Blog Post 7

In jotting, some patterns that we see include short sentences or single words to represent what people experienced. We also see some emotions being included in the jottings, how people were feeling and how the mood changed as the activity continued. Also, a pattern seen through the jottings is that a lot of people wrote observations rather than conversation. They told what clothing people were wearing or their initial visions. For headnotes, the writings were much longer and in paragraph form. Some of them included a beginning, middle and end, telling how the experience happened. We see more of an order in the headnotes and less of a list. In the “things I remember later” notes section, some patterns we see are paragraphs, there wasn’t much of a sequence in people’s writing, and people tended to remember things that were less specific about one another. There were a lot of general facts about the activity, rather than what people were wearing or where they were from. In the “observations” section of notes, a big pattern we see is that a lot of the notes were about how people were feeling and the atmosphere in the classroom. People were talking about the awkwardness in the classroom and how people eventually became more comfortable.
These patterns can suggest that the class had a difficult time processing the experience. This can be because it was unexpected and people were unsure about what to ask one another or how to participate in the activity. From people’s notes, it seems that majority of the class was initially uncomfortable. The patterns in the note taking tell us that the class really processed the experience better after the experience. It was easier to think back on the activity because it seemed that people had more to say in the “things I remember later” and “observations” section rather than the jottings section.
From these patterns, ethnographers might have some things to “be careful” about. It seems that the class remembered things very vaguely. Ethnographers might want to be aware of any prior knowledge needed to have better notes. Perhaps if the class had more time to think about the activity and come up with questions to ask one another, they might have remembered more or took more detailed notes. Ethnographers might also want to be careful about how much time they have and the idea of multitasking. From the notes, it seemed that a lot of people were taking notes as they were participating in the activity.