Ah..the dreaded research class. Imagine how excited I was to listen to the podcast and read Stringer's first two chapters and thus realize that our class would be conduting action research. Conducting this type of research, that which, as Stringer notes, "always has an immediate or practical or applied purpose" will be very beneficial. I often times wonder if what I (my dept.) does actually has a postive affect on the classroom.
In my position at the district level, it is my responsibility to provide technology resources and professional development for teachers to use in the classroom. We have come a long way in our district in terms of technology-related resources available for teacher and student use. We are making great strides in the number of classrooms with interactive white boards, projectors, student response devices, wireless slates, document cameras, etc. We have also worked diligently to provide professional development for our teachers that not only teaches them how to use the tools but also how to truly integrate them into the teaching and learning process. The resources and professional learning we provide have the propensity to greatly impact the way teachers teach and student achievment. But are we wasting our time and money?
I would like to conduct an action research project on one of the following: the impact of classroom technology on student achievment, student engagement, or teaching methods. I am leaning mostly toward the impact on teaching methods. I think that looking at what is going on (or is not going on) in the classroom with available technologies can help us determine what we need to be doing as an instructional technology group to bring about the necessary change needed in our classrooms. Being able to "look, think, act", in Stringer's words, on what we are currently doing and the impact it has will be very useful as we continue to determine what resources, tools and professional development we need to provide for teachers/classrooms .
Roxie Miller
Comments (5)
Part of the "are we wasting our time and money" goes to the question of "are we teaching technology, or adaptability?" In our Integration class, our discussion of 21st century learners may lead to the ability to adapt, as technology is changing too fast to expect to educate all students to all things. Your closing sentence looks like a great opening sentence down the road a piece (as we say in NY).
Conrad Martin
Posted by Anonymous | January 16, 2009 10:05 PM
Posted on January 16, 2009 22:05
Roxie, you stole my idea;) I was pondering what would be a beneficial area of study for me. I feel that if i am selling a product and need be able to back up my claims with some qualitative data. I think this is cool.
Posted by Jason Mammano | January 17, 2009 8:27 PM
Posted on January 17, 2009 20:27
Wow guys! We all three have pretty similar topics. I am kind of depressed now that all three folks within the department of technology are wanting to examine how it is really working.
But I have recovered because it excites me a bit too. We have gone, despite budget woes, through a pretty powerful bit of expansion. We have more tools in classrooms than I can ever remember from everything SMART Tech makes to an emerging new website. We have several of websites we put a lot of funding into and other departments have their own as well. It deserves some examination.
Roxie can figure out if all of this "stuff" is really impacting teaching methods. Similarly, I can try to determine why we do not see more utilization of key concepts coming out of staff development and Jason can see if really impacts the true bottom line anyway. It is the kinds of hard questions that I guess we have to ask ourselves just as teachers would after having their students bomb the most recent quiz.
All in all, it is not a pity party, it is just a gut check. How do we change to make sure technology is progressing the changes in education we are certain need to take place? Maybe it isn't from a SMARTboard in every classroom or utilizing these expensive websites. Maybe we just need to buckle down with what we have and truly master it all first. Maybe it is like Nas said, "All I need is one mic." Hey, Nas, we can podcast buddy...with some free software.
Posted by Kyle Wood | January 19, 2009 9:07 AM
Posted on January 19, 2009 09:07
I have been very impressed with the technology resources I have seen in your system and I can understand your desire to analyze the results of your investments. I think it especially interesting to look at the teaching methods that are employed. Is a SMART board being used as just a substitute for a white board or is it used in a new, unique way? Most teachers I know like to learn new methods, but they never seem to have time to employ them. How do you convince teachers that this technology will make their teaching better and their job more fulfilling?
Jeff Kitchen
Posted by Jeff Kitchen | January 19, 2009 1:06 PM
Posted on January 19, 2009 13:06
Roxie -- and everyone --
I"m glad that you all have similar ideas! I think it is important to conduct evaluation research, to see how things are really working. THe action research approach, using qualitative methods, lends itself nicely to evaluation research.
Roxie, I think the best place to start would be with teaching methods. You might want to think about choosing only one or two technological tools to start with, mainly because you'll be collecting data for only 4 weeks, so you want to start with something manageable.
Is it possible to have a diverse sample of teachers, from those who use the technology profusely to those who don't use it at all?
Posted by Alecia Jackson | January 21, 2009 2:37 PM
Posted on January 21, 2009 14:37