Focus Statement
I have observed a decrease in effective personal communications among experienced social media technology end-users who rely upon social media technology to communicate both professionally and socially. My proposed solution is to provide opportunities for experienced social media technology end-users to observe and compare their professional and their private use of social media technology, in order to increase their awareness, frequency and quality, of effective personal communications.
Inquiry Questions
Will using the Digifli website to observe and compare their professional and private social media technology communications increase end-users’ cognizance of the effectiveness of their personal communications?
Will using the Digifli website to observe and compare their professional and private social media technology communications increase the frequency of end-users’ personal communications?
Will using the Digifli website to observe and compare their professional and private social media technology communications increase the quality of end-users’ personal communications?
Forecast Video
Target Audience
The target audience for cycle one will include thirteen participants, comprised of nine females, ranging from ages 35 to 65, and four males, ranging from ages 26 to 65. The target audience will include seven high school teachers with years of experience ranging from 2 to 22. Two of the teachers participating in cycle one will be male and four of the teachers will be female. Six participants will be professionals from other fields. All of the target audience will have ten or more years of experience using some sort of social media for communication in their daily professional and personal lives.
The target audience for cycle two will include a total of thirteen participants, comprised of nine females, ranging from ages 26 to over 65 and four males ranging from ages 35 to over 65. The target audience will include two female, high school teachers with years of experience ranging from 8 to 15. Participants will also include 10 professionals from other fields, and one unemployed female. The ten professionals from other fields will be comprised of one male and two females who are retired and working on a second career. All of the target audience will have ten or more years of experience using some sort of social media for communication in their daily professional or personal lives.
Implementation Process
The goal of this action research is to provide opportunities for experienced social media technology end-users to observe and compare their professional and their private use of social media technology, in order to increase their awareness, frequency and quality, of effective personal communications.
Cycle one will take place from April 15, 2013 through April 29, 2013.
Cycle two will take place from May 6, 2013, through May 20, 2013.
A website designed specifically for this action research will host a video introduction, surveys, and example documentation.
The target audience will support the proposed solution by monitoring and reflecting upon their use of social media for professional and private communications.
In cycle one, participants will access the website designed for my action research, where they will be asked to complete a pre-survey, which will serve to collect demographic and base knowledge information. Then the target audience will read the introduction to action research and view an introduction to the Action Research Video, which will include the expectations for participation.
Subsequent to watching the introduction video, participants in cycle one will monitor their use of social media for daily communications, for a two-week period. Throughout the two-week period of implementation, cycle one participants will be prompted to follow and respond to my blog, participate in social networking on Facebook and Twitter, respond to two formative surveys, and participate in a weekly contact. Finally participants will respond to a post-survey which will be compare to data collected in the cycle one pre-survey. Participants’ data and feedback will be analyzed and posted to the website in both narrative and chart form.
In cycle two, participants will access the website designed for my action research, where they will be asked to complete a pre-survey, which will serve to collect demographic and base knowledge information. Then the target audience will read the introduction to action research and view an introduction to the Action Research Video, which will include the expectations for participation.
Subsequent to watching the introduction video, cycle two participants will monitor their use of social media for daily communications, for a two-week period. Throughout the two-week period of implementation, cycle two participants will be prompted to participate in social networking on Facebook and Twitter, and view the music video I created during cycle one. Participants will respond to one required formative survey, and they will have an option to respond to a second formative survey. The target audience will be contacted once each week, by phone, or by email, and conclude the cycle by responding to a post-survey, which will be compare to data collected in the cycle one pre-survey. Participants’ data and feedback will be analyzed and posted to the website in both narrative and chart form.
Assessment and Evaluation
Participants will use an online rubric for the purpose of self-assessment. Results gathered from participants’ self reported data will be used to evaluate the effects of monitoring and reflecting upon the use of social media technology for professional and private communications
In each cycle, participants will visit the website I created, www.digifli.com, and complete a pre-survey. Using the rubric as a guide, participants will monitor their communication and respond to a week one formative survey and a week two formative survey in cycle one. In cycle two, the week two formative survey will be optional. Participants will be prompted to view a music video, and finally participants will respond to a post-survey.
Participants will offer reflective feedback, based on their observations, by participating in a weekly contact, by responding to surveys, and by posting comments on the blog in cycle one, but the blog will be eliminated in cycle two. I will attempt to measure, how and to what degree, participants’ observations and comparisons of their professional and private communications affect their awareness, frequency and quality of their effective personal communications. Only when the degree of change in awareness, frequency, and quality of participants’ personal communications has been determined, will the impacts of this action research be reported.
Kathryn_Tarquinio 