The Observer Effect in Podcasting

The Observer Effect or Reactivity refers to the phenomenon that occurs when individuals alter their behavior because of an awareness that they are being observed. Having undertaken a number of sessions where I have recorded my lecturers, it is becoming clear to me that a similar phenomenon is occuring to me and to my classes when I record the sessions.

The physical and visable presence of the microphones in the classrooms are effecting the way the students, and the way I, behave in the class sessions.

I have tried a variety of recording devices, I started off with a regular headphones and microphone combination. This made very clear recordings but changed the focus of the lectures from the interaction in classes to the recording process, the focus became the tip of the microphone as opposed to the class interaction. Students behaved differently when they saw things were being recorded, they were quiter. I also think they felt like they were no longer to focus of the classes.



An alternative I tried was a dictaphone, which I tried twice but found that the quality of the recordings was poor, the speech was very indistinct.



I moved onto a tie clip microphone, this also resulted in poor quality recordings.



So now I've ordered an omnidirectional microphone in hopes of using a device that will not interfere with the teaching process.