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Methods of Entry And Observation
The Selection Process
The story begins with how the schools were “selected” for study, which
was complicated by several issues. Video programs needed to be in a
high school and to allow students to choose production locations within
the school, rather than being studio-only courses. Diversity in the
type of video program and in the student populations were the only
objectives beyond this minimum requirement. The goal was to see how
video production proceeds rather than to find the best programs or
programs that actively sought a reform of the social structure of
schools. While the research was initially planned for New York City,
the location was
changed to southern California. On both coasts, however, phone calls
were rarely returned, and the busy schedules of teachers and
administrators limited discussion. But every contact yielded some
information about the general “culture” of high school video
production, and some specifics about a few school and regional
characteristics were revealed.
Potential schools were first sought on the internet. The rationale
for this, besides the fact that an enormous amount of information about
public schools is now available this way, is that in the digital era
there is an implicit connection between video production and the
internet. The connection is a more tenuous one than expected, but this
will be more fully discussed in the next section. Additional schools
were suggested by people who were contacted this way, and one of the
focal schools was included because a digital media organization, which
was contacted for technical information, planned to conduct a course
there. In all, 34 schools with video programs were identified, 11 of
which were in New York. Of the 23 schools in California, letters were
sent to 19, phone contact was made with 10, 3 were deemed too far away,
2 had inappropriate programs for inclusion, 2 teachers and 1 principal
did not want to participate, and in 5 schools, repeated attempts and
messages never led to discussion with the appropriate person. The
search stopped when three diverse schools were found to have willing
instructors and principals and programs that met the minimum
requirement of involving high school students in video production with
some freedom to move around the school during production.
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