Wednesday in class I had my research question
generation document revised by Sarah Smyder.
My research question is: To what extent does social communication
through technology have effects on the literacy of students at the University
of Central Florida. She helped me
organize my information and help reword my research question. After getting her opinion, it was much easier
to reword my question into something much more complex. Sarah said it was good that I clearly stated
why I wanted to research on the issue, which is because of my major in
education. It is also clear that I will
not use binary thinking on my research. I
also had many grammar mistakes that needed correction and some filler. I am much more confident on my paper after
the revision workshop. Thanks Sarah!
Here is my paper:
Here is my paper:
Research Question Generation Document
Kimberly King
ENC 1102
Professor Vives
August 31st 2012
My Literacy Past
Throughout
childhood every person has many different influences and experiences that make
them unique. Exposer to literacy has a
noticeable impact on a child’s life.
From bedtime stories to social medias, all types of literacy shape an
individual’s literacy history. I am very
fortunate to say that my childhood was filled with a positive literacy
environment and literacy sponsors that helped me excel in my future. I will
be discussing my literacy environment when I was younger, my literacy sponsors,
and my reading/writing habits.
From the moment I was born literacy
was all around me. My parents were my
first literacy sponsors. Like most
parents they quickly did everything they could to teach me how to speak. When I was an infant, my parents read to me
often, especially because my sister was learning to read at the time. I became interested in listening to my
mother, father, and older sister read to me around one year old. We would have bedtime stories every night and
still remember my favorite book being Cloudy
With a Chance of Meatballs. I also
recall my love for the library as a young child. My father works in the hotel business, which
forced us to move to seven different states throughout my childhood because of
job relocation. Every new state we would
move to I would get excited to receive a new library card. My mother would take my sister and I to the
library regularly to check out new books.
As soon as I walked into the library, I would head straight to the Junie
B. Jones books and sometimes I even read them twice. Books were always involved in my childhood
and I am very thankful that my parents exposed me to so much literacy at such a
young age.
Another kind of literacy I was
exposed to in childhood was technology.
I was fortunate enough to have a computer at home. My mother would buy my sister and I computer
games that we couldn’t get enough of, for instance, Oregon Trail, which were
both a fun and knowledgeable type of game.
I would also create Neopet accounts.
This was my first time being able to interact with people through the
computer. I then created a MySpace and Facebook,
which really got me interested in the computer and all of its perks. When I received my first essay assignments in
middle school I began using Microsoft Word to compose my work. My sister would help me out with any
questions I had on the programs, but for the most part, I clicked around and
figured everything out by myself. I even
began downloading books onto my iPad, that I fortunately received as a
Christmas present in high school, because I enjoyed reading them on there
rather than paper. I became very “tech
savvy” and used a computer for almost everything.
My parents were my first literacy
sponsors and I first realized that they gave me a great literacy background
when I began attending school. My teachers then became my literacy sponsors
as well. I had always somewhat enjoyed
my English and Writing classes in school.
I would say I am a creative person and in these classes I was always
able to show that side of me. Summer
readings were never a struggle because of my background of reading library
books regularly. I had always received
good grades in these classes but never really considered myself an amazing
writer.
It wasn’t until my summer B session
at UCF that I discovered myself as a writer.
I took Composition 1 and our last project about the writing process
greatly helped my writing. We did a
“self-study” for a week to discover our reading and writing habits. Every hour we would write down what we had
read or written and rank our feelings, distractions, location, etc. After I had collected my data, I discovered
many patterns in my reading and writing that I could either keep up or
change. The biggest thing I learned from
my study, as silly as it sounds, is that distractions work in my favor. I would need music, breaks, and interruptions
to help me get my work done. If I sat at
my desk for three hours straight, I would not be able to write my best
work. I am very glad that I discovered
my reading and writing habits my first semester of college.
Research Question
For my research paper I wanted to find a topic that I was
passionate about in order to ensure that I would enjoy working on it for the
rest of the year. Also, it is proven
that you excel most in work you do that you are passionate about, rather than
something you don’t enjoy learning about.
For those reasons, I chose to somewhat relate my topic to my major,
education. My question that I want to
research about is: What effects does using social communication through
technology have on students of the University of Central Florida? I will be discussing my reasons why I want to
research this question, what I would like to learn from it, and how my class
readings can relate to it.
I am interested in researching this question because I have been
using social medias and texting for the past few years throughout school and I
am curious to what effects it has on myself as well as others. I feel that playing around on the computer
has helped me with problem solving and has enabled me able to figure things out
on my own. I couldn’t imagine not having
social networks and texting because all of that easy communication would be
lost. I would also love to be able to share the
knowledge I find out about social medias and texting to educate others, since I
am an education major. In my opinion I
don’t find a problem with using social medias, however, others think
differently. Some say it effects
self-esteem, grammar, and wastes time. I
have seen many cyber bullying instances that really effect teens. Maybe it should be proven that social medias
are becoming more of a negative than a positive.
I want to learn if texts and social medias are hurting or helping
our societies literacy. I feel it is
important to know this answer because of how big social medias and texting have
become. I want to research on the
statistics of how fast Facebook and other sites are growing. Our society may become so focused on these
types of communication that it gets out of control and causes negative effects
on education. This research can be used
to help our future in either promoting or degrading the two.
I would want to research people on both sides of my question. People who feel they cannot live without
social networking and texting and people who barely or never use it. My data
will be collected from students at the University of Central Florida. This way I can get both sides of the
situation and not be biased. I will be
sure to keep an open mind while doing my research because I know I use social
networking and texting frequently. I
would also research about other people’s findings through books and the
Internet.
In the reading, The Future
of Literacy, it is explained how technology is advancing in our society and
helping with education. (DeVoss 183-211) This is the reading that sparked my research
question. The authors claim that
learning technology throughout childhood really has its benefits since our
society is so heavily based on it. They
declare that it is has a positive effect on our literacy. I would like to further their research and
figure out how accurate their claims are.
No comments:
Post a Comment