‘My special, my special thing, and my camera!’ Using GoPro™ as a complementary research tool to investigate young children’s museum experiences.

Abstract

This paper discusses insights derived from a small-scale ethnographic study designed to explore young children's (aged three to six) everyday, lived experiences within a participatory family museum in southern England. Inspired by the childcentred work of Kirk (2014) this paper begins by examining the effectiveness of photo-elicitation interviews in accessing 'snap-shots' of children's perspectives of their museum visits. In the current study this method is complemented by the use of chest-mounted GoPro cameras to provide a first person and more holistic perspective of children's museum visits. 12 children's visits were filmed in total. During three of these, children were also carrying child-friendly digital cameras. As this was part of a larger study the data collection was designed to compare the utility of GoPro technology being used in tandem with both photo and drawingelicitation. In response to these initial findings a photo-map of the museum was created to prompt discussion with the final six participants. Recruitment was purposive and there was no contact with the participants prior to them arriving at the museum. The video captured by the chest-mounted Go-Pro cameras is particularly illuminating when analyzed in the context of the post-visit interview data. Although the photo-elicitation and drawing-elicitation interviews do reveal some important details about the children's experiences and perspectives, the video footage highlights the difficulties with relying on these methods in an everyday museum setting. For example parental involvement in the children's photography is far more pervasive than might be expected, and the degree to which the camera affects the nature of the children's visits is notable. The video also reveals how easy it is to misinterpret children when relying solely on their recollections in an interview situation. This paper finishes with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of using Go-Pro technology as a complementary tool in the exploration of young children's museum experiences.

Personal Viewpoint Ethnography Utilizing GoPro™ Cameras to Capture Student Information Seeking in School Libraries

“…It further enriches studies of navigating the library environment. Burbank et al (2018) found "the video captured by the chestmounted Go-Pro cameras is particularly illuminating when analyzed in the context of the postvisit interview data" with young children (p. 311). Given that characteristics of autism can include difficulty in conversational pragmatics and social communication, as well as challenges in turntaking while simultaneously writing, the use of RTAP allows subjects to clarify what they may not have been able communicate in real-time when completing their task (Paul et al, 2009).…”

“…Like libraries, it has been opined that research conducted on children's experiences in museums has been focused on what children are, or should be learning, rather than what they themselves seek or value (Johanson & Glow, 2012). A noteworthy exception is an ethnographic study with children aged three to six using chest-mounted GoPro™ cameras to capture their experience in a participatory children's museum (Burbank et al, 2018). As part of a larger study designed to compare the utility of GoPro™ technology versus photo and drawing elicitation, it concluded that the unobtrusive GoPro™ camera yielded more powerful results than the other methods (Burbank et al, 2018).…”

“…A noteworthy exception is an ethnographic study with children aged three to six using chest-mounted GoPro™ cameras to capture their experience in a participatory children's museum (Burbank et al, 2018). As part of a larger study designed to compare the utility of GoPro™ technology versus photo and drawing elicitation, it concluded that the unobtrusive GoPro™ camera yielded more powerful results than the other methods (Burbank et al, 2018). In the photography method, there was pervasive parental involvement in the children's photography, with the camera influencing how they interacted in the museum.…”

“…In the photography method, there was pervasive parental involvement in the children's photography, with the camera influencing how they interacted in the museum. Numerous relevant details were overlooked in post-visit drawings where children were asked to draw what interested them (Burbank et al, 2018).…”

EgoActive: Integrated Wireless Wearable Sensors for Capturing Infant Egocentric Auditory–Visual Statistics and Autonomic Nervous System Function ‘in the Wild’

“…For the last decades, the advances in consumer-directed wearable biosensing devices have shown that the measurement of egocentric views, cardiac activity, and body movement in the wild is not only possible, but that the general public is open to adopt such technology for everyday monitoring of physical health and activity (e.g., [ 86 , 87 , 88 ]), but also in various professional settings (e.g., [ 89 , 90 , 91 ]). Although such technology has been predominantly developed for adults, its ubiquitousness suggests that similar technologies for infants and young children could be received with a fair degree of openness for researching development in the ‘wild’.…”