Memo #3 - Preparing for the Interviews

I am now preparing for the primary source part of the project where I have decided to interview a selection of teachers about my topic. My primary source interviews include English teachers that I have either had or known in high school. I will be interviewing teachers who all have different views on digital writing and social media in the classroom. I think that by hearing different viewpoints on a subject, you are allowed to come up with your own conclusions about the subject. In the case of this project, I am able to learn about and report the different viewpoints that a current teacher may have about the use of digital writing or social media for class use. I have already emailed five teachers in hopes to interview at least three of them for this project. In preparation for these interviews, I have created a running list of questions that I would like to discuss with them. These questions include:

• When you hear the term “digital writing” what first comes to mind in the terms of education?
• Were you ever educated on how to implement digital writing into your classroom? Personal Development or Conferences you may have attended?
•  Do you use a form of digital writing within your classroom?
• What do you see as the positives of using this digital writing form?
• Does using digital writing improve the students overall writing?
• Are there other forms that you would like to use in future lessons or classrooms?
• Do you see any downfalls from using digital writing?
• Is there room for improvement in digital writing?
• What are your views on social media use within the classroom? Should it even have a place within the classroom?
• Do you consider social media writing included under digital writing? Why or why not?
• Have you heard of any social media sites that could potentially be used within a classroom?
• What are the downfalls of using social media?
• Do you think that student’s writing could be benefited from using social media as a tool in the classroom?
•  There are sites out there, such as Edmodo and Classroom 2.0, which act like a social media site but are used for educational purposes only. What are your thoughts on sites that replicate social media for educational purposes?
•  Do you think that social media sites will be used in future classrooms?

On the topic of secondary sources. I am still looking into more articles that go into the implications of social media as digital writing in the modern day classrooms. I am looking at more Education Journals from the library where studies may have been published on my research topic. I would use these sources to build up my knowledge of how social media and digital writing is generally used in classrooms. I am hoping to gain a more specific look into an average  high school so that I can see learn about practical applications. My previous memo went into some of the secondary sources that I have found that relate to my research topic. Any more secondary sources that I find in between now and my interviews will be used as background information to present to the teachers about what studies today are saying about digital writing and social media.

More to come on this topic of interviews!