September 2011

After this session I concluded that the specific advice or feedback I have for each student should be shared during the focus session in front of the class. This would be beneficial for 3 reasons:

I can't forget or run out of time.
These instructions have some relevance to the other students.
I can proceed immediately with recording director's commentaries as these always take longer than I think.

I had my first meeting today with Susan, my new supervisor. It was very encouraging as we have much in common.

Sitting on the tram on the way in to the meeting I decided to add the word "explanatory" to the research question. I thought it was already there but it is an important distinction between animation in general which could have no educational objectives whatsoever.

I've also decided that the first chapter that I submit for proofreading should be the Explanatory Animation Framework rather than Research methodology as it is closer to completion. The methodology of the project is still evolving due to the nature of action research.

I've only just noticed that 7 out of 8 of the Storyboard 2011 topics are scientific.

I have finally caught up with the editing/transcription process for the director's commentaries. From now on I'll aim to have this process finished by the Sunday of each week so I have plenty of time to write the researcher's commentaries and make assessments on the children's conceptual consolidation rubrics in preparation for the Storyboard sessions each Thursday.

I'm starting to develop the idea that one benefit and finding of this project is that explanatory animation creation is a diagnostic tool. This came from working with the Grade 5 girl who is studying "Sol Feige." The grid that she is constructing clearly showed that she needed to consolidate her understanding of the musical letter names in the chromatic scale.

I have borrowed a new book written by my supervisor Susan. (Wright, S. (2010). Understanding Creativity in Early Childhood. London: SAGE). I have already found a useful quote for section "3.5 Knowledge representation and animation" of my Literature review. "It is the integration of three modes in consort - graphic, narrative and embodied - that makes visual narrative a powerful source for children's learning, representational thought and creativity." (Wright, 2010, p. 20)

I'm still working on formatting my bibliography entries so they can be used with "End note" software.

I realised during this session that the children need to have a clearer understanding of the purpose and function of the student reflections. The Grade 6 boy studying "Satellites" was recounting the session which was retrospective rather than forward looking. I encouraged him to discuss where he was going with his future investigations.

I have to use a variety of software packages for my weekly editing such as "Sound Forge" and "Format Factory." If I was involved with Microsoft I would suggest that they include these sort of basic multimedia tools with "Office."

I was talking about musical chord spelling with my son today. He is studying music in Year 12 and is trying to consolidate chord naming. I have always found this to be easy because I visualise the fingerboard of a guitar (or bass) and superimpose the chord shapes. My son found this too difficult which left me wondering how other approaches might work. This method works for me but it might not suit everyone, especially musicians who play other instruments which don't have the advantage of moveable patterns.

Today I bumped-in for our annual production. Teaching choreography to the younger children is always a challenge as it takes them a long time to be confident of their own steps without having to look and follow other people. It's too late now but I had considered making an animation to supplement the way we taught the children these steps. They are working in 4 colour groups so a bird's eye view would have been easy to follow as they are basically marching around on a 3 level stage "in the round." I could have set it to the actual music to show the transitions more effectively.

Tonight was the opening night of our annual production involving 320 children. I asked the sound engineer about audio so I could be of further assistance to Ryan ("Stadium design"). He mentioned bass traps and reflective panels.

Tonight was the final night of our annual production with a completely different cast of another 320 children. My busiest period of the year is now over so I can focus more on Storyboard.

I had to cancel the Storyboard session today as I was driving a truck around to return some props and staging from our Circus show last night.

I had promised to submit the Explanation Animation Framework to my supervisors by the end of this term so I'd better get to it.

I've been reading Research methods in the social sciences (2005) where a distinction is made between "Evidence based professional knowledge" and the "Applied research and evaluation tradition" which was first raised by Walker in 1974. I think that the Storyboard project fits into the first category.

I was discussing the Storyboard project with a childhood friend (graphic designer) about the irony of a PhD being "cutting edge" and yet I can't present the data in its native digital form.

I was reading through a weekly University email which previews forthcoming events such as a PhD confirmation seminar where "Interview data was analysed using Bernstein's pedagogic device and knowledge structures alongside Legitimation Code Theory." I have yet to find a "tool" as such for my data analysis but I question if I need one as the data is intrinsically analytical because it is assembled from component parts.

A: The ability to understand a topic with sufficient perspective that it can be represented and described in multiple ways (i.e., recontextualised).

I'm developing a map analogy for giving directions. If someone knows how to provide assistance with directions but has a limited knowledge of the area they will only offer the one explanation. Another person who is more familiar with the area would know of different ways to go and might suggest alternatives such as the scenic route or the most direct route. Once again, this analogy is reminiscent of paraphrase where information can be readily recontextualised.

I need to distinguish between semiotics and symbolic interactionism. I have obtained a journal article by Denzin (1987) but I'll need to reread it some other time as it was difficult to understand.

The Grade 6 girl who was studying "Cell duplication" has changed to a new topic which is "Stringed instruments." This decision is documented in the Session 8 Researcher reflection in the "Lesson plans" section.

The Grade 6 girl who recently switched topics to "Stringed instruments" might find that her new topic has great potential. The formula for pitch could be animated where the different variables are shown to effect the audio in real time.

My Literature review still needs a lot of work as I should be able to more concisely "frame the debate."

What is the correct formula for pitch? I feel that I need to find this out in preparation for the next Storyboard session as we are halfway through the project. The Grade 6 girl who is studying this topic will still have plenty to do even if I "give" her the formula but I need to confirm that the formula is correct.

I've been looking for a precedent for a multimodal (digital) thesis. My searching was inconclusive as most of the search results involve a thesis which was originally a hard copy which has since been digitised for the purposes of sharing and archiving.

The first appointment with both of my supervisors has been set for next Friday 7th October.

Today I uploaded todolist.htm and foodforthought.htm. They aren't linked and are therefore inaccessible to other people but I uploaded them as a backup. "Foodforthought.htm" lists all of my ideas which might not necessarily make it into this thesis. "Todolist.htm" is more of a working document.

I have commenced a Word doc to present an argument for Storyboard being a multimodal thesis.

Only 24 hours after uploading them, I have removed foodforthought.htm and todolist.htm and put them onto Google docs instead. This way they are still backed up but in a more secure manner.

I have commenced a data analysis table with 3 columns. The table is not the actual analysis but rather a way to list and contrast the various types of data which this project is generating.