Sunday, June 01, 2008
Alternative forms of data representation
I am about to finish Chapter 6. Right now I am working with the review of the preliminary mathematics discourse model. And then, I need to finish the threaded discussion diagrams by adding the stanzas to each node, which is just a little time consuming.
What I’ve been reflecting on lately is how alternative data representations are used in my dissertation. I reread Eisner’s article (1997) because I am incorporating a “poem” in Chapter 6, one that comes from my data, word by word. But I am not sure about it yet. According to Eisner, the diagrams I’ve used to organize the threaded discussions are also a form of alternative data representation. This I just realized!
Eisner wrote:
The problem is I am not a poet and I don’t know how to organize these lines of data that say so much, evoking “what cannot be articulated” in another way.
For now, the poem will stay as it is. I might even try to see what happens with data from November and December. This is an unexpected outcome of my research, something I was not planning on finding. That's why I still feel troubled about it.
Reference:
Eisner, E. W. (1997). The promise and perils of alternative forms of data representation. Educational Researcher, 26(6), 4-10.
What I’ve been reflecting on lately is how alternative data representations are used in my dissertation. I reread Eisner’s article (1997) because I am incorporating a “poem” in Chapter 6, one that comes from my data, word by word. But I am not sure about it yet. According to Eisner, the diagrams I’ve used to organize the threaded discussions are also a form of alternative data representation. This I just realized!
Eisner wrote:
“In addition to stories, pictures, diagrams, maps, and theater, we use demonstrations, often unencumbered by language, to show to others how something is done. And, perhaps above all, we have poetry, that linguistic achievement whose meanings are paradoxically non-linguistic: Poetry was invented to say what words can never say. Poetry transcends the limits of language and evokes what cannot be articulated” (p. 5).
The problem is I am not a poet and I don’t know how to organize these lines of data that say so much, evoking “what cannot be articulated” in another way.
For now, the poem will stay as it is. I might even try to see what happens with data from November and December. This is an unexpected outcome of my research, something I was not planning on finding. That's why I still feel troubled about it.
Reference:
Eisner, E. W. (1997). The promise and perils of alternative forms of data representation. Educational Researcher, 26(6), 4-10.
Labels: alternative data representation, Elliot W. Eisner
