I'm interested in collecting proximity data from children during school playtime for social network analysis. I would like to get as objective data as possible. I know you can get proximity trackers for animals, and I've heard there are ones available for human adults (i.e. that you wear as a tag around the neck to observe proximity data in offices), but I haven't seen them. I was wondering if anyone knew a) anything about the human ones and if they are child-friendly/robust, or b) whether devices used on animals can be adapted for use on children?
Any advice would be greatly received!
Hi,
I am aware some of these exist for adults. E.g. Dr. David Ellis at the University of Lincoln has blogged about a version of them here (with links to companies): http://davidalexanderellis.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/working-9-5-what-way-to-measure-social.html
I've worn these myself and I'd stay there probably a bit too heavy for use in young kids (unless you somehow strapped them to the kid rather than using them as a necklace?) I'm aware they do have weaknesses. However, they might be a good place to start?
best Lara
There's a company (out of MIT) that specialises in these and their use in the workplace: Sociometric Solutions http://www.sociometricsolutions.com/.
One of its founders, Sandy Pentland is a very prominent researcher in this field
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=P4nfoKYAAAAJ
But do you think your IRB would be OK with that sort of research? Personally and TBH I'd be upset if they were :-)
Thank you both very much. I've contacted David and Sandy so hopefully they will be able to help. Thanks again.
With regards to ethics - we'd only be collecting data during school playtime and one important facet is that we want technology that provides in information about where the individuals are (geographically), purely how when they within X meters of another proximity logger (all coded so no IDs are used). So we would have no idea where participants are, just which tags are close to each other and for how long, if that makes sense.
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