Blog #12

G: Okay, my name is Gigi; umm we are going to be doing a study about teaching and texting in the classroom

E: okay

G: Okay so my first question to you is what kind of phone do you have and what have you had previously

E: okay I know it wouldn’t normally be a loaded question but Im going to warn you in advance a talker so I am going to apologize in advance if you need to do transcription work

G: laughs yes

E: okay im sorry, it will help but at the same time you’re going to be like oh my god

G: its okay

E: okay so basically right now I have an iphone 4s I have pretty much had every phone since cellphones became popular back when I was 17 still in high school. I remember, I kind of uh I cant think of the word, so basically uhh I cant think of the word but I started out with a flip phone that was about yay big and it was a sprint phone and it acutally had an antenna, it was a really big deal it was like top of the line at the time, then I switched to T-mobile. And got a flip phone when flip phones were just becoming the big things. Um I guess like this is so horrible to say but im like a phone whore, like I have to have the best of the best

G: laughs

E: So then after I switched from tmobile I went to Verizon um and I had honestly I don’t even think I can tell you it was a fancier phone It had the colored screen and the whole nine and before Verizon ended up getting the iphone my brother convinced me to go to ATT with him so we actually both cut the strings on Verizon early in order to get uh an iphone with ATT and so um I had an iphone 3 or 3g and I literally had that thing until I would say three years I could not believe it was still alive.

G:laughs

E: Now I am with the 4s and I am probably due to get a new one soon but I am trying to hold out to see and wait for the six to come out or something like that so

G:Okay

E: yeah

G:um so what is your history or first initial thought of texting, do you remember when you first started texting or..

E: umm yeah um yeah I looked over these questions so I could think in advance but honestly I am going to tell you im like oh wow

G: laughs it okay

E: umm okay so I remember when I got my cellphone in highschool not many people had it yet me and my bestfriend got a plan together and texting like um what is more prominent in the beginning I can say for me was instant messenger. Which I think is sort of I know ancient

G: yes like aim

E: yes exactly and it seems totally like you know that’s not texting but that to me stands out more than the idea of texting. Texting kind of came along sort of like when everybody had a cellphone. And because when I first had a cellphone not everyone had one so it wasn’t a big deal to text for me.

G: that’s true..

E: yeah I literally had no one to text really that much in the beginning, I just thought it was cool that there was like you know a phone that you could carry around for the purpose of you know a cellphone was originally intended.

G: laughs

E: and then it was like you know zack from saved by the bell had like this gi-gundo phone that was like you know that’s the sort of thing I remember. Yeah so..

G: yes okay that works

E: laughs

G: umm do you text differently to different people or could you give me an example when you text differently.

E: sure, um I can tell you one thing I know for a fact and this actually goes along with instant messenger but I see the same thing on text and it like annoys me is that it depends on what the words are but I don’t like text-ys like I don’t like spelling the words wrong

G: yeah me too

E: and I don’t know if that’s the English major in me and I don’t know if its uhh but I think people like you know I sort of think youre an idiot, now that depends on who it is, its not like um you know, if my sister who is 11 years younger than me, who is a junior texts me she has a tendency to say things the right ways too you know even when were arguing in text messages were spelling things right

G: laughs

E: um so I just kind of, and I think I just surround myself with people who use that but I can tell you that there are certain people that I used to be friends with that I don’t really talk to anymore and it has nothing to do with the texting part but there are certain people I associate with the bad, poor form when it comes to texting and I hated it, like it drove me nuts like for some reason WUT for what made me insane

G: oh my god me too.

E:I don’t know why

G: my friends actually call me grammar police because I am always correcting them and I freak out

E: see I hate it, yeah I agree

G: like your youre or their there and theyre

E: YESS

G: yeah I know how you feel

E:Theres a reason why they are spelled differently

G: laughs Im the same way

E: yeah see that kind of stuff drives me nuts, yeah

G: laughs

E: laughs

G: umm okay do you ever use texting for work purposes

E: I do actually um and this could just be because im really close to my boss and im really close to um I would say mia zammora, whose my boss right now, is uh probably the boss ive been the closest to and I have always had good working realtionships, but because mia and I are so close and were collegeues but were also friends, were constantly texting

G: Okay

E;: yeah

G: okay so umm how do you use texting on a daily basis, basically for just quick things, like will you text quick things or youd rather call someone

E; um honestly im one of those people that prefers email and verbal communication I mean written communication to verbal at all times, and I was one of those people that like um I remember when I was in highschool and 14 and I had my own phone number in my room and I would spend hours on the phone talking to my friends after school about absolutely nothing

G:laughs

E: soon as I got into the world of like um you know at the time it was like prodigy, instant messenger, excite, like all of those old school uh like you know pre cursors to what the internet is like now like aol, I never had aol but I did have all of the other stuff. And uh that, Ive always felt more comfortable writing rather than speaking and I think its because I have time to think about what I am going to say, and that goes with texts too. Like, so um I text constantly and I would say that you know, ATT has that roll over plan, between my brother and I, and now my fiancé is also on the plan, we have so many minutes we lose them at the end of the year. Cause its just we all text, that’s just how it is.

G: laughs, same with my family.

E: so yeah

G: so yeah, you prefer texting…

E: yeah, laughs

G: um so your thoughts on texting, both negative and positive, so you think basically positive

E: yeah I would say definitely overall I do not see texting as a negative thing. Um uhh I don’t know, I know youre not leading me but im wondering, im thinking to myself how does this impact my classroom and do I see my students writing the way they text

G: that will come yes, laughs

E: that coming, laughs, alright so go ahead

G: well you can begin, do you think terms of texting are used in common speech or in your students papers or anything

E: umm you know what, umm okay so I teach here at kean and I have taught English 2020 which is writing, I am now teaching 3090 which is business and professional writing and I have taught uhh wrting for cyberpance which is 3080 and I have also for the past 8 semesters taught graduate students online at Rutgers, um in a web base multi media for a design course and they all have to uhh give me papers that are formatted appropriately depending you know if its apa or mla and in terms of things they are submitting, the kids that I see face to face are obviously not having the same discussions that my online students are having, and my online students are grad students but that does not necessarily mean that the content is any less you know. I mean they can very easily you know start talking to each other the way that you know maybe my undergrad students would

G: yeah that’s understandable

E: so you know ill say that probably, and I even have a habit of, ill throw in smiley faces at the end of my emails, sometimes ill question whether or not its approrpirate but I want to come off as being nice or friendly so ill use them. That’s something that you know prior to texting I never would have been doing. Um my students in papers and things like that I do see it, you know they are not spelling later, l8r you know that’s not like, I don’t, I have not seen where its transcended the boundary between the screen and you know papers that they submit to me in person. But I hear it’s a problem but ive yet to see it. Maybe its because I don’t have comp and maybe you know in comp they switch but I don’t know

G: yeah you didn’t experience it

E:yeah no, definelty not

G: um okay, so if texting ever came up with any previous conversations with your collegues, what was mentioned about it, was it more negative or positive

E: um do you mean just talking about texting in general

G: yeah texting or texting in their classrooms like how would you feel if your students text in your classroom, is that a big deal to you

E: um is it me including it in a lesson or is it my kids being rude

G: laughs well both

E: um okay so I can that I was actally amazed cause ive taught uhh I started teaching online long before I started teaching face to face and  I was always um under the impression that the students I would have face to face were going to ignore me for the screen because the first class I ever taught wasa writing for cyberspace and they all have screens in front of them and I was like here we go they are going to be facebooking and I imagined some of them were doing that but for the most part I do know for a fact that a lot of them and I don’t know if this is their ability to multi task, which a lot of people say is disproved, I can say that I am a class act multi tasker, I can do it with no problem. I really think in general, women are much better at it than men.

G: Laughs I agree

E: that being said um as long as they are following me with the discussion I have no problem but I don’t not see like my kids last semester, none of them would like pull out their cellphone and start you know texting or whatever, like ever. And you know a lot of them told me that they prefer using their notebooks and I was like amazed. And I said okay this is great, either im just really lucky or like you know they are not rude about it. I will say this semester, I do have some kids that will just leave their phones out and ill see them outright just texting and stuff and I actually called them out on it Tuesday night. And  I said trust me I see every little thing that youre doing, I was a student at one point and I know what goes on, I know if im bored in a classroom or irritated because a student is being distracting, or if im thinking about other things and I might use my phone but for the most part the only thing  that would concern me is that, its really rude.  I said you don’t se me texting my friends or fiancé when I don’t feel like dealing with or talking about a particular topic youre not understanding cause you didn’t do a reading or something. You know what I mean, it’s a two way street and ya know could you just be respectful basically. Um I haven’t really talked about it with my collegues, although I will say that a long time ago Linda Best, I don’t know if you remember Dr. Best but she used to be chair and she said that in order to keep her students from texting or phoning in the classroom she said that the first day of class she actually had her husband call her at the start of class and while she was writing on the board she was talking to him and she wanted to show them how incredibly rude it is to text or talk on the phone or something. Cause you know, they are looking at her like youre the professor, why aren’t you paying attention to us- what are you doing and I was like that is brilliant. And so I remember that and I was like that is such a good thing to do and I seriously considered doing it but I really haven’t had much of an issue with it, but if it gets bad I will definetly try to pull something like that at some point.

G: so you would never want your students to use their phones for note taking or

E: see that’s an entirely different thing, im actually um cause I study, my big thing is uhh, my dissertation is going to be on video games and learning in the classroom and I am very much into technology and teaching teachers how to use technology effectively. Specifically um a big thing that has come out now besides like ipad apps is such is like twitter and things like that which is obviously ya know a prevalent phone usage and uh things things that you can do on the phone and you know the whole BYOD or bring your own device movement would not be happening if students didn’t have cell phones. Because they may not have internet or word or access to something in the classroom like one to one initiative  or at home but a lot of them tend to have top of the line smart phones. So, that said I am a huge advocate of using the cellphone in class when appropriate, I have not used it as much because believe it or not I have gotten some push back from my students. Um the first class that I taught um last spring with uh whats it called, cyberspace. They said to me that they hated facebook, they hated twitter and the only thing that they liked was instagram and they..

G: that is the new thing

E: yeah that is like the one thing that I don’t really get into, my sister is into it, I have friends that are really into it but that is the one thing that I just never got into. So basically the whole thing with like having um I was very surprised that my students were you know like anti social networking, using their phone, that sort of thing because they were more concerned with you know um maybe instagram or whatever else. When I tried to get them to use twitter in the classroom they were kind of like complaining to me about it and im like really like this is that horrible. Some of them understood but others were just like no. sorry I kinda went off

G: no its okay laughs, um just need to see what else to cover,

E; yeah I may have ended up covering most of it, laughs

G:laughs yes umm so for the future you would say that it is a good thing to start texting in the classroom, like note taking wise using phones and everything

E: um I think, is that what your study is mainly based on

G: um I don’t know im going off on a tangent and then going to do some analysis and then decide

E: yeah that’s okay that is usually how research starts I was thinking to myself on the way here im not really exactly sure what direction she is going in but I know ill give her enough to think about lots of different things

G: laughs

E: laughs yeah but I will say that as far as notetaking goes, ive done it. When I was still taking classes for um my phd like back in uh I started back in 2009 and I remembered thinking and sitting in the classroom and now I have an ipad and we haven’t had stuff like that before and um I would carry my laptop, most of the times I carry my laptop now. Now I have a mac so that’s lighter than the laptop, the ipad is lighter than all of that but I had you know my 3g iphone and I would take notes and I was always thinking to myself, the professors are going to think im texting. And I would purposely put it down so they could see the little yellow notepad because I did not want them to think I was being disrespectful. Because I know that if I was the professor, and this is before I was even teaching face to face, I would not them thinking that I was being disrespectful beasically. So if my students were taking, you know sometimes I will give them looks and they will be like no its notes see, and they will show me and im like okay I didn’t say anything but the fact that they are on top of that to me says okay I know that you are not like texting under your desk or whatever, so I am not against it because I am a tech advocate and that is not going to change I don’t think. Um I don’t know I just kind of found the fact that you were talking specifically about notetaking interesting. Im like im wondering how did that come about.

G: laughs yeah im not quite sure, so you find it positive in the classroom

E: yeah

G: I think I going to go more along the lines of texting in the classroom when appropriate, so like your other educators or like um Mia you were saying she is your boss,

E: yes

G: do you think she feels the same way about texting in the classroom or like how students use their phones in the classrooms

E: mia got really into electronic literature, she actually taught e lit like I think it was a yar ago. Um about the same time we started working together, she realized what um what I taught and um how much I believe in the idea of um teachers using technology and using it in the classroom and everything else and we sort of both got into it from you know at the same exact times. She’s more of the humanities section cause she is the digital humanities because her background is English, mines education but I was a dual English education here so its part of my background and you know, English is just natural and im around it a lot. But basically so were both into it but from slightly different aspects. That being said, she did electronic literature and she is obsessed with using the phone in the classroom because she would have authors come in.. she would have them tweet conversations and you know like put it up on the board and they would all tweet about readings and then she would try and find the authors of the people that were um writing some of the articles so the students could ask questions directly to them, which I thought was really cool thing, so she is gong ho about it too.

G: is that the back splash or is that something different

E: um I don’t know how she did it, I mean like I know there is like back channeling and there is tweet chat and there are different ways of like maintaining a conversation using like a hashtag that you know so that way you don’t have to disseminate like 50 thousand conersations for you to follow but um I don’t know exactly what she used I just know that she jumped into it the second she realized like just how cool techonolgoy was and im just like hey there is someone else who likes this as much as I do, so her yes, I don’t know about other people in the department.

G: okay so.. you indirectly answered the questions without me actually having to answer . laughs

E: laughs that happens a lot, I don’t know how many people you have interviewed but that happens a lot.. laughs

G: laughs.. um basically, last question do you feel texting is taking over todays generation

E: um I definitely think that it is becoming like I don’t know, a lot of times people say social networking and you know where is the social part, because we are all like these isolated beings that are sitting in our houses talking to each other through texts and were meeting people online and you know were not, are we going out together, are we doing things together, I think that its definitely helping I would say people because I honestly am not one of those people, I may come off as like really outgoing and stuff like that but the whole idea of meeting people and making friendships and stuff, ill start talking to you if you know you talk to me first but I would say its much easier for me to get to know someone through like reading them almost, and I would say the more uhh high school students and the more that it is used at the earlier grades like the more it is going to sort of take over but I know there is going to be a back lash by people who just don’t understand and I think that is kind of the way everything goes in general and in history and you know people who are just against certain things, and people having rights and things like that, there is always going to be people who are old school about things and that’s going to set into motion sort of things. I think that what it is is that we really need to teach media literacy and being savvy  and knowing when it is appropriate to use these things and you know sort of setting these guidelines. Part of it is parents saying no phone usage or no whatever and part of it is teachers saying it is okay to use it here and when/ if whatever.

G: so appropriate use basically

E: yes exactly, it needs to be, and it needs to be outlined and discussed more its never really talked about and I don’t think it is. I think it is more like no phones are bad, texts are bad. Or yeah im really into the idea of it. But you know that is not going to work, it needs to be more gray

G: yes right now it is black or white.

E: yes exactly

G: okay that’s basically it.