Website Research Portfolio Entry

Watters, Audrey. "Texting in the Classroom: Not Just a Distraction." Edutopia. The George Lucas Educational Foundation, 21 Sept. 2011. Web. 06 Nov. 2012. . This article looks at many of the negative effects, educational and medical, of texting in the classroom. The bottom line to this article is that text messaging causes distractions in the classroom, causing students to not pay attention to what is going on in the classroom. This is reflected in students grades and performance in the classroom. I would use this article to assist in answering my research question "What negative effects does texting in the classroom on student's behavior and classroom performance. Bodeeb, Julia. "Students Texting: What Teachers Can Do About Student Texting During School." Bright Hub Education. N.p., 26 June 2012. Web. 06 Nov. 2012. . This article looks at the negative effects of texting in the classroom but it focuses more on the effects on student's behavior. This article looks into the ways that behavior in students and their interaction with their teachers and peers has changed due to texting and distractions in the classroom. I plan to use this article to help support my claim that texting in the classroom is negative and hurts student's grades and behavior in the classroom.

Research Portfolio Image and Other Source Entry

Texting Closeup. 2011. Photograph. Wikimedia Commons, Providence and Tampa. Wikimedia. By BuzzFarmers. 16 Sept. 2011. Web. 4 Nov. 2012. OTHER SOURCE-SCHOLARLY ARTICLE Ryker, Randy E., Chuck Viosca, Shari Lawrence, and Betty Kleen. "Texting and the Efficacy of Mnemonics: Is Too Much Texting Detrimental?" Information Systems Education Journal 9.2 (2011): 27-33. Web. http://isedj.org/2011-9/N2/ISEDJv9n2p27.html This article looks at how "text lingo" effects students progress and work in the classroom. It will be beneficial to my research because it focuses in the negative effects "text lingo" is having on student's grammar and ability to succeed in language arts, reading, english and writing classes.

10/29/12 Blog Prompt

As a citizen of the nation of Facebook (or "Facebookistan"), what are your rights and responsibilities? How does this podcast--and a larger discussion of social media, which includes using blogs--fit within this class? - Can I just start out by saying that the "My mom's on Facebook" song was so funny and I can testify to the mom's and dad's creeping around to see what you are doing. Mine are generally pretty tame when it comes to that. My mom just likes to post lots of mushy/sweet/encouraging stuff on my timeline... It isn't so bad! :) As a citizen of "Facebookistan" our rights are really restricted to our own personal profiles, those profiles of our "friends" and those public/fan pages. We control what we write on these social media sites. It is our responsibility to be accountable for the words we write. I think this subject fits in with our class because it is very relavant and social media sites are where we often get the majority of our information. That in itself is relevant to the class because that is a good portion of what we talk about. The information we receive through social media can influence our opinion and also the resources we seek when looking for research. (This comes in to play in our discussion about filter bubbles) Word Court: 223

Blog Prompt 10/22/12

What is a filter bubble?- A filter bubble is an online "circle" of information that is filtered towards you and your most frequent searches. What are the potential personal drawbacks of these filter bubbles? What are the potential problems these filter bubbles might cause for your academic research?- I feel like the personal drawbacks are similar to the drawbacks that could occur while researching. If the search only turns out information that is specific to the things I commonly search for then I am going to be getting very biased information, resulting in invalid research. What are some filter bubbles that you've noticed in your own life?- I have notices some filter bubbles in my circle of close friends. I tend to surround myself with people that believe generally the same beliefs as I do so the information I hear and the discussions I have with my friends is usually one sided. Word Count: 245

Blog Prompt 10/15/12

The Appeal to Emotion Logical Fallacy This fallacy is often used in PSA commercials as well as many "anti-" commercials. In this particular commerical, we see it being used to make viewers connect emotionally with the topic of the commercial. This commerial is an anti-texting and driving commerical that subjects arounds the story of a young girl and her story about the tragic end to her sister's life due to her reading a text from her sister while driving. This comercial uses the "Appeal to Emotion" fallacy by telling the personal story of this family's tragedy to inform people about the dangers of texting and driving. I feel that this fallacy is often very effective, I know it is for me. Whenever I see this commercial my heart breaks for this family and definitely makes me think twice before I try to text and drive. That is the point of commercials such as this, usually to make you think twice before doing whatever the commercial is against (texting and driving, drugs, alcohol, unprotected sex, ect.)or to persuade you to donate to their cause (animal shelters). These often work because of our emotions, especially for women.

Research Portfolio 10/10/12

My research question is "What negative effects is texting in the classroom having on student's grades and behavior?" My argument is that texting in the classroom is distracting students from their learning. It is negatively effecting their grades and behavior because their attention is being drawn away from using the full potential of their brain to learn. Students are more interested in the latest status update or the conversation they are having via text message with their friend that is sitting right beside them. These distractions are causing a slide in grades and causing issues with student behavior because it is causing tension between teachers and their students. Teachers want and expect the full attention of their students and the students expect to be able to do whatever they want to do (and they assume that their social media world is more important than anything else going on.) To support my argument, I would need statistics, articles (both popular and scholarly) and interviews with possibly students and teachers (getting their view of this topic.) These are the sources that I feel will be the most useful to me in my research process! With our topic being relevant and very current in the news, magazine (a credible one) articles are going to be very beneficial to me! Word Count: 216

Blog Prompt for 10/8/12

Major Discipline: Communications Database: Alt-Press Watch The results that I got from this database were really informative. There were a lot of articles about the subject I am researching specifically. I am really excited to use these kind of databases for my research. The difference between searching in a subject specific database and in Discovery?- Searching in a subject specific database narrows down specifically what I am looking for, making the process much faster I think. With Discovery, which is great because most of the results were accessible through the library, but it brings up a lot of articles and such that are not always relevant to what I need. Using the subject specific database was much easier and the majority of the articles weren't exactly relevant to what I was looking for. I think I would use both of them but probably the subject specific searching over Discovery. Discovery is a great resource because most of the results it turns out are available in the library which is very convenant but it didn't do a very good job initially of filtering out irrelevant results. If I refined research, I got some better results but that is a step more in the process than required by the subject specific databases. Word Count: 210

Research Portfolio Entry 2

Scholarly Article: Effects of Classroom Clee Phone Use on Expected and Actual Learning JASMIN D. CHACON, et al. "Effects Of Classroom Cell Phone Use On Expected And Actual Learning." College Student Journal 46.2 (2012): 323-332. Sociological Collection. Web. 7 Oct. 2012. This article looks at the risk of texting in the classroom. It mainly looks the risk of divided attention in the classroom and how it effects behavior and performance in the classroom. I plan to use this article as a part of my research by using the information about divided attention in the classroom. This will be beneficial because it will show me a first hand look into how text messaging distracts and effects students in the classroom. Popular Article: The Negative Effects of Text Messaging Burgess, Louisa. "The Negative Effects of Text Messaging." Yahoo! Contributor Network. N.p., 24 May 2008. Web. 07 Oct. 2012. . This article looks at the negative effects of text messaging in general. It looks at texting and driving, texting in the classroom as well as the negative effects of texting on our intrapersonal communications skills. I would use this article to back up the idea that texting messaging is a bad distraction in the classroom as well as other aspects of our daily lives. Word Count: 211

GALILEO Blog Prompt

In your own words, what is GALILEO? GALILEO stands for Georgia Library Learning Online and it is a public online library. They are full of articles, databases, maps, government documents, etc.
How does it organize information? GALILEO organizes information into databases which are then organized by disciplines.
What are databases? Databases are the way that online libraries organize the articles they house.
How do they organize data? Databases organize their articles by the articles discipline. Making the process of finding a desired article much easier. For example, if a person is looking for a book on cancer research. They would first search for material under the subject of medical. Then gorgeous narrow their search to articles about cancer and even more specifically cancer research.

Research Portfolio Entry 1

1.)Bringing Technology Into the Classroom Lewis, Gordon. Bringing Technology Into the Classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print. This book focuses on the issue of technology in today's classroom, looking both at the positive and negative effects of this transition. This book also gives insight into successful ways for teachers to adapt to incorporating technology into their classrooms. I would use this book to look at the ways technology is effecting that classroom and all of the changes it is putting in to action in the classroom. I feel like this book would be beneficial to use as a source of research for our project because it will give me an idea of how technology is being used in the classroom. This would help me get a better grasp of how exposed kids are to technology in the classroom. By having a good grasp on this I think it would help me see how texting in the classroom is managed. Are classes that incorporate more technology more lenient about texting rules? 2.)"Cell Phones in the Classroom: A Practical Guide for Educators" Kolb, Liz. Cell Phones in the Classroom: A Practical Guide for Educators. Eugene, Or.: International Society for Technology in Education, 2011. Print. This book focuses on how cell phones are effecting the classroom and the students in it. It is kind of like a help guide for teachers so they can adapt to the change. I would use this book because it covers pretty much every aspect of my research question. The book would also supply me with some valuable tips for teachers dealing with cell phone use in the classroom.

Blog Prompt 9/24/12- Peer Review

Peer review is important because it gives us as the writer a chance to have someone else go over our work and find grammatical and punctuation errors as well as make sure we are properly using citations and that our arguments/sentence flow makes sense. Some ways that you can tell if an article is peer-reviewed or scholarly is to look at the author, the peer reviewed pieces are not often written by experts but scholarly journals are written by experts in the topic. Peer reviewed articles are usually shorter in length and less detailed than scholarly pieces. Basically, peer-reviewed articles are more "laid back" and often for casual reading while scholarly articles are professional and for serious reading. Using peer review once you have your first rough draft can be very be beneficial as well as right before you turn your assingment in. Peer review is not always accurate and should not be the "end all, be all" of your research but it is a good start and it is always good to get a second eye to look at you work. One way I use peer review in my everyday life is with clothing. I have to have my mom‘s or another woman approval before I will by anything. I count on them to review my outfit and see if it needs some changes. Word count: 245

Blog Prompt 9/17/12

For our project, I think the resources that would be the most useful would be newspapers, popular magazines and governement documents. I feel that these are the most useful because texting in the classroom is a relatively recent topic of interest but I don't toss away the use of the other resources. If we could find any scholarly books about texting, we could use them to get an expert perspective on the effects that texting has on a student in the classroom. Also, if we could find a scholarly book about delinquency and misbehaving in the classroom, we could use that information to look at the way the inforcement of rules effects student's behavior. Popular magazine would be useful in finding the youth's perspective on the topic, also a good source of survey based information. Newspapers are the sources of information that are constantly being updated and released to the press in a quick fashion, allowing for up to date information. Government documents will provide us with statistics, criminal reports and school progress information. The encyclopedia will be a tough one, mainly just using it to find basic information about texting. We could use the scholarly journal entries in the same way we use the scholarly books. We could use them as expert information on our topic. Word Count: 217

Wednesday 9-12-12 Blog Prompt

My research question did not really change. I consulted my fellow group members because I was concerned that my question was too broad. They assured me that the question was fine, not too broad and not to narrow, which gave me a definite boost of confidence. So, as it stands today, my research question is, "What negative effects is texting having on student's grades and their behavior in the classroom?" I decided not to change it after speaking with the other group members and hearing their research questions. All of our questions flow really well together and we are all looking at the negative aspect of our respective topics which, I think, will make for a solid argument. Some of the resources I think will need are statistics about student’s grades, showing whether or not texting in the classroom is having a positive or negative effect on their grades. I would also like to talk to some of my friends who are teachers and see what they have to say about students and texting in the classroom. I would like to see if they see a change in behavior and grades in students when texting is banned from the classroom. Word Count: 200

Monday 9-10-12 Blog Prompt

As of now, my research question is, What are the negative effects that texting is having on student's grades and behavior in the classroom? I think it is a good research question because it has a solid 2 stance platform (someone could look at the positive side, if there is one, of texting in the classroom) and it is not a topic that is too broad or too narrow. What knowledge did you gain about your topic as a result of the research you’ve conducted so far? So far, I have learned that texting has taken a toll on students grades and behavior. Also, texting policies have caused issues on student/teacher realtionships, causing students to act out and cause tension in the classroom. The aspect of this topic that I would like to learn more about is the teachers side of this subject. I would like to know what they think. Do they think texting is ok? How strict are their texting policies? Do they find students do better in the classroom when a texting policy is instilled or when there is not a rule against texting in the classroom? I would also like to hear from the students and see what they think about this issue? Do they think texting is as big of a deal as we think it is? Word Count: 222

Our group's topic for our research project

Our group chose texting as our research topic. I think this is a solid research topic because there are a lot of aspects of texting that are relevant to the world we live in today. We looked at many different aspects and effects of texting like; the dangers of texting and driving/walking, the effects of texting in the class room, “sexting” and its effects on our society, and the medical issues and concerns linked to texting. I think you made us choose our topics from pulling news sources because finding our topics from up-to-date news sources makes certain that our topic is relevant and it gives us a chance to use the knowledge we acquired in class about finding a research topic and putting it to use in a practical application. The aspect of this subject that interests me the most about texting is the effects of texting in the classroom. I am interested in looking at how texting effects students grades and classroom performance, also how teachers banning texting in their classroom effects students behavior. Does it make the issue worse? Are students more likely to rebel? Or does banning texting actually result in a positive outcome in the classroom?

How to find a book in the library!

For this project, my group found the steps to finding a book in the library. My specific role in this project was to put together the power point to present to the "blogsphere". I suggested that we add pictures to our power point presentation so Candace and I went into the library and took pictures of her going through every step of the process. I had great partners in this project which made it go so much smoother, I am very thankful for that!

Group Project Topic Ideas!

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/swineflu/h3n2v-outbreak.htm
Who?: The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. What?: Information on the most recent outbreak of the h3n2v Influenza (strain of the "swine flu") When?: This outbreak is still in the early stages and very current. The page was last updated on August 24, 2012 Where?: Information comes from the CDC website. Why?: The CDC website is a good source because it is unbiased, very up-to-date and a government website which indicates that it's information is trustworthy.


http://www.ted.com/talks/max_little_a_test_for_parkinson_s_with_a_phone_call.html
Who?: TED Conferences, Max Little
What?: Discussing the spike in Parkinson's disease, Little describes his idea for testing for the disease by the use of a phone call.
When?: It was filmed in June of 2012 and posted August of 2012
Where? Information comes from the TED website
Why?: The TED Conferences hold some of the most well known and respected speakers of their respectable fields. They are always researching and looking into the new/up-in-coming topics in their fields. The website holds a lot of current and solid information


http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hay-fever/DS00174
Who?: The Mayo Clinic Staff
What?: Discusses the symptoms, treatment options and prevention tips of Hay Fever
When?: Last updated July 17, 2012
Where?: Found the information through the Mayoclinic website. A very reliable and trustworthy source for all things medical/science related.
Why? To inform readers of the symptoms of Hay Fever and how they can get rid of and avoid Hay Fever.


Word Count: 237

REACT!

(R) is for relevance. Any time you are searching for a website to use as a resource, you much make sure that the website's content is relevant to the topic on which you are writing about and or researching. For example, you wouldn't want to site a website about unicorns when your research topic is the life and history of Mark Twain. That website could be the very best and most reliable website for unicorn information but it will serve you useless in your quest to find Mark Twain related information.
(E) is for experience. When considering a website to use as a source, the experience of the author is an important piece of information to think about. People with experience in the field of which is being studied most often write the best and most accurate information. That isn't always the case but more times than not, it is. I mean, you wouldn't want to site a website in which Mark Twain wrote about unicorns. Honestly, what does he know about unicorns?... Or websites?
(A) is for audience. The audience to which the website is geared is very important. You wouldn't want to use a website that is very obviously meant for children with information about unicorns when your research topic is equistrian history.
(C) is for currency. It is very important for a websites information to be up to date. If you use a website with out of date information, it could very well turn into incorrect information. This is especially true when writing about scientific information.
(T) is for trustworthy. Being able to trust that the website and it's information are completely and absolutely true, is one of, if not the most important aspect of searching for a website to use as a resource.

Hello all! I think the only thing I am still sort of confused on regarding the library space would be still trying to get used to the layout of the facilities and knowing my way around. I have been at UWG for three years and the library has changed ALOT since my first year as a wolf. It's definitely an adjustment but I am excited for the change that is and has already taken place .Regarding any confusion with the class, I am not really confused but more curious as to how group work is going to be done. Will most of our work be done via email or online communication or while in class? I am sure that those questions will be answered in class though! I am most excited about being able to navigate my way around a computer more efficiently and grasp a better knowledge of online resources like Google Docs and things like that. I am also excited to be able to use the library resources more effectively and be able to maneuver my way around the library and be able to hopefully help people use and maneuver their way around the library more efficiently also.

Word Count: 200 Words

Introduction Time!

Hi everyone!

My name is Megan Blair. I am from Paulding County Georgia but my heart (and my family) are from Kentucky! We are huge Kentucky Wildcats fans, we bleed blue in our house! :)

I am working towards my Bachelors degree in Sociology and I hope to become an international adoption agent upon the completion of that degree.

I am taking this class because it was one of the options for my required electives and it fit in well with my schedule. Also, I am curious to learn more about the resources that are available in the library.

I wish I knew more about my family's history. I would love to know more about where I come from and how my family was built. I hope to eventually know more about these things, I would love to be able to share that with my children.


A fun fact about me is that I am a nanny to a 5 month old little boy and he is absolutely awesome! It is a joy to watch him grow and change everyday! My job is awesome!

I am excited to learn more about you all!
- Megan Blair