I’m still a bit nervous about our future research projects for this class, but this workshop has given me a better understanding of how to approach the project. After taking this workshop I feel more confident in how to go about developing a research question and tacking the assignment itself.

1. How does the use and availability of smart phones affect interpersonal relationships and interactions?

2. What are the differences and similarities between the heterosexual dating scene and the homosexual dating scene?

3. How does ones participation in fraternity life impact their college career and post college career?

After taking this project workshop, I feel more confident in what to expect about the upcoming research paper. It seems a bit challenging to think of what topics to do at first but the examples that were provided in the slides were extremely helpful. This workshop gave me a base foundation on how to get started with the project.

1. How does a job company evaluate their candidates by using social networking?

2. How does social norm impact ones life/behavior?

3. How does modern technology affect communication compare to the past?

This workshop is very helpful when thinking about a topic for your research project. The pragmatics checklist is something that everyone needs to use when choosing a research questions/ topic. Also it is easy to come up with a research question and forget the communication aspect of the project. So a little advise to everyone in the class is to remember this is a communications class and you need to have/relate communication to your topic/question! Another important thing to remember is TIME. You need to make sure you have enough time to get enough data/research to complete your project. I remember students last semester waiting till the last minute to get their data collecting started. You need to have to most time set aside for collecting data. Gaining access to data, such as interviews takes time so start early or make sure you already know someone.

Since we are observing classroom settings for our first project, we need to come up with research topics/questions that can be answered in this setting:

1. How does communicating on smart phones in class effect the students learning?

2. Is there a certain type of student that uses communications devices, such as computers or smart phones , in class over other students?

3. Do tired students participate/communicate less in class?

This workshop packet is no different as I have read through it a couple times. The examples helped me a lot in coming up with my three ideas. I've been helped greatly by the way the workshops have been designed, and this is no exception. I am probably going to have to revise them later, but this is what I came up with so far. Here they are:

1. How does caffeine (coffee, energy drinks, energy shots, and etc) affect one's communication in class? vs. the people who don't drink caffeine?

2. How do students who have a job do in group/partner projects compared to those who just go to school full-time?

3. is there a correlation between our self esteem level, the more we use social media amongst college student?

oops sorry if this post sounds bizarre. I accidently deleted the top part of my comments and forgot what they were. sorry about the first paragraph.

This workshop is very nice because it gives students a chance to think about their research project topics and jump feet first into our project sooner rather then later. All I have to say is that I'm glad I've taken a few courses with Ted and I know what I need to do to succeed. Since we are observing our surroundings I thought of a few topics/ research questions that will be great to analyze.

1. How do students deal with our recent budget cuts? Should we rent books or continue to buy books for larger returns?

2. Do laptops distract students or help students learn?

3. Having smart phones ON in class distract other students from learning or does it help stimulate ones mind?

This workshop was very informative, especially since it made me read the research assignment page again and notice how quickly these dates are coming up on us! There were a lot of great examples in the workshop that have cleared up a lot of confusion on what exactly a research question should look like. It is also very important to understand that we need to pick a question that we can answer in the time given to us and that the project as a whole is feasible. Our project will be in a classroom setting but I could only think of two questions that relate to the classroom at this time.

1. How does an "A Day to Remember" concert create a sense of unity for the audience?
2. How do teachers determine if the use of technology (phones, computers,tablets,ect.) in a classroom effects a students ability to learn?
3. How does being in a fraternity or sorority effect a student's participation in the classroom?

Ok, well without being too sure just yet about which i'm going to do, my ideas relate to student interaction online and in the classroom.

1) How does language usage guide how students create impressions of other students online?
2) What factors encourage students to participate meaningfully in group discussion in class?
3)What non-standard functions do phones and personal technology serve inside the classroom?

This workshop was extremely helpful, and was helpful last year as well. Some professors do not clarify what they want for their projects, or ideas to stray away from, however, this workshop helps narrow down the possibilities. Since we need a lot of information to gather, and effective information at that, it is important to have information that is easily accessible. This is setting us up to be extremely successful, not only for this specific research project, but also for the remainder of the semester. These workshops contain a lot of valid information, and it is great to get a head start and gather ideas quickly from completing this workshop. Since the focus of our research project is college classrooms, my three ideas for topics are:
1. How does text messaging during class affect a student’s learning process and responses to his or her professor and classmates?
2. How many hours of sleep does a college student need in order to have efficient communication in class?
3. Do social networking sites inhibit the learning process and communication of college students in class?

This workshop is a good tool to have and to review when a research project is coming up. As student, or it might just be me, we feel like we can just grab the first thing we see and do research on it, but as we start doing the work we start complaining about the subject. It is important for students to understand that research will take a lot of time and you will never have enough of it, so we need to choose a subject or a topic we wont mind looking at for hours on end. The examples were also helpful because it gave us ideas on ways to do our research.

After reading the assignments page I think it would be interesting to research a few different things in the classroom.

1) How does the row a student sits in affect the way they participate in class?

2) How often do students look down at there PED (Personal Electronic Device) and how does that affect their participation in class?

3) Do students who participate more in class do better then students who participate less in class?

This workshop was pretty helpful. I do agree that you need to constantly make sure that the subject you choose to research is something that you need to keep interest in. I'm sure none of us would want to waste our time. However, I'm slightly confused on whether or not our research topics have to be classroom related or just something we want to inquire about? Nonetheless, here is what I've come up with and know I would enjoy researching:

1.) What is the difference between a fraternity brotherhood bond vs. a sorority sisterhood bond? How do they go about it?
2.) What are distinguishable characteristics between those who believe in horoscopes vs. those who don't? And why do you think that is?
3.) Is doodling in class a distraction or a listening enhancer?

I thought this workshop was helpful tool that will make this project a bit easier to start. Because starting is usually the hardest part, this workshop was great and has already helped me alot. I am not sure what i want to do still, and im going to be thinking about it alot in these upcoming days.
A couple interesting things i would like to research would include
1) What is the marketing stragity for iphones new phone and how does it compare to other iphone products
2) Do PED positively or negatively effect grades for students at sjsu?
3) How does teaching style and class time effect students education at sjsu?

This is a good workshop and I knwo it will be hlepful to refer to when working on our research projects. I think I am a right brain learner so I often need to have examples that I can refer to in order to understand the structure of my project. Even though there are several examples of correct research questions I still have trouble formulating one that fits the topics I may consider. I am also a little confused on whether or not these topics we list are relevent to the first research project, since the directions for that said that it is supposed to be based on college classroom interactions, or if they will be used at another time. With that being said, my topics of interest are:

1). In what ways does social networkign affect one's ability to socialize in real time.
2). How does performance enhance students' understanding of communication theories?
3). Does Greek life positively or negatively affect students' college experiences?

i really liked this workshop. it got me thinking about what i would like to research and how to choose something i would be interested in studying and devoting the time required.

1) how does baby talk vary from different age groups and what variation of baby talk sooth my baby the most?
2) how has smart phones changed the was we respond to emails?
3) how do people respond to conversations in the elevator?

Overall the workshop was extremely helpful in terms of diving into our first research project. The aspect that I found the most helpful from the presentation was the "Pragmatics Checklist" because it posed realistic questions to be asked when figuring out the research topic. Even if we have a certain topic we our zealously in love with, if we don't have the realistic means of actually going through with it (such as time, access, insightful resources), it wouldn't do any good and would actually be dishearten. From the checklist, I got a better sense in the possibilities of my research themes.

They include:

1. Evaluating group communication in a physical classroom setting versus online (which one provides better results in terms of cohesiveness and collaboration)
2. Would deliberately advertising in a classroom be disruptive for a student's academic atmosphere?
3. What has a better advantage when it comes to note taking: a traditional pen and paper or a technological device?

I am still in the process of thinking of more ideas because as of now, the ones that I have seem a bit superficial.

I found this workshop helpful because it really gave a clear outline of what is expected for this research project. Sometimes when teachers assign projects they are unclear with their directions and explaining to students what they want but this workshop set us up for success.
Three research questions that i would consider might be:
1) Does the use of social networking websites take away from students sleep? (Causing more stress and poor communication in and out of the classroom)
2) How do teachers perceive students who they see on their smart phones in class?
3) Do students who regularly bring their laptops to class have better or worse grades than students who don't'?

I felt that this workshop emphasized the fact that research projects are time consuming in the sense that you should obtain as much data as possible ("never finished but done") and is also time constraining (because of deadlines) so picking a topic that interests the researcher is essential for the survival of a research question (along with this class!) This workshop was a nice introduction to what we have to prepare for the future. Three topics that I am thinking about doing are the following:

1.) Has the online dating world (such as okcupid.com) been able to provide its users with compatible partners who last in long-term relationships/marriage?

2.) Has the invention of "tablets" (such as iPads) impacted a professional's career in a positive way?

3.) How often do students feel distracted by participating in social networking websites when it is finals week?

The workshop helped a lot regarding the formulation of my topics of interest. Here they are:


1. How do people communicate their cultures?

2. How do people communicate their genders?

3. How do Muslims communicate their religion?
-way they greet each other
-way they dress
-way they talk
-way they act with Muslims/non-Muslims

Hi everyone,

I am Chris Cadiz and if possible would like a partner or group for the first research project. I like current events, sports, and reading a lot. I have a proposal in mind. the first one is about participation in classes comparing comm major classes and non-comm classes seeing how student interaction differs. I've talked to Coopman about the proposal. I just need to work out the kinks, but he likes it. So if anyone needs a partner or would be willing to adopt me into their group that would be awesome. I am hard-working, have a lot of flexibility with time as I am only working 12 hours a week + school full time and am looking for an internship.



Have a great weekend,

Chris