Frances

Boyle

ENG 306

Dr. Kang

 Media Use in the Modern Classroom

“I think like any tool, there is opportunity and danger. We need to think about the ways

that we can integrate the tools of the 21st century and prepare for the work outside the

classroom.” This was said by Dr. Matthew Bolton, a professor from Gonzaga University who has

dedicated his life studies to understanding literature in terms of alternative styles such as film.

Dr. Bolton is not the only one who has shifted to a non-traditional style of teaching, in order to

attempt to relate to students, who are in a generation where technology is all around. Dr.

Ladislaus Semali from the University of Pennsylvania said, “In such a media saturated society, it

is more critical than ever for young people to to be informed consumers of the information

made available through diverse forms of media accessible to them” (Semali, 35). He stresses

the importance of not just incorporating media into educational studies, but incorporating it in

a strategic and intentional way. College students today are constantly exposed to a diverse

collection of media outlets, so rather than accepting the media as mindless entertainment,

guiding students down a path to use it to their educational advantage may be the key to the

active minds of the current generation.

The theoretical framework guiding my research is the generational phenomenon of the

ever-evolving technological world around us. If we are constantly interacting with media and

technology, it seems that it should have a place in academia as well. My research delves into

the question of, “What are the current attitudes surrounding technology use in the English

department of college courses?” Followed by, “What are the advantages, or disadvantages?” As

a college student studying integrated media, technology has been a vital part of my education.

The utilization of evolving media has been widely taken advantage of in my department, which
led me to ask the question of, “are other departments embracing this teaching style, or

attempting to use it to their personal gain?” English studies have always seemed, to me, to be

the most traditional form of learning. Reading, writing, and analyzing; there did not appear to

be much room for evolution or advancement in this field. After a study done by Christoph A.

Hafner, who followed English students working on multimodal writing assignments and digital

rhetoric, he concluded that his research suggested that “these developments are leading to a

paradigm shift in forms of representation, moving from the logic of the page to the logic of the

screen” (Hafner, 658). Through my own research I found that more teachers are discovering the

use of technology, particularly in literature studies than ever. "[B]eing literate in contemporary

society means being active, critical, and creative users of print and spoken language, as well as

the visual language of film and television, commercial and political advertising, and more . . ."

(International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English [IRA/NCTE],

2000). Critical analysis of text does not have to be just from a book, but can be seen all around

us in our fast pace world today.

Since the research I conducted was qualitative research, my method for data collection

revolved a lot around personal interactions. I selected two professors for interviews using

unique sampling. “A unique sample is based on unique, atypical, perhaps rare attributes or

occurrences of the phenomenon of interest” (Merriam, 77). After doing research through the

Gonzaga University English Department, I identified Dr. Matthew Bolton, who teaches and

studies film studies, and Dr. Chase Bollig, who teaches Multimodal Literature, and a Digital

Literature as a First Year Seminar. I selected these two as the attributes they had as professors

was relevant to my research as they had extensive backgrounds in media studies. These
professors used media in the classroom, but each one a little differently. Dr. Bollig’s class used

technology quite interactively, while Dr. Bolton heavily emphasized the critical analysis skill.

Both could agree on the common goal of relating to student and showing them their

competence to draw academic conclusions from the world around them.

I was careful to ensure that each question I crafted was significant and open ended. I

practiced conducting the interview questions with a classmate, so that each question was

worded clearly, concisely and easy to understand. Through this process I was able to revisit and

revise the collection of questions before going into the actual interview. “For novice

interviewers, in fact, it is best to use the interview as a methodological tool only after

considerable effort has been put into the development of questions and also after practice

conducting an interview” (Kinkead, 38). I ended up having very productive and insightful

conversation with both professors. I left the interview processes with a total of about 40

minutes of audio recording to listen back to and transcribe. Having those recordings made the

process of transcribing much easier, as I was able to stop and rewind to make sure I got every

detail of what they said. The personal conversation I had with these professors helped me gain

insight not just on the fact that teachers are exploring this more, but the attitudes that they

hold around this subject. “Qualitative researchers are interested in understanding how people

interpret their experiences, how they construct their worlds, and what meaning they attribute

to their experiences” (Merriam, 5). The way both professors talked with so much passion

towards their subject of teaching, it was clear that there was deeper meaning to them in their

decision to teach students in this way. From this study I was aiming to understand how people

experience these types of classroom settings and what they take away from it.
 I wanted to draw a conclusion not just on how many teachers are using this method but

why. Strategically crafting my questions so that they would give my in-depth and thoughtful

answers was something crucial to the quality of my research. My second method of research

was observations. I was able to shadow one of Dr. Bolligs classrooms, where he taught

multimodal writing. In the Research Process it is stated that, “for the purpose of studying

writing, the culture is often the classroom” (Kinkead, 35), when referring to the practice of

participant observation, in which a researcher is placed in the culture of the study. I wanted to

hear what was beyond the teacher’s opinions and listen in to their class discussions. This way I

was able to see things beyond writing such as facial expressions, voice fluctuation and body

language of the students involved. Though I had a bit of trouble with scheduling and finding a

class where there was active participation by all students, this still offered the kind of raw

insight that a survey or interview cannot provide. To record and organize my data, I drew from

an exercise called “Take a Walk,” in which I had a table that was divided into three sections;

description, interpretation, and further reflection. By doing this it helped me take quick

accurate notes while in the situation, and then analyze them after I left the site. By going

through my notes right after, I could draw meaningful conclusions, and have it organized

together with my raw data. This was very helpful in my data analysis later on, my conclusive

theories were already picked out and organized. “…field notes can permit you to focus and

freeze your vision, whereas raw video data may later overwhelm you with unmediated

representation of activity” (Leander and Prior, 207). I was able to get about two and a half

pages of significant field notes from my observations, that was useful in interpreting and

understanding the way students took the class. Seeing the buzz of the classroom and the
overall atmosphere show me how the students truly felt and perceived the information given to

them.

My last research method was surveying. For my survey participants I approached it with

typical purposeful sampling. “A typical sample would be one that is selected because it reflects

the average person, situation, or instance of the phenomenon of interest” (Merriam 2009). I

decided that my demographics for the survey should be a little more general and take a sample

of just college kids at Gonzaga University. I wanted to see how everyone viewed media use in

the classroom, not necessarily specific to any majors. Seeing the wider range of responses gave

me an idea of most student’s general opinions on the matter. I was a little more strategic in

aiming the survey towards the students of my interviewees to see the other side of their

responses. I asked Dr. Bollig and Dr. Bolton to distribute the survey to their students, to get a

deeper understanding of where students stand on technology use in college. I received 28

responses from college students at Gonzaga University in which I asked them eight questions

about their personal use of technology in all their classes, what effect it had on their efficiency

and how reliant they were on it. I conducted an online survey through the website Survey

Monkey as suggested by the The Research Process. “The ease of access to electronic survey

instruments has made these attractive vehicles for conducting research” (Kinkead 43). Through

surveying students, I was hoping to gain a more collective view of how a majority of students

felt about their own personal learning and benefits, when media use and technology came into

play.

As for my role as the researcher throughout this process, I tried to stay mainly on the

outside as to not create a bias on any of my findings. When interviewing Dr. Bolton and Dr.
Bollig I made sure that with my follow-up questions and responses I did not add my own

opinion into the discussion. According to Jane Agee, “Part of the process of developing

questions in qualitative research is being reflective about how the questions will affect

participants’ lives and how the questions will position the researcher in relation to participants”

(Agee, 443). Before the interview, I made it clear why I was conducting the interview in the first

place and where the information would be going. This gave them to option to be anonymous or

not, and to give answers that they felt most comfortable giving. It also made my intentions

clear so that they know exactly where any of the information they say is going, and what the

purpose is. When conducting my survey, I did have to be careful with the wording of my

questions, so as to welcome all opinions, and be clear that there were no obvious answers.

According to Thomas Newkirk, “As a simple rule of thumb, we might ask how we would feel if

we were the subject of this study…” (Newkirk, 41). I was careful when crafting the questions to

consider people who might be on the negative side of technology in the classroom. Not only did

the questions need to be neutral, but they needed to be clear and simple so that everyone

could understand and answer with confidence. It is easy as the researcher, to behave superior

as they are the ones with the background knowledge. It is noteworthy though, to understand

that the best results will come from those subjects that are comfortable and feel well

respected, valued and equal to the researcher. When conducting my observations in the

classroom, I established myself to the class so that it was clear what I was doing but I did not

interfere with any of their class work. After stating my business in the class, I simply sat in the

back and just observed what the students were discussing and working on.
 In an elongated research process such as this one, I ended with an immense amount of

data to sift through. This was something I had predicted though, so starting early in the analysis

was key to keeping an organized research process. “Start coding as you collect and format your

data, not after all fieldwork has been completed. When your write up fieldnotes, transcribe

recorded interviews, or file documents you gathered from the site, jot down any preliminary

words or phrases for codes on the notes…” (Saldana, 21). When going through the material I

watched for positive and negative things said about the topic. Surprisingly, a majority of the

feedback I got was very positive. When going through my first interview transcriptions,

common themes would arise, such as the goal for student relation, English as a versatile subject

and the goal of students being able to use their English skills everywhere in life

When it came time for data reduction, I was careful in reducing my data to significant

words and phrases that were relevant to what I was trying to understand. Things like

“integration” or “connections.” I also drew from specific phrases that were to be interpreted as

something similar, but did not explicitly say so. “All researchers reduce their data: some to

numbers, some to words, some to both… The researcher’s task is to take this amorphous mass

of data and reduce it to something comprehensible and useful” (Smagorinsky, 397). By doing

this, I was able to identify what was going to be useful to my data and were reoccurring

themes. Finding those reoccurring themes helped me understand what was significant to pull

out of my data and what was the majority opinion. Through the transcribing process of my

interviews I tried to be as diligent as possible. I took notes of important things during the

interview and went back later with the recordings to fill in the gaps. Though my transcriptions

are detailed, it would have been even more impactful through a video taped interview, as I
wasn’t able to catch the times where the professor would light up, or capture the excitement in

their voice. “In the same way, a transcript of talk offers only partial representation of talk.

Variations in loudness, pitch, and speed are ignored or represented in quite limited ways…Even

the most detailed transcription systems capture only small portions of any behavior” (Leander

and Prior, 209). For this research project, the written transcriptions were useful in helping me

identify key points and themes, but for future research or a bigger project I would take more

steps in order to obtain all angles of the interviewees response.

After conducting my planned research and data collection I found that the Gonzaga

University English department surprised me in terms of their use in technology in to enhance

student learning experiences. I had expected to find that they were simply brushing the surface

of media literacy, but I was stunned to find they are deeply immersed in different forms of

media and using them in a variety of ways, all relevant to English studies. I first realized their

advanced level after shadowing Dr. Bolligs Multimodal Writing course. Each of his students

were placed into a group where they were instructed to build a visual story through the Adobe

Application, Premiere Pro. This is a program that as a Broadcasting major, I have taken full

classes on how to use this application. My field notes from this observation reflected the

positive energy of the room and the excitement that students had about using their creative

minds to create something with their targeted theme. It was noteworthy as to how much

dedication each student had to their project. The professor was very hands off in the process,

establishing a very well-earned trust between him and the students. They spoke of renting out

cameras from the integrated media department, indicating the direct integration between the

two departments. There did not seem to be a back-and-forth between the media use and their
writing process, but a complete incorporation of the two. Their ideas were creative and were to

be executed in an original way, but had the underlying themes of English writing. According to

the assignment rubric the final product was to be original, creative but also have rhetorical

effectiveness. This proved the similarities between the Media and English department, but the

separation between what kind of questions asked of students through each assignment.

In addition to this, Dr. Bollig provided me with a couple writing samples from previous

years and students that he has taught. This included a wide variety of items such as videos,

audio clips and flyers. These artifacts were all created through the use of media applications

provided by the school and used to create their creative projects. The emphasis on the text and

writing of these artifacts are what show the multimodality of this writing course. They are still

learning the same writing skills and tools, which are things like strategic word choice, rhetoric

and writing for a common theme. The execution though is what really teaches the students

how versatile writing really can be and how many different ways one can express diligent and

effective writing in their everyday lives.

From the results from the other studies I have conducted, I found that students had a

very positive attitude toward the use of technology within the classroom. According to the

survey I issued to Gonzaga University students of all ages, and majority English majors, 75% of

students said that the use of technology has increased their overall understanding of course

material and 78.57% of students said that they see themselves using these media skills and

understandings outside of the classroom, showing me the kind of effect each professors media

lesson plan has had on students. 89.29% said that they are very reliant on technology to finish

their coursework, and 57.14% said that they are very efficient in their classroom with the use of
technology, while the other 42.86% said they were efficient with technology use, showing me

the increasing overall reliability of students and the current generation to use personal

technology for everyday tasks. 67.86% of students said that think that is is very important for

teachers to integrate media and technology into the curriculum, in response to our evolving

culture of technology. My demographics of the responses given were 57.14% were freshman,

10.71% were sophomores, 17.86% were juniors and 14.29% were seniors. Throughout the

responses, of those who were not on the extreme positive side of the response, they were on a

moderately positive. There were no negative responses to using technology in the classroom,

which I found noteworthy as media is having such an increasing everyday presence and can

sometimes have negative connotations, it is interesting to see students perceiving technology

in such a positive and productive way.

In my findings through my interview, I found that more English teachers are starting to

embrace the route of alternative forms of literature. Though they support it they are very

intentional and careful in the ways in which they present this material to students. When asked

about his perception of student’s reaction to his teaching style, Dr. Matthew Bolton answered,

“there’s a lot of interest in thinking about those connections to the contemporary, and

thinking about how to read the world we live in. Particularly from students who have not

had a chance to experience this or that have only been exposed to film as entertainment,

but for example my Breaking bad course, its fun to watch but also texts that opens up

about academic things, like chemistry, philosophy and literature. Really sort of we need

to annotate it in that way, and I think students have been appreciative of thinking about

the complexity of these things and something that we already care about and are
 passionate about can be read this way. Having the license to study and analyze this is

exciting for students.”

Seeing literature in a new way, is seen an innovative to Dr. Bolton. Finding original ways to

engage students through something that is relatable to them is the key to reaching students

and making sure they carry it outside the classroom, he believes. Helping them see their world

of entertainment thematically and as a world intellect, helps them to become much more well-

rounded, contributing members of society.

One project that Dr. Bolton had his student do was an “Interactive Map of World

Cinema.” The students were instructed not only to create a website, but write a critical review

of movies around the world. Through this student made not only written commentaries, but

video ones as well. Dr. Bolton explained the assignment goals saying, “What I love about this is

that its work that is public, and also collaborative, visual, and being able to color code it and

things like that. A way that I found much more appealing than a straight forward paper, making

it public and interactive in a way that feels interesting and authentic to our knowledge.”

Students will spend months picking apart one movie and really understanding the critical

frameworks and themes that come from it, just like they would with a book. Not only did Dr.

Bolton choose an item from media to analyze, he went one step further and had their response

be one involving technology as well, making the process of the assignment cohesive and

relevant to what it would actually be like to critique film.

Dr. Bollig’s approach to his English courses is similar to Dr. Bolton’s in that it is an

alternative approach to English, but it is even more abstract from the typical analyze and review

methods. He decided that he wanted to teach something that was not only fun for him, but fun
for them and ultimately revolved around the critical thinking of texts that surround people

everyday. On top of his Multimodal and Digital Rhetoric course, Dr. Bollig teaches a course

revolving around the critical analysis of memes, which are amusing, interesting items (such as a

captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through

social media. Memes are something that are commonly known among the college generation,

and are something that is generally seen as silly, goofy and entertaining. Dr. Bollig incorporates

that seemingly most silly type of media and turns it into something educational. He explains his

method by saying,

“I like to teach them those skills and them put those skills into pop culture. Memes have

visual and multiple texts that can be funny, but also have many critical frameworks to

analyze. My hope is that after students leave this class, they think, ‘if I can analyze that, I

can analyze anything.”

Similar to Dr. Bolton’s class goal, Dr. Bollig aims to find a way that will be a memorable

approach for students to critical analysis of the texts that surround them in their everyday lives.

Emphasizing these points for them, and helping them to understand that entertainment does

not have to be mindful seems to be a common theme for the media use in classrooms. Dr.

Bollig explained his position saying, “Students have a lot of access to media and technology, but

many of them still don’t know how to use it. Let’s help them use it in a good way.” Especially in

our current culture, there are constantly new forms of media that arise, and many of those

forms can be used to student’s advantage. Dr. Bollig challenges his students in an unexpected

way, as they are instructed to do things that are out of the ordinary from a typical English

course. He explains that after the initial shock of what they are given to analyze, students
respond very positively, as they find how versatile English can be, and adapt the skills and

mindset through this sense of non-traditional writing.

Throughout my research and analysis process I found that among college students and

professors, the idea of integrating technology into the classroom is becoming increasingly

experimented with, and finding positive results. Students and professors are discovering how

adaptable the subject of English can be and how the intentionality in everyday writing can make

all the difference. When students are put in the mindset of critically analyzing those texts they

see everyday or would consider entertainment, they become critical thinking individuals and

active members of society. Using media and digital text in a positive way, spinning mindless

entertainment into something thought-provoking and meaningful, allows students to take our

media-saturated world and use it to their advantage.

This theory is something that could be delved into much deeper to identify the true

effects on student learning with the use of media and technology in the classroom. The

limitations to this study was the fact that it was only a three-month study, which included all

the research, data collection and write-up. If there was more time for data collection there

would have been further opportunities for more interviews, more class observation and

possibly a deeper look at how the rest of the English Department views technology use, not just

the classes who focus solely on it for their curriculum. Because this was during an active

semester, coordination with interviewees and scheduling observation times became an obvious

limitation. This is something that also would have had more flexibility on with a longer time

period for research and data collection. Though these challenges created limitations for my

current study, this did spark interest for future research.

 It would be interesting to further research the students who take these courses and see

if and how they are actually using these skills outside of the classroom, or if it is something that

really did stick in their minds. They may be enjoying these types of class now, but how are they

taking these skills and using them productively? What would be really interesting, would be to

follow students from this course into the professional world. Possibly see if this has altered

their career path, or if this mindset of critically analyzing all texts is something they use on the

job. This would be the true test of this teaching method and the results from this could be

ground-breaking for the English Studies major. English is such a versatile topic and we are

constantly surrounded by it whether we notice it or not. Being able to identify it in something

that is so pivotal to the current generation, is using the phenomenon of technology to an

advantage. Helping students understand how to utilize this, is something that has the potential

to be very beneficial to the rising generations.

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