My observing this week consisted of tracking the number of times Dr. Sample used some particular words, related to our overall idea of “Data Culture”, while he was talking to the class. I was thinking about also tracking frequently used words that people said for people who answered questions in class, but I forgot to count a couple on Tuesday’s class starting out, so I decided to abandon that idea. It was surprisingly easy to forget to count particular words that Dr. Sample spoke to the class so I may be off by one or two words, and also because a few words I started counting when Dr. Sample said them two or three times, though I think I did a good time of remembering how many he said before I started counting.
The particular words I chose to count were related to topics in our class, and specifically for the topics we talked about in class on Tuesday and Thursday. I wrote down some words before class that would be relevant to count, such as Data, Visualization, Information, Powerpoint, Maps, etc., but then added some more as I noticed Dr. Sample used them frequently in class. Here are the two tables for Tuesday and Thursday.
Tuesday’s class
| Word | Number of times Dr. Sample said the specific word |
| Map(s) | 75 |
| Data | 3 |
| Visualization | 6 |
| Cartography/Cartographer | 2 |
| Information | 6 |
| Lie/Lying | 8 |
| Timelines | 2 |
| Graphically | 1 |
| Scale | 8 |
Thursday’s class
| Word | Number of times Dr. Sample said the specific word |
| Data | 10 |
| Network | 3 |
| Visualization | 13 |
| Information | 9 |
| Powerpoint | 9 |
| Timeline | 3 |
| Maps | 11 |
| Timechart | 1 |
| History | 13 |
A couple of patterns stand out. First off, the number of times Dr. Sample said map or maps on Tuesday’s class was sizable compared to other words he said in class on both days. On Tuesday, we focused on maps for almost the entire class, and the map exercise where we had to draw maps from Studio D to Nummit, the Davidson Pizza Co, and Chipotle, was one part of class where Dr. Sample used “map(s)” frequently while speaking. “Visualization(s)” was a common word across both class, as well as “information”, which makes sense since they are relevant to our broad idea in class, talking about data. Also, Dr. Sample spoke the word “history” frequently in class on Thursday, since we spent a part of class on the Chronozoom where “history,” such as human history, featured prominently, and Powerpoint, because we read the article about Powerpoint and discussed Powerpoint towards the end of class.
Overall, counting particular words that Dr. Sample said in class is interesting because it can display the length of discussion we spent on topics for the most part. On Tuesday, almost the entire class we discussed maps, and therefore Dr. Sample used “map(s)” frequently. The words do not give any context behind the discussion, for example, words such as information, data, visualization(s), scale, etc., can be utilized in a variety of discussions, but they give a decent picture overall of the topic of discussion. Words were frequently used together with one another, such as “data visualization” or “data bars,” but I decided to keep the words separate to make the collection of data easier and more clear.