 Student Organizer
Activity One- Qualitative Group
Poll Topic: Although the Internet brings people together
via chatrooms, e-mail, etc., it ultimately isolates people from
one another because they talk less face-to-face and over the phone.
Members of the Qualitative group, interview a Quantitative group
member and record their comments in a chart similar to the one below.
(You will only need one row since you are only interviewing one
person.)
| general response |
comments that support general response |
comments that contradict general response |
memorable quote |
researcher
notes |
| agreed |
said he enjoys surfing on the Internet more than hanging out
with friends |
none |
“I don’t necessarily like it but I’m surfing
the Web all the time.” |
male
agreed but didn’t seem to think that isolation was a problem |
| disagreed |
said she feels more connected
to her two older sisters who went away to college now that she
has an email account |
says she misses the frequent phone conversations she used
to have with her sisters |
“I love the Internet.” |
has a computer at home
female
was very talkative |
Analysis questions:
Once you’ve filled in your chart, convene as a group. Create a chart
like the one above that holds all of your data and then use the following
questions as a guide to help you analyze your data.
- How many people generally agreed? Disagreed? Were non-committal?
- Did you find that most of the statements people made actually
supported their general response? If not, do you feel you can
use the general responses to accurately summarize your findings?
- What similarities, if any, did you see between the statements
of the people who generally agreed? Between the statements of
the people who generally disagreed? Between the people who didn’t
have an opinion either way?
- Did you see any other potential patterns emerging, e.g., the
people who had computers at home generally disagreed, twice as
many girls disagreed as boys, etc.?
- Were there any statements that seemed to come up over and over
again?
Reflection questions:
- What question did you set out to answer?
- Do you feel you gained enough information to answer the question?
- Summarize your findings in one sentence.
- How did you analyze your findings? How long did it take you?
Did you find that it was easy or difficult to analyze the data?
Why?
- In this study, you learned what peoples’ opinions were. Did
you also learn why they felt the way they did? If so, how? If
not, why not? Did the responses you received raise any new questions
you would like to find answers to? If so, what were they?
- If you were to do this poll over again, how would you improve
your analysis?
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