This is the course website for INFO 272 in a previous year.
For this year’s website go here.

I’ll be available for consultation about the final project or any other course related questions this week Tuesday and Thursday 12:30pm – 2pm (our regular course meeting time). My office is room 312, upstairs from the classroom. This will be in lieu of the Tuesday 4-6pm office hours.

Tuesday class will be meeting off campus to discuss ethics in qualitative research at Le Petit Cheval restaurant. We will be meeting at the same time class normally meets 12:30. I will cover the cost of lunch for students who show up.

I have added one more reading on the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and made the de Laine reading on ‘ethical dilemmas’ optional.

My office hours this week are canceled, but please e-mail me to schedule an alternate time if you would like to meet.

Updated the resources page with a short list of recommended readings in applied and design ethnography.

Examples now posted in the workshop section. A bad interview about the concept of information from my fieldwork in Uganda. A good interview and a couple of bad interviews with commentary from the book Learning From Strangers, by Robert S. Weiss.

Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:30pm – 2pm
South Hall, Room 205

Professor Jenna Burrell (e-mail: jenna@ischool.berkeley.edu)
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 4pm-6pm, Room 312

[A word version of the course syllabus.]

This course will focus on the use of qualitative methods for research on the development, diffusion, and use of information technologies as well as information and management practices. Its core concern is with an epistemological question – how do we arrive at credible knowledge through qualitative research practices? The methods covered will include interviewing, focus groups, participant observation, and ethnography. Along the way we will confront the issues of quality, validity, and rigor.

This course has several goals: 1) to help students develop a better understanding of how data relates to knowledge 2) to negotiate the logistical limits and respect the ethical issues inherent in any research practice 3) to generate an awareness of the inevitable imperfections and alterations that are introduced by the structures imposed in any research design. 4) to give students hands-on experience with these methods.