Tag Archives: Interview

Interview 2 – Capstone #3b

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After my site visit and interview, I was less nervous about my second interview, but I was still pretty nervous. The week I had my first interview, my mom went on Common Sense Media, and she got in contact with Michael Robb, the Director of Research, and they agreed to do an interview on Tuesday, May 22. However, we realized later on that we had to move it because of my Ellis Island Field Trip, so we moved the interveiw one day later (I was kind of happy about that because I think if he interview was on Tuesday, I wouldn’t have been ready for it)

I met with Mrs. Edwards on Wednesday at school, and we got my questions ready. I came up with 10 questions with the help of my mom and Mrs. Edwards. Here they are:

  1. What attracted you to your line of work?
  2. What are your responsibilities at Common Sense Media?
  3. What are the pros and cons of playing video games?
  4. What makes video games so addictive and how is an addition to video games the same and/or different from an addiction to drugs?
  5. What’s your company doing to help alleviate the problem of addiction?
  6. How can you minimize the negative effects from playing video games?
  7. What role does age play when talking about the effects of video game playing on the brain?
  8. What trends have you observed in kids and their electronic usage?
  9. What percentage of kids are mostly affected?
  10. What can we (parents, teachers, educators) do to help kids to be less addicted?

At 4:00 after school, my mom and I called Michael Robb using Skype. My mom voice recorded the whole thing, and she helped type up the information while I wrote it down.

Afterward, I really think I learned a lot, like the main problems with video games, and how Common Sense Media addresses those problems. I realized there wasn’t really anything to be nervous of.

Interview 1 – Capstone #3a

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For my interview, I met with Mrs. Edwards, and we went through different articles and contacted two people from the articles.

One of the people we contacted replied, and said we could interview him! His name was Marc Palaus, and he was a neuroscientist. I was SO happy that one of them replied!

I researched more about Marc Palaus, and I found this* (scroll down to the end to read more).

Mrs. Edwards and I came up with 10 interview questions to ask Marc Palaus.

  1. Why did you choose to be a neuroscientist?
  2. What made you interested in studying video games’ and how they affect the brain?
  3. What are the cons of playing video games?
  4. What makes video game playing addictive?
  5. What role does age play in the effects of video game playing on the brain?
  6. How can you minimize the negative effects from video games?
  7. Based on your research, what recommendations do you have for children playing video games?
  8. Based on your research, what recommendations do you have for older people playing video games?
  9. Based on your research, how can video games possibly be used for people with diminished brain functioning like someone who has had a stroke or someone who has Alzheimer’s?
  10. How can parents help with their kids’ addiction?

 

I wrote an outline to help me.

Mrs. Edwards helped me print everything out and get it ready for Tuesday, May 15, the day I interviewed Marc Palaus.

When Tuesday finally came, I was VERY nervous. I had a lot of thoughts going inside my head. What if I mess up? What if he never answers when we call him? What if he changes his mind and doesn’t want to interview me?

At 8:40, I shakily walked down to the computer lab. Mr. Casal helped me get everything ready for my interview. Then, he called Marc Palaus through Google Hangouts, and my interview started.

When I first started, I was VERY nervous, but the more I got into the interview, the more relaxed I got.

There was only one thing that didn’t go too smoothly. During the interview, there was a screen recorder that was recording the whole thing, so if I missed something I could go back and look at it. However, the screen recorder stopped recording. Luckily I noticed it before it was too late. Other than that, though, the rest of the interview went smoothly.

I learned a lot. Now I know that controlling your time spent on video games is very important.

After the interview, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my chest.

 

*click on it, it’s about an article Marc Palaus helped contribute to, but if you’re too lazy to go back up, click on this (it’s the same link)