzzle that i'm going to work on by attempting to translate the entire message. This will mean getting a handle on the contractions used, not just replacing dots with letters of the alphabet.

I am keeping in mind that my grandfather wrote poetry and so i am expecting a rhyme or two. this has helped. I also have in mind that maybe he wasn't perfect at writing braille. this is what i have so far with gaps representing what i can't get yet:

may ev-y bless- life c -
--brl d - newborn year
leave in a vact h-r woe
nor cause to shed a tear
except - be thy w- to weep
- joy

It's an intersting puzzle. while some of the gaps seem obvious -such as in 'ev-y' i can't see the dots that represent the letter i expect to make 'every'. So, either i am missing a shorthand way of recording something, or (perhaps) my grandfather was only learning braille at the time and got it wrong. the latter explanation is appealing since i reckon that he would have only just met my grandmother at the time of writing.

may ev-y bless- life- -
inbeld - newborn year

that's better. of course, I may also hve to take into consideration my grandfather's accent when spelling words since he was fresh from Scotland when he wrote this card. hmmm

okay i think i've found a contraction. In the first line there is just the letter 'c' sitting alone. if i take that as standing for a word, then the first line reads:

may every bless- life see -
inbold - newborn year
leave in a vact hrr - woe
nor cause to shed a tear
except - be thy w to weep
- joy

I've got a couple of gaps that i can't figure out and they look like this (except smaller):
..
..
..
I think they might represent italics or some other form of emphasis because they occur before woe and before joy.

I've still a way to go but have made good progress, no?

fruition

2009-01-09T21:04:00.000-08:00

Getting back into work mode after the xmas and new year break isn't easy, is it? My transition into work mode was helped by opening up my work emails and finding an acceptance for a journal article. I was over the moon (as usual) and even more so when i found that i only have to check copy editing corrections. This article was submitted to the Journal of Early Childhood Research and is the first one that I wrote about transcription. At the time of submission (see my blog post of April 2008) I was pretty happy with the article, especially because of feedback that friends provided. I thought it the best work I've done so far in relation to journal writing. And, I am especially thrilled to produce something about transcription according to the writing "program" that i set myself at the end of 2007 i.e. to write a series of three articles about transcription.

In a number of ways, 2008 didn't feel so productive because I didn't publish much, however at the time I put that down to dealing with new data (in the case of the At Home in Cyberspace project)and to the time it took to complete a review of transcription literature from 1979-2009. I am hopeful that I will see the fruits of that labour in 2009.

The slow crawl towards having a good publication record has taught/is teaching me a lot. Most especially, I have seen how important it is to keep writing, even when teaching during term, given the time it takes to produce an article and get it accepted. I've tried to stick to doing writing every morning and delaying opening work emails and dealing to other matters that are pressing until I've written. Writing comes first and then the rest.

I'm not ashamed to say that writing journal articles hasn't come easily to me but I am pleased to say that it is getting easier. In some ways, writing and getting published has kept me in the game at a time when higher education work can be dire. Setting personal goals has worked a treat in relation to that. My writing on transcription has really come out of a desire to make a contribution to research in relation to transcription and was driven by a lot of questions that my PhD work provoked in relation to transcribing multi-party talk in the classroom. I could have let it go but the more I read about transcription, the more I realised that i did have something worthwhile to say. And, saying something worthwhile seems to me to be the only tenable game in town if I'm to continue as an academic in difficult times.

So, I've returned to some good news and a need to write some more. I have to finish the Wiggles paper, and I need to analyse some more data to write some more. I've been doing some reading which also helps to inspire. Today i've been reading some chapters from:

Hutchby, I., and Moran-Ellis, J. (Eds.). (2001). Children, technology and culture: The impacts of technologies in children's everyday lives. London; New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

It's a great book and I've particularly enjoyed a couple of chapters:

Robinson, I., and Delahooke, A. (2001). Fabricating friendships: The ordinariness of agency in the social use of an everyday medical technology in the social lives of children. In I. Hutchby and J. Moran-Ellis (Eds.), Children, technology and culture: The impacts of technologies in children's everyday lives (pp. 81-96). London; New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

Hemmings, T. A., Clarke, K. M., Francis, D., Marr, L., and Randall, D. (2001). Situated knowledge and virtual education: Some real problems with the concept of learning and interactive technology. In I. Hutchby and J. Moran-Ellis (Eds.), Children, technology and culture: The impacts of technologies in children's everyday lives (pp. 97-113). London; New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

The second article was particular illuminating for its consideration of children's interactions with technology designed for learning (in a museum). I made connections between the article and my own work on the Wiggles game, whereby (1) a relatively simple game (in adult terms or those of more competent gamers)is occasioned as complex when used in the home by a child or children, and (2) the educational value designed into a game is not necessarily taken up in its use.

Plenty to bring to fruition in my work in 2009!

what! me?

2009-01-06T21:51:00.000-08:00

I don't often post pics of myself but I thought this one was worthy of an airing. here I am in 1975, hanging out (as you did then) with my guitar. it's a great period piece, no? the pic was taken by a friend (Robyn Donaghue) who did a series of black and white pics of me for a uni assignment. I'd quite forgotten this particular photo which my sister had and produced on my recent visit over xmas. Anyone who plays a guitar will note that i'm in C major chord position, and most folk who were young around the same time will recognise the trappings of the time.

My sister also gave me another pic. This one is of my grandmother, Patience Davidson. Patience lost her eyesight shortly after birth. I figure that Patience was in her early twenties when this pic was taken, so she was around the same age as I was in the pic above.

I find this pic interesting, most particularly because my grandmother read braille through her finger tips yet is posed as if she is looking at the book (without her hands on the page which was necessary for reading).

both pics are now period pieces i think.

the summer of Clayton Stewart

2008-12-14T20:40:00.000-08:00

I was talking to my mother on the phone recently and she happened to mention someone from the past who was ill. The conversation sent me spiralling back into 1968 and the summer I met Clayton Stewart. Now that name is a pseudonym used by the person in a column he wrote for the local rag about basketball games.

Now when I met Clayton (he asked me to go for a milkshake after a basketball game) I'd never known anyone before who had a pseudonym nor had I ever met anyone quite like Clayton Stewart. That summer -when I met and got to know Clayton Stewart - sticks in the mind as only a summer can when you are going on 17 and meet someone quite different in a small country town. He seemed a lot older then than me and my friends, and my sister, but was really just 22. Clayton Stewart had been to university (for a short stint), had lots of girl friends, and was into rock 'n' roll. He had records and talked a lot about Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. He was very good looking and funny and drove a mini minor. I remember seeing him drive down the road on the side of my house one day with his whippet and afghan hound on a leash running beside the car. Many weekends that summer we would be at the Coolamon pool and Clayton would arrive and sit with us. He would tease us, and listen to us, and swim in the pool, bobbing up like a crocodile to surprise one of us. Clayton Stewart was a girl's dream and we met and got to know him that summer - me, my sister and our friends (let's see if i can remember, Joy, Jean, Janice, Gail, Helen). The summer of '68 really was the summer of Clayton Stewart.

Last year I went back to Coolamon with my sister for the day. It was memorable to walk the main street although things had changed. We took a coffee break and sat outside the coffee shop and talked. Suddenly my sister said "There he is", and Clayton Stewart appeared. He said, "I'll just get a coffee" and did that. He came out to the table, sat down and said "Sorry I'm late". And there we had it, the delicious humour and presence of Clayton Stewart after almost forty years. Some people just have it, don't they.

So, when Mum said on the phone last week that Clayton was sick it hit me like a hammer. Can't be true, I thought because Clayton and that summer are as integral to my own presence in life as anything i know. I don't keep in contact, as you don't with a boy with a pseudonym that made a summer a glorious time so long ago, but i found myself wishing and hoping that Clayton Stewart will rise again.

Clayton loved a particular song tht belonged to his time in Sydney as a uni student and it went like this:
I walk along the city streets you used to walk along with me
and every step I take recalls how much in love we used to be
Well, how can I forget you girl?
When there is always something there to remind me,
always something there to remind me

great song, great summer ...

tangent

2008-11-25T13:52:00.000-08:00

My friend Gillian Busch is midway through her study of families and mealtimes. She has been doing some very fine-grained analysis of her fascinating data. So, I thought of her study when when I came across some papers by Eric Laurier on his website. They are beautifully written and a number encompass the cafe. Last night i was reading one called Drinking up endings; Conversational resources of the cafe. Here's a sample:
"... we have seen then through a detailed description of one cafe visit ending how the very fact of drinking, rather than what substance people are drinking, eases the conversation along. In particular here we have seen how the last sips are involved in the last remarks on a converssation on a particular topic. There is no mechanical determinancy here as we have seen how one potential ending of both drinks and topic can be artfully extended by conversationalists. Alongside this it has hopefully become apparent how the movements and objects that accompany drinking become resources in talking together." (p. 14)

actually

2008-11-22T19:43:00.000-08:00

My data had this interesting use of 'actually':
125 C: we're rea↑dy (0.2) can you help us get to the toy shop (0.2)
126 so we can buy some new juggling balls for ↑Hen↓ry
127 M: actually (0.4) can I just do it ((M lifts H's fingers off the mouse))

While searching today, I found a CA article about 'actually'.

Clift, R. (2001). Meaning in interaction: The case of actually. Language, 7 (7)

In writing about topic and actually she says:
"In all these cases, then, a topic is reopened by a speaker with an actually -prefaced turn AFTER that same speaker has initiated the closing down of that topic. Placed thus, actually is heard as registering a change of mind, undoing the committment expressed in the speaker's previous turn; the placement of actually turn-initially serves to link the speaker's prior and current turns, projecting back to the prior and offers the alternative version in the current turn." (pp. 267-268)

I looked back in my data and found M's prior turn. It was:
115 M: I'm not helping him

That's pretty interesting, and I'm going to have to go back to my analysis and think about. Previously, I had M's use of 'actually' as responding to the computer's talk (line 125), but my reading today puts a different take on it.

The author goes on to say:
"Note, too, that it does not attempt to repair the prior turn. repair serves to alter in some way a turn in progress or just delivered. yet such an option (in the form of, say, 'I mean + reformulation') is simply not possible in the environemnts cited here, because the actually-marked turn is in complete contrast to the speaker's previous turn. Nothing of the previous turn can be salvaged or amended; turn initial actually thus serves to make this reversal. Indeed, turn -initial actually can serve to display a revision of a prior stance even when that stance is not explicitly formulated." (p. 268)

woo hoo

2008-11-17T15:10:00.000-08:00

I've just received news that my article has been accepted by the Journal of Classroom Interaction. I have some minor revisions to make but otherwise it's a goer. I'm very happy.

The history of the article:
-written as an AERA proposal in August 2006 -based on a chapter from my PhD but considerably reworked
-paper accepted (November 2006)and presented at an AERA roundtable in April 2007
-turned into a journal article with more reworking and sent off to the journal December 2007
-notified of its acceptance for publication in November 2008
-probably published 2009 I would think

No wonder I get excited (smile)- all that work to come to fruition in the form of a journal article.

a team effort

2008-11-13T20:38:00.001-08:00

by my side1
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I've had two weeks of frenzied activity completing this and that. Luckily, Angie helps me by sticking close by my side at all times when I'm feeling pressured. As the pic suggests, it takes reading, typing and a pussycat to get results.

Last week I attended the 6th Annual CA/MCA symposium in Brisbane. It was interesting to attend a small conference where just methodology people (kind of thing) were presenting. I've been waiting for this conference for a long time i.e. the idea of being able to meet up with lots of other folk employing ethnomethodology. I presented my Click on the Big Red Car materials although these are in their early days yet. Rather ambitiously i have in mind trying to work two papers out of the data, one a CA focused paper, perhaps for a sociological journal. The other paper would be for an early childhood audience and would address young children and computers. It feels good to be writing about the children and computers recordings because it has taken such a time to get the project underway (mind you -nothing like the time needed for my phD -smile). At the same time, i've had a bee-in-my-bonnet about extended sequences in CA work since my phD so writing about that is unfinished business.

I worked on my data analysis from the presentation today and couldn't help but think how much could be said from just a little bit of data collected. Really, the children and computer data could keep me going until retirement. However, I have to bring myself back into CA mode to do that. I say this because i've spent several months working on the transcription literature and really got myself in another headspace. prior to last week's conference i was really thinking that i'd moved too far away from Ca to get back in -kind of doubted if i wanted to. however, the conference last week worked to remind me that the methodology is very powerful, and i just like it, it fits. So, a burst of energy this week in relation to getting back into proper CA analysis of my data.

San Diego

2008-11-03T13:05:00.001-08:00

t'viille3
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I've been checking the American Educational Researchers Association website daily for over three weeks. Actually I check it first thing in the morning, and throughout the day.

So, this morning I checked and found that my proposal for next year's conference has been accepted.

Davidson, C. (proposal accepted).Transcription matters: Issues for
qualitative researchers in education. Qualitative Methods SIG. Annual Conference of AERA, April 13-17, 2009. San Diego.

For those of you who don't know, the proposal for AERA is around 2,500 words and is reviewed by three members of aera, so getting a paper written and accepted takes a deal of planning, effort and time. I'm particularly happy to have this proposal accepted because it will be a paper for the Qualitative Methods SIG.

If my sister is reading this ... I'll be looking for a cat sitter for Angie.

townsville

2008-10-30T00:55:00.001-07:00

t'ville4
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I've just returned from Townsville. I'm really happy to have had that brief opportunity to visit. I found myself thinking that i liked Rockhampton better! what do you know!
This first pic was taken in the inner city around the mall where most of the shops are closed down and boarded up (such a pity).

The next pic is of the harbour and it's pretty.

t'ville
Originally uploaded by angie cat

The final pic was taken from the same spot, only looking along the boardwalk that circles around part of the harbour.

t'ville2
Originally uploaded by angie cat

my house down south

2008-10-25T16:47:00.001-07:00

bunny 4
Originally uploaded by angie cat

My nephew Josh has just visited Ballarat. He kindly took some pictures of my house in Buninyong. Here's a nice one of the front of the house. So good to know that plants and trees are still alive despite TOTAL water restriction in the area.

Structure of the game: some thoughts

2008-10-23T15:26:00.000-07:00

The children play a computer game on a Wiggles DVD. The DVD begins with music and an introduction from the Wiggles:
C: everybody loosen up
(1.5)↔((music playing))
C: let's get ready to ↑Wi↓ggle

After the introduction (which can be skipped over or cut short by a click of the mouse), the game provides choices: clicking on a certain icon leads to the selection of one game.

C: °we're planning a surprise party [for Dorothy°]
N: [which one do you want H]
(0.2)
N: the ↑sing-along one?

One game is about moving the Wiggles big red car to various places such as the bakery, the toyshop, the magic shop and the park. All the places are pictured on a map and the game player must move the car to get around.

The first place is the bakery (let’s call this section 1 of the game)
C: the first thing we need to do↑ (0.2)is [buy some bread from the=
M: [( ) ((pointing at the screen))
C: =↑bakery ↓
M: click [the arrow]
C: [you need to]help us get there (0.2) by moving our big red car
to the bakery (0.2) our big red car can be moved by clicking on
the arrows (0.4) if you need help↑ click on the big red ↑car=
M: =watch it
C: okay le::t's go::::
(0.4)

So C (the computer) provides the first destination (the bakery) and directions for playing the game (how to make the car icon move, and how to get help). M’s utterance (click the arrow) indicates that she knows how to make the car move before the computer gives directions. She also directs H (her younger brother, to watch it).

The other sections are as follows:

Section 2 Getting to the garage
C: we're ready (0.2)can you help us get to the gar↓age so we can fix the big red car

Section 3 Getting to the toyshop

C: we're rea↑dy (0.2)can you help us get to the toy shop (0.2) so we can buy some new juggling balls for ↑Hen↓ry

Section 4 Getting to the park
C: we're ready (0.2) we're ready (0.2) can you help us get to the park so we can ↑play

Section 5 Getting to Wag’s house
C: we're ready can you help us get to Wag's house so we can drop off a ↓bo↑ne

Section 6 Getting to the duckpond(??)
C: ((dog barks))(0.4)we're ↑rea↓dy can you help us get to the du-

Section 7 thanks for all your help
C: thanks for all your help we couldn't have done it without you(0.6)come back soon
(3.0)+((car takes off backwards then races back across screen))

Once this section of the game as been reached, the player is returned to the main screen and the original options (which game to play?):

C: let's get ready to wiggle

Note: as per usual the transcription is thrown out a little by the blogging html (for formatting) but I think readers will get the gist. I have also added in a new symbol ↔ it means that the action in brackets occurs during the silence in talk represented in ( ). So ...

(1.5)↔((music playing))

This means that music can be heard playing during a break in talk that lasts for 1.5 seconds.

Now, I wonder what interesting aspects of social organization can be found when children play this game?

queued for review

2008-10-18T16:46:00.000-07:00

Over the last few days I've been watching my submitted journal article for signs of progress. The journal I submitted to has a good system that records the on-going progress on the article. up until this morning, my article was queued for review which means it was waiting to be sent out to someone. now it has gone out to a first reviewer. While I'm sure it will be many weeks before I have a verdict on the fate of the article, it helps to see its progress even if it is slow.

meanwhile, I've been doing some more reading on formulations. Volume II of Sacks provides some information and discussion about formuation. For example, I read a little this morning (p. 46) about how a person might complain about a conversation using the formulation "you interrupted me". Since I'm having some trouble on discerning formulations, I went into one of my transcripts and tried to find an example, of where one of the kids has made a formulation. i think the following contains a pretty clear cut example:

B: oh Aurora don't do::n't o::wh
(1.0)
B: no I said don't
A: ↑why

So, B's use of "said don't" formulates what she has said previously rather than just repeating what she has said. In this way, I think that B is pointing out that A has not complied with what was a directive. A has continued to play the game rather than giving B a turn.

In a previous post, I wrote about Sack's ideas on use of reference terms to avoid formulations. I wonder if'dem' is used by B in place of naming the images on the computer screen (of animal tiles), and if A's utterance provides the formulation.

B: yeah um because us have ↑to (0.4) link dem
(0.8)
A: what you have to do is link animals
(0.4)

What do you think?

lettuce

2008-10-11T19:36:00.001-07:00

lettuce
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I've planted some lettuce and it is just taking off. Again, these plants are probably too close together but perhaps it won't matter as I will just pick leaves off here and there to make salad sandwiches.

too close

2008-10-10T13:03:00.001-07:00

rhubarb
Originally uploaded by angie cat

yes, any gardeners out there will realise that i have planted the two rhubarb plants too close together. I am about to transplant one to another pot. still, the good news is that they are growing.

I've just done my daily check of things I'm watching closely. These include:
my bank account
my proposal for aera (will it be accepted?)
my journal article on transcription (the journal has it but it is in a queue to be reviewed)
my work emails (another journal has had a draft article for four months)
realestate.com (no harm in looking, right?)

Formulations

2008-10-04T16:01:00.000-07:00

One way to examine talk in interaction during computer activity by young children is to examine their formulations: that is, what children formulate through talk about what is going on during their use of computers.

Formulations, according to its definition applied in conversation analysis, was first used by Harvey Sachs in his lecture materials. For example: Sacks referred to the possibility of using “group therapy session” to formulate “what’s taking place” (Sacks, 1995, p. 515) in the therapy data he was analysing. In relation to this concept, Sacks made the observation that participants also occasionally formulated the sessions as such. He posed the questions “When, Why? And with what kind of consequences?” (Sacks, 1995, p. 515). Sacks follows the questions with consideration of issues in relation to social scientists:

“Running along with that is, of course, an issue which we should like to get into position to raise and deal with: Have we any special right to assign name-formulations to the actions, upon, say, occasions when they are not generally assigned by participants? Can we construct rules for doing formulating – generally, and then for doing specific formulating, i.e., saying it’s a ‘group therapy session,’ for example. What does that hold for?” (Sacks, 1995, p. 515)

Sacks makes a nice (CA) point about the use of formulations. It is that people don’t just “do formulations” (Sacks, 1995, p. 516); they are used to do something:

“At any rate, in each case that a formulation of a setting, or an identity, is done, there’s something that has some line of consequences, and some analysable basis for participants, which can be one differentiated from another possible formulation ,and also from not doing it at all.” (Sacks, 1995, p. 516)

Sacks discusses the use of “indicator terms” to consider how people are able to not provide formulations of setting. Indicator terms encompass words such as as ‘here’, ‘now’, ‘there’, ‘later’, ‘soon’, ‘this’, ‘that’ and so on. He considers some of their properties. For example, they are reference terms. Another property is that a second use of a term in a sentence may have a different referent from its first use in a sentence said by another. Sacks uses these two sentences to illustrate: “I went to the movies”. “I stayed home.” (Sacks, 1995, p. 517). To return, to the group therapy session –Sacks shows how ‘here’ might be used to refer to the group-therapy session without formulating it as the group therapy session.
“So, there are ways in which the spatial indicators involve time and the temporal indicators invoke space as well.” (Sacks, 1995, p. 519)

To illustrate this claim, Sacks uses “You were hysterical last week” where participants in the group therapy session mean specifically “Not last week, but for the two hours we met, and in this place.” (Sacks, 1995, p. 519).

Sacks suggests that looking at a chain of indicators may show something about the usage of the indicator terms i.e. “Given their sheer abstractness, if any set of terms could be capable of invoking the sheer fact of the setting without the specification of the setting, it would usually be these.” (Sacks, 1995, p. 520).
So, overall the discussion of the use of indicator terms shows how members go about doing “something” without having to formulate what that something is. The indicator terms are integral to that because they refer to those things, require shared understandings of them, and stand for the actual formulation of them.

Sacks addresses the problematic nature of formulating setting (for example): “we’ll never get a stable formulation in which these things stand one to one – and if they had to stand one to one, there would be an enormous mess.” (Sacks, 1995, p. 521). [This is an interesting comment because Sacks is in a way alluding to context as some would have it, and pointing out the problems with it (and researchers’ conceptualizations of it.

Here’s a nice quote that Sacks uses in relation to why not formulating setting is a useful thing:

“Again, then, what I want to be able to is that there can be ways of invoking the fact of a setting, and a bunch of its features – whatever the features are of settings – without any specifications of which formulation of setting, which formulation of participants, being involved.” (Sacks, 1995, p. 521)

rhubarb

2008-10-02T21:09:00.001-07:00

rhubarb
Originally uploaded by angie cat

They say that rhubarb won't grow in Rockhampton. I'll keep you posted.

Today I started working on my part of a draft article on transcription and self-study. This is a collaborative effort with my friend Robyn Brandenburg. Robyn has kickstarted with some writing about her reflections on transcription in her self-study. Today, i wrote some of the literature review and fiddled with the abstract and a paragraph for discussion.

This week I've finally finished watching all my data recordings and made transcripts (rough) that record some of the talk and interaction involving the kids and computers. Now got to get to the more serious business of analyzing the transcript for the 'Click on the big red car' article.

Other things - I received a copy of the thesis on transcription by Dr Margaret Luebs. This is her dissertation which examined transcription, particularly in the areas of linguistics, discourse analysis and conversation analysis. It's a good read and an interesting piece of research. cqu library has bought the copy of the thesis (from the University of Michigan) and will have it bound and catalogued for the library. it will be a great resource for me and others (smile).

7,821 words

2008-09-24T18:32:00.000-07:00

So ....

I finally finished the review of the literature article. what a feat. It was hard to do, but now done I feel okay about it. It is heading off to a journal of qualitative research, and then the wait begins. I've polished it quite a bit after getting some feedback from a colleague of two (thanks) so hopefully it will move through the review process with a good result.

The third article is now under construction. Robyn (co-author) is working on documenting her reflections of transcribing in her research, and will have those to me some time in the near future. I'll then bring the literature "to bear" on those. It should be an interesting process.

Meanwhile, I've started using Transana to transcribe my recordings of kids using computers. I've done one whole "slab" of transcription of children playing a computer game. that is in enough detail (so far) for me to be doing close analysis. with the other recordings, i'm working my way through developing a systematic overview of what's going on. So, I watch the video, stop when an activity changes or a recognisable action occurs (a summons, for example) and I note the time of that using the timer on the transcription program. that process will be very helpful for developing a corpus of "like sequences" of phenomenon across different tapes.

I've done the first recording i made. That was rather interesting and suggested that one of the children was making a lot of formulations. I haven't done a lot of reading (or thinking) about formulations so will need to do that in the next few days.

As usual, there is plenty to do.

Yippee Doo Dah

2008-09-03T14:00:00.001-07:00

heritage
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I've just had a conference proposal accepted:

Davidson, C. (Proposal accepted).“Click on the big red car”: Analysis of
an extended sequence in computer game playing. 6th Annual Symposium of Australian CA/MCA. 5-7 November 2008, Brisbane.

I'm very chuffed about that. My friend and colleague Gillian Busch has also had her proposal accepted so that is brilliant news all round. Gillian will be presenting from her PhD research and mine will be the first public "airing" of analysis from my At Home in Cyberspace research project.

I"m really looking forward to the conference because it draws together all the CA and MCA academics from Oz. Also, I have never presented to a CA/MCA crowd before so that will be interesting and challenging.

Other good news. Robyn and Tony, friends from Ballarat, are visiting next week. While there are work strings attached, no doubt there will also be some time for R and R after serious stuff is done. So, Robyn if you're reading this, the pic is of a lovely old pub in Rocky. It overlooks the river and is just a couple of doors up from the main city campus of CQUniversity.

piano

2008-08-20T00:28:00.001-07:00

hammers
Originally uploaded by angie cat

Here's a pic that I took today during the tuning process. Marvellous isn't it.

wanderings

2008-08-18T14:07:00.001-07:00

kershaw gardens
Originally uploaded by angie cat

I've been passing the Kershaw Gardens for over two years as I drive to and from my office each day. Last week I finally visited the gardens and they were definitely worth the visit. While the gardens can be seen from the highway that passes by, once inside it is a different matter. There are numerous paths to follow and the highway isn't visible any longer. It's a fantastic place for those who like to walk, and don't want to do that on the roads of Rocky.

Now to wonderings ... I'm on leave this week. It is mid-term break at CQU but I decided to take leave to write. Yes, sounds silly but I need some connected time to produce a draft of the literature review on transcription. So, this week is the time. I've been plodding alone on it each day. I have words but not quite WHAT I really want to say.

Today, I'm getting my piano tuned. This is a very exciting event for me. I played piano for years but sold my last one to buy a computer when I started research for my masters. That was around 1990. When my father died I inherited the piano that he bought for me to learn on. The piano is out of tune - not badly, but enough to make playing it a silly idea. So, last week decided to bite the (expensive) bullet and get it tuned. The piano tuner says it is in good nick overall, so I'm happy about that. He will do the tuning in two lots because the "strain" of altering pitch in one go might do damage to the piano. He is doing the first tuning today and I'm really excited about it. I still have a lot of sheet music (mostly serious classical and baroque stuff)and i'm looking forward to doing some regular playing.