RES 5040: Teacher as Researcher (spring 09)

Oh man Jason! This could be a real blow to all that we think we know. Being able to "create" is one of the highest levels of understanding. What about student engagement? Are our measures of what students learned truly measures of what students learned? Are we judging by EOC scores? Are we having meaningful conversations with our students about what they are doing and why? This is a good idea. Can't wait to see where it goes.

Roxie

I like the way you used the analogy of a “salesman” for describing your role and “customers” for the role of the people you support. I can also see myself as a “salesman” to my students as I try to share and interject my real life experiences in the curriculum. I also see my students as “customers’ whom I am trying to convince that I know what I’m talking about and at the same time trying for them to connect their curriculum to their “life-world.”

Your topic – Do technology projects increase student achievement? This will be interesting to me as well. I’m an avid believer of the use of technology in the classroom not only as just tools but also for the use of mindtools. Personally, I feel that technology does enhance student learning. It keeps the students engaged and gives opportunity to strengthen their higher order thinking skills and metacognition. By having students create a living project with technology helps them to bring their “digital native” environment into the classroom. It helps them learn in ways that are meaningful within their own social and cultural life-worlds(p.24). Today’s students are more acclimated to this type of environment and learning process than we as “digital immigrants” are. It's their "life-world."

I like the way you used the analogy of a “salesman” for describing your role and “customers” for the role of the people you support. I can also see myself as a “salesman” to my students as I try to share and interject my real life experiences in the curriculum. I also see my students as “customers’ whom I am trying to convince that I know what I’m talking about and at the same time trying for them to connect their curriculum to their “life-world.”

Your topic – Do technology projects increase student achievement? This will be interesting to me as well. I’m an avid believer of the use of technology in the classroom not only as just tools but also for the use of mindtools. Personally, I feel that technology does enhance student learning. It keeps the students engaged and gives opportunity to strengthen their higher order thinking skills and metacognition. By having students create a living project with technology helps them to bring their “digital native” environment into the classroom. It helps them learn in ways that are meaningful within their own social and cultural life-worlds(p.24). Today’s students are more acclimated to this type of environment and learning process than we as “digital immigrants” are. It's their "life-world." We just also need to make it ours as well.

I was surprised to hear that your wife had made that decision. I remember feeling a little disappointed that my son missed out having her as a teacher when he was in the ninth grade. I wanted him to have that experience. I agree with Roxie's perspective that maybe what her students take away from the experience can't be measured on a test. I also know how tiring it can be to teach with technology. By the ninth grade, she shouldn't need to teach much about the software and the computers, but I bet she ends up teaching that aspect of it as well as the content. The question that comes to my mind is, Is technology supposed to raise test scores?

Hey Jason,
I agree with you when you say about students creating something. I believe that students remember more when they leave their mark having made something themselves. I will mention that you may want to reword your topic to say HOW do technology projects increase achievement. That maybe something that is a bit more measurable. BYW, all of the ideas/sites/technology you have passed on to me has been fantastic! I really appreciate you and all of the footwork you do to find these tools for us teachers to use! Olé to you...

As a fellow salesman, I feel your pain and that is precisely why I am entertaining doing a sort of tandem idea with my project. I want to see why teachers are not more receptive students of technology? And you project is going to basically determine whether they should even bother being more receptive.

I think that on the surface, especially in our cohort, it is easy to say that we know it works and that it is necessary to utilize technology in intruction. But, kudos for not allowing that to be a lazy assumption. Technology integration is just like any other concept. It will not achieve the desired results if not implemented prefectly and it likely will not achieve the desired results for every student.

I do not doubt that your wife is correct. Knowing her projects, as spectacular as they truly are, students probably do not develop the same understanding of a series of topics in creating them, however, I bet they have a greater since of collaboration (as Deb referenced), passion for their individual topic, and hopefully, a greater motivation to seek out the next topic. I am certain that test scores could fall, but my arguement has always been that they probably will when we start doing things "right."

I too was overwhelmed by the research project until I read the apathy case. For me it simplified how the project was broken down into an example which was easily understood. Your results also intrigue me. Does using something other than paper and pencil increase student learning and if so how?

Jason,
Your research will be important for your IT colleagues -- what Roxie wrote above is, I'm sure, a concern of all technology teachers in schools. I'd like to echo Roxie's and Deb's comments and urge you to move away from the idea of trying to "measure achievement." First, it's going to be difficult to define achievement for our purposes in a 4-week project. And second, it may be more important to look at engagement and meaningful experiences rather than achievement, which is tricky to measure anyway.
Keep thinking about your "angle" with this -- any way you go, investigating this issue will be important and timely!