Memo #2 - What is the research telling me?

               I have been working on the research aspect of the I-Search for a while now. It has been a rough time going because I have been thinking mostly about the use of digital writing and social media go hand in hand within the classroom. I was trying to look for articles that would go in depth for both aspects, but that wasn’t turning up any leads. Many of the articles that I did find were related to utilizing social media and digital writing for pre-service teachers so that they could learn, and in turn, teach their students.

               The first article I read, titled “Set in Stone or Set in Motion? Multimodal and Digital Writing With Preservice English Teachers” by Melanie Hundley and Teri Holbrook, had to do with how preservice English teachers are viewing the use of digital writing within their teaching education. The article was written in 2013, so the information and digital writing connections are very similar to what can be found today. What I found interesting was that before the study was conducted many of the students that were interviewed had negative thoughts of implementing digital writing. One quote that the authors presented stated, “Real writing isn’t this instant messaging stuff or other kinds of digital writing. It’s the writing we do here in school. On paper. Essays and papers and theses. Not IMs and blogs and visual essays” (Hundley 500). The line is drawn for these students as to what constitutes real writing and the other stuff. The study conducted put these preservice students through a redesigned course load that was “positioning students first as composers of digital texts and then as teachers of digital text composition” through multiple digital writing assignments. After the study, the students recorded all the different things that they had learned through the assignments such as video essays. The students were forced to reevaluate what they thought was good writing and consider the vast technologies out there for their use in teaching. Studies show that “57% of teens who use the Internet do so to create online content. These ‘Content Creators’ make blogs and webpages; distribute self-authorized artwork, narratives, and videos online” (Hundley 501). Teenager’s use of digital writing and compositions are described within the studies conducted. I believe that the teachers need to be taught on how to tap into the student’s abilities within these digital forms.

               I was interested by how the Hundley article talked about the teachers before even going into high school students in digital technology. The teachers need to know how to use the new technologies before they can expect their students to learn through digital writing. This concept could also be applied to the social media aspect, even though the article does not go into it. It did mention a few statistics about social media and how the reform of its uses is need for the classroom. The articles states that “73% of online teens are using social networking sites. 93% of U.S. teens use the Internet. 63% go online daily. Such pervasive uses of digital technologies transform the educative needs of adolescents and subsequently of teachers.” Teachers today draw the line with the use of social media and how that is not considered to be useful in the academic world, but can it be reevaluated and examined to be considered useful? That is something I will have to research and interview more about in this project.

               Another article that I found, titled “Teaching with Social Media: Disrupting Present Day Public Education” by Susan Meabon Bartow, talks about how social media is in the classroom whether we want it there or not and how are teachers paying attention and benefiting from the use of social media. She examined five different classrooms and analyzed the teacher’s use of social media for classroom purposes. When commenting on the students use of social media, the author states, “Participants negotiate, interpret, evaluate, and analyze rapid and complex multimedia messages and regularly choose to compose and produce communication in increasingly self-directed and socially constructed ways” (Bartow 40). Why not tap into this communication and use it as a force for learning? The article provides a solid argument that social media can be used in and out of the classroom to help the students be constant learners. 

               By concluding the article, Bartow states that social media is “obliterating the time and space barriers of traditional classrooms, organizes differentiated learning and resources, facilitates communication, reaches more students and their families, stimulates sharing, and can’t keep itself from fostering production of knowledge in and far beyond the classroom” (Bartow 58). If teachers actually used social media to their advantage, this article says that it would create a whole new kind of classroom where students are actively learning in class, at home, and as members of a technological society. The article suggests that it blurs the lines of when learning is scheduled to be happening at school to a constant state of learning. By reading this article, it makes me wonder more about the connection that digital writing and social media share? Is there a commonality between the two so that the student is benefiting from its use? 

               Even though I have read more than just these two articles, I found that these are the two that really made me stop and think about this topic of digital writing and social media. I will continue with more research as I get ready to interview current teachers about their use of digital writing and social media within their classrooms. I hope to find where these two concepts align to help benefit the students positively.

Works Cited:

Hundley, Melanie, and Teri Holbrook. "Set In Stone Or Set In Motion?: Multimodal And Digital Writing With Preservice English Teachers." Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 56.6 (2013): 500-509. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.

Meabon Bartow, Susan. "Teaching With Social Media: Disrupting Present Day Public Education." Educational Studies 50.1 (2014): 36-64. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.