Overall, I think the first quick analysis went well. That was probably due to being told to not over think it too much, because I would have definitely over thought many parts. To me, it was pretty easy to come up with coding categories to add – even though some were more obvious than others. What was harder for me was determining what lines went with what older codes. I think it would be better to complete the whole thing from the beginning. Trying to go back and figure out what was decided back in class for those codings was a bit hard. Sometimes it was obvious what the code meant, but other times it was not. I also found it a bit difficult to figure out if certain ideas needed new codes or if they fit into the older ones. I think part of that was just that I couldn’t remember all of the reasons for the categories we created in class. I am pretty sure that once I code a set on my own from the beginning that this will be less of a concern as I will (hopefully) remember my own reasoning better.
Looking at my research study from last week, they seemed to be doing the correct steps for CMDA. It seemed like they were trying to focus on a specific idea (creating third space communications between faculty and students). So I guess that would be the only question I would wonder about: can CMDA be used to only focus on certain features of conversations, or does it have to be completely open at first in order to be accurate? In other words, do you have to code everything and then look for ideas that might support your research focus, or can you focus in from the beginning? Maybe that was covered when the little guy was screaming at Star Wars Angry Birds in the middle of the online session last week, but hopefully it will be repeated if that is so.
What I will be interested in seeing is how my coding matches up with the other students. Will my social constructivist leanings cause me to see things that others didn’t? Or does that even affect what is coded in CMDA? Or even more so, does my previous experience with Second Life give me a different view on what needs to be coded? I know there are certain things that have dried up in Second Life since these responses were collected, so hopefully I didn’t skip over those thinking that they are no longer relevant. And I was probably a bit harsh on the line that mentioned digital natives…. but at least no one mentioned best practices, right?