RES 5040: Teacher as Researcher (spring 09)

My first interview was truly enlightening in a couple of ways. Obviously, it affected the way I viewed all of my questions and while I ended up sticking to each one of them, I became aware of how the wording of the question can influence its answer. However, more importantly, it affected my personal end goal of all of this research.

I began my research with my youngest teacher, Charlotte. Charlotte felt a strong need throughout the interview to provide answers that would help me out. She needed constant reassurance that any open and honest answer was the goal of our conversation. She also needed a lot of clarification about each question (I believe due to her own worry about expectations).

The impact on myself as a researcher and practitioner was the greatest because of the genuineness of our conversation. After a lot of reassurances, Charlotte really poured her heart out. Since my research largely involves the relationships of people and constructing a more productive dynamic for collaboration, I am finding that it can be a touchy subject. In order to create a better infrastructure facilitating collaboration, one has to confront the current means of collaboration and how those methods work or do not work. I have had some folks provide a few stock answers to avoid speaking too negatively about a situation or sometimes even a fellow staff member and others who sink into negativity so quickly it is difficult to find the constructiveness. Charlotte, however, dealt with it differently. Everything she said related to her role collaborating with others was directly associated with how it could make her a better teacher and help students grow. Charlotte is a very young teacher, so some of it could be chalked up to naivity or idealism, but she represented to me the teachers that I want to help most. She is truly missing something in her current climate. She needs more support and she genuinely wants to help kids in her classroom and otherwise. She does not see the barriers a veteran might, which can be refreshing, albeit at times unrealistic, but she has ideas on how she can improve and on how we can as a unit.

My end goal of this project aside from completing the research was to examine what elements teachers really want to improve collaboration which in turn will lead to improvement in technology integration and staff development. I was, with several other folks, creating a website to help teachers achieve the elements of a community of practice stated by several researchers including Wenger. I wanted teachers to affirm what I had been considering, principle among them the need for some sort of all-encompassing resource to collect the community's resourcesto tackle common problems across schools. Charlotte gave a real specific face to it for me as a person needing all of the above and almost depressingly low in expectations. For her, a professional conversation was an oddly foreign experience; a web resource and a standing engagement for support was like a dreamworld. So, now I have to tackle creating some sort of umbrella through which collaboration on any and all topics can occur and I have an audience for which to design. It made all of the research aspects of this assignment seem a little smaller, when there are people out there who will actually benefit.

Kyle Wood

My first interview went as planned. I interviewed my principal, and it went as I expected. When you know what your leader's vision, it is easy to know what they are going to say. It is the first parent interview that shook me up.

I interviewed a set of parents whose child is in second grade. I must tell you, that if you were a teacher in my school, and looked at the parent statistics, they really seem good. If you spoke to the teachers in my building, they would tell you we have great parent relationships, and over 90 percent participate in conferences. After this parent interview, I felt as though my preconceived notions went right out the window. I know the student's teacher very well, and was surprised about what the parents said.

When asked about the overall impression of XYZ Elementary, the parents said that it was a good school, full of hard working teachers. They stated that for the most part, they felt that the teachers were working in the best interest of the children. They had moved from West Virginia right before their child entered kindergarten. Their first experience with a teacher was not pleasant, as their son had hours of homework each week in kindergarten. Their son also has a speech issue, and had some behavioral issues during the year. The first and second grade teachers, however, got higher marks and cared about their students. They felt like communication could be worked on at the school. They sometimes felt "left out" of what was being learned in the classroom, and when their child was disciplined in the classroom by pulling a ticket, they were sometimes not notified about what the exact incident was. This normally would be a problem, but it was mentioned that the teacher leaves daily at exactly 3:15, and it was very hard to get a hold of her after hours. These revel elations led the parents to state that email would be a great tool for collaboration, and could solve some problems with communication. The parents thought a night once a month to speak with the teacher would be a great way to keep up with what was going on.

On the issue of being involved with the PTA, they said they had worked with members of the board in the past, but felt they were "snobby" and felt awkward when around them. This did not deter them, however, from paying the PTA dues and supporting it monetarily. They come to a large part of the events, and participate whenever they can. The parents also supported the classroom by donated extra items, and volunteered to help wherever they could. They felt school to be very important, and wanted their child to know this through their actions and words.

When asked about their schooling as children, they both spoke passionately about how their parents were not involved at school. The father mentioned that his parents never came to school, and how he was envious of how much attention the other students got when their parents came school. The mother talked about how her parents were dropouts, and how they felt they could not show up to school because of what the teacher may think of them (she almost came to tears, as did I!). She mentioned that her mother was always pushing her to finish high school, and her dad thought she should stay home. These experiences have led them to really participate in their son's school, as they do not want him to feel anything negative about it. It was really amazing to hear how badly they wanted their son to do well in school.

The final component of the interview was whether or not the parents would be open to getting emails from the school. They were very supportive of the idea, and said they would love to get emails from the school on a regular basis. The mother said it would be nice to check for emails, because a lot of the times she just hangs up the phone for Connect-Ed messages.

After the interview, I really reflected on how I personally communicate with my parents. I need to improve in some of the areas that were mentioned. I was surprised to hear their views on the school, because it had seemed practically perfect. I felt the need to go out and talk to my parents individually after the meeting so I could fix any problems they may have. I was excited by the suggestions about getting emails, because that was one of my goals going into this. I can't wait to hear what the other parents have to say!

Matt Maurer

My first week of interviews went pretty much as planned. Thomas showed up in his typically late fashion, the boy can never seem to be on time. We talked briefly about sports and then got started right away. Thomas answered the question in a very matter of fact manner. I got the sense from him that this would be a lot more difficult for him than he would be willing to let on. The first set of questions are very general in nature. They are eight questions all dealing with the history of his parent’s divorce. They are several feelings questions involved. It was these questions that seem to upset him slightly (What was the hardest thing for you about the divorce, Does your parent’s divorce still affect you? Explain.).

Thomas is a kid who on the outside has it all together, nothing shakes him. I found out in a matter of minutes that Thomas is still greatly affected by his parent’s divorce. His unwillingness to elaborate on anything let me know real quickly that we would need to change our approach with Thomas or risk losing him in this study.

We decided to put the questions away and just talk. This seemed to relax Thomas a great deal. I was able to share with him my own experiences and feelings about my parent’s divorce. I shared with him my struggles growing up in a divorce family both socially and academically. Thomas was like a different young man sharing his feelings and adding to the things I was saying. I begin to ask him questions in the midst of our conversation. Thomas begin to open up completely, he answered every question without even realizing it. We talked for about forty minutes before we needed to move on into the specifics about what Knightville High School could do to help him. Thomas was in a hurry to get to practice so we had to cut the interview a little short. I am looking forward to the rest of the interviews and getting together with these students for our group discussions.

I have learned a couple of things from my first interview. I am certain that we will continue to ask the questions in a more conversational manner. Thomas was not very receptive with the firing of questions one right after the other, but seemed to answer them willingly when they came up in conversation. I guess we will continue to perfect or interviewing skills. The second is that I think going forward it will be important for me to share with the students my story. If I want them to be open and honest with me they need to see that I have walked in their shoes. I also realized that I will need to allow some extra time for the interviews, this topic is sensitive and may take us more than hour to get through what we need to. And lastly, is that you never really get over your parents’ divorce (not at 15 or 37). I have only conducted one interview and it has already stirred up feelings about my own parent’s divorce, something I was not expecting.

Scott Heavner

Data Story: Athletics and Education

The last two weeks has been a very eye opening experience about data collection and learning new things about athletics and education. I guess the first thing that has really caught my attention is how much detail and time I have to put into the data collection. I have done six interviews last week and spent afternoons observing different athletes. The interviews took place at 7:15 each morning and the observations of practice were after school each day. I have found out for myself that I have to be very effective with my time and energy. I seem to have a common bond with two of the athletes, where the other two grew up in a different manner than myself.

I interviewed Donovan at 7:30 am, and talked to him about many things that are going on in his life and his education and sports. I was very intrigued by the amount of pressure this kid feels when playing sports. He has always felt that he needed to be the best to please his father and brother. He has over the last three weeks had a major change in his life. Three weeks ago he went through a very tramadic experience with the death of his father. He has since then picked up a tutor for his math and Biology class to try to keep up with his work. It was very reassuring listening to him talk about how even though his dad was gone he wanted to do even better in his academics to make his dad proud. Donovan talked to me openly about how he didn’t really try his best in class and he knew that if he tried as hard in the classroom as he did when he played basketball he would do much better. I went and observed Donovan in his Advanced Studies class and I noticed that he seemed very tired and was having a difficult time in paying attention to the teacher. I don’t really know what caused this, but during the next interview I would like to ask him what time he goes to bed, how practice time effects that, whether he sleeps in other classes, and find out detailed things that could get me more insight. I would like to go back and observe him during a class later in the day to see how he is.

Another interview and observation that I really enjoyed was with Coach Bradley and it took place at 3:00 in his room. Coach Bradley seemed to be very influential in his players education. He had the students in his room for a 45 minute study hall while we were doing the interview. This study hall is maintained three days a week during the sports season. He talked about how he uses coaching as another teaching tool in helping his students to succeed both on and off the field. He said his team always has one of the highest GPA’s in the school and he believes it is because of the study hall and the after school work he makes them do. Later on we went to the practice field where I watched an hour of the practice. Coach Bradley was very positive in working with the students and stayed on them pretty hard to continue to work to get better. He wanted to see improvement everyday. I feel like Coach Bradley is a very good role model for these soccer players and stresses the importance of their school work. I have heard other teachers comment on how nice it is to have those students working after school.

As I continue with the data collection, I will need to conduct a few more interviews to try to understand some of the things I saw. I am very much looking forward to understanding what makes student athletes succeed in the classroom.

Scott Harrill

The most notable point of my data collection process has been how difficult it has been to even get the participation that I need. Over the past few weeks, I made it a point to ask the five primary participants of my study if they were willing to assist me and was very clear with them about what the process would entail. They seemed at least willing and in many cases eager to participate.

On Tuesday, March 13, I sent an email to these participants. In it, I presented them with the questions and the consent form, both within the text of the email as well as in an attachment. In the email, I let them know that they could complete the questions via email, could print the questions and answer by hand, or that I could personally interview them and transcribe the interview. I touched bases with each of them that day or the next and each expressed that they'd like to take the time to type or write out their answers. Once I'd received the answers, I could follow up with any additional questions or needed clarifications.

Librarians are busy people, so I'm not sure why I'm surprised that only one person has responded as of yet. In fact, her answers were in my hands by the very next morning. When I thanked her, she responded that someone had helped her back in graduate school and it was only fair that she do the same. What's most interesting about the fact that she's the only one that has responded yet is that she's also a relatively recent graduate, graduating just under three years ago, and that seems to have made it easier for her to see the urgency of getting this information back to me.

So I don't have a great deal of information to share about my data collection. I sent out a follow-up email today, respectfully reminding them that I do have deadlines and thanking them again for their participation. Several have already expressed that they are, in fact, working on the survey and will get it to me soon. Hopefully, I'll have more data to work with very soon.

---Kate Whyte (Why not market? Why some public libraries don't market)

There I was, in the office. Typical, for this time of the week. But it was shaping up to be something altogether different this time. I had approved the interviews with both of them, and I knew I was prepared. What if Larry or Abe didn’t show? Looking at the notes I had, feeling the breeze of the climate system in the office (cold as always), and listening up for students who needed help, I was as ready for this as I could be.

Why this, why now? As usual, in these types of stories, the motivation was a lady. A persuasive one. She needed information and knew how to get it. But I was her agent on this one, and I didn’t know if I was up to the task. Sure, sure, she helped me along with the preparation, and the motivation. The execution left me on my own. My due diligence done, I had only to wait for the opportunity to get at the facts of a case that had been years in the making. My questions were good, the office was familiar to all the participants, and there was no reason for my subjects to suspect anything. They knew in advance that I would be recording every word, and the basics of the interview topics. Maybe I’d catch a break and get them both together. A focus group might get one of them to think of something valuable that they’d miss on their own.

While I hoped for the group, I was dealt a deuce. When Abe was available, Larry was with a client, and vice versa. They would have to be talked to individually. OK, that was that. Abe showed up outside the office, and I reminded him of his prior agreement. He’s been tutoring with us for several years, and is one of our “go-to” guys in math. He tutors everything from basic arithmetic to pre-calculus, and has for several years. That made him valuable, particularly to me, as my math ability only extends to reading last night’s box scores on the sports page. A young guy, just 21, he could relate to the students he worked with pretty well. The older ones liked him also, as he is unfailingly positive and upbeat, and an expert in math. I asked if he was ready to go, but he said he wanted to step outside for a cigarette. I did too, and I don’t even smoke. It was that kind of night.

When he got back, around 6:15 p.m. (not dark yet, but getting there) we settled into the office where so much business has been done over the years. Notwithstanding the draft from the “heating” system, the well worn office chairs, and the textbook cluttered bookshelves, it is a welcoming place. Abe and I have talked about tutoring many times, so the familiarity made for a very easy conversation. However, the formality of it being for a specific task was a little strange. Not uncomfortable, just different. His answers were mostly expected, regarding the things that tutees do to make themselves successful: mainly preparation and motivation, and their variants. More than gender, age, or any other factor, these two key factors are the ones that students need at the start of the tutoring cycle to best assure success. Regarding the ways we could improve what we do, it was difficult to come up with anything substantive. Maybe an outsider was needed for that. But there just wasn’t time. The deadlines were thunderheads gathering in an ever-shrinking distance, and nothing was going to stop them. We had to move forward, now, with what we had.

When it was over, there was no celebration, no big event of any kind. We both went back to work. That’s the way it is around here; somebody can always use help with proofreading or proofs, formatting text or solving for x. This is who we are.

When Larry’s session was over, his interview would begin. But that’s another story.

Conrad Martin

Okay, no one get mad at me, but I am loving this! I love being in the classrooms and being able to chat with my participants.

I have completed three observations and one interview so far. I have been pleasantly pleased with what I have seen and heard. One participant that I have observed is Ann at Elementary school B and her fourth grade classroom. All twenty-five of her students were present on this day and extremely well behaved. The students were very familiar with the IWB which tells me that the board is used frequently in the classroom. For example, the board is on a stand and if it is bumped, it has to be re-oriented. When the class and teacher noticed that the board was out of alignment, the student who was currently at the board participating in the activity immediately reset the board without having to be directed in the process by the teacher. What a treat! Ann’s interview verified exactly what I witnessed in the observation. She gave me specific examples of how her students were involved in using the IWB. She went on to say that her students have become more responsible for not only their learning but also in teaching others. She said that it is common place for her students to use the board to teach each other or to review.

The interviews with the teachers at High School E were also exciting for me both professionally and as a researcher. It appears (from early analysis) that the IWB in the classroom has begun to change the way these teachers teach. According to them, prior to having the boards, their students rarely got out of their seats. Both teachers are including student interaction with the board in every lesson and have begun to use the IWB at learning stations! Can you imagine? In the high school? I was thrilled! And one teaches freshmen andone teaches seniors! Both went on to give examples of how the IWB is used in their classrooms such as venn diagramming, completing charts and tables, and creating their own presentations for literature. And I was excited to hear that the engagement level of the students in these classrooms has increased dramatically since the IWB.

Now I realize that we have a long way to go before classrooms are totally changed to better serve the needs of today’s learners, but I am glad to see that we (at least in a small part) are on our way. The early findings of my research indicate a different outcome that the other studies I have read regarding IWBs and their impact on instruction. Yipee!

Roxie Miller

The data available from Google Analytics about both the Historical Photos Collection and the library websites overall covers June 1, 2008 to present. Since this is less than one year, parallel comparisons of one year to another are not possible, and other comparisons of different months are of limited validity. For example, comparing September 2008 to January 2009 is problematic because the university was in session unequal amounts of time during those months. Different parts of the semester may also see different use patterns as well. Images are still being uploaded to the digital library, and ASU’s library websites in general is developing as well. They are evolving entities--a consideration that must be kept in mind when evaluating them at different points in time. Interpretation of the large amounts of data available through Google Analytics must therefore be carefully done to avoid misconceptions. It must also employ a determination to explore and uncover everything that the numbers can reveal--there seem to be possibilities in this set of data.

I chose 11 reports to run initially of www.library.appstate.edu (overall ASU library sites) and http://contentdm.library.appstate.edu (the Historical Photographs Collection) after being granted access to those domains by the Belk Library staff. The 11 reports are:
Dashboard
Visits for all visitors
Pageviews for all visitors
Average pageviews for all visitors
Bounce rate
Average time on site
% of new visits (new vs. returning)
visitors overview
map overlay of the world
traffic sources overview
content overview

The reports include about 115 pages of data to analyze. Broad comparisons can be made between the sites on a number of key indicators. To facilitate this, I set up two binders, one for the Historical Photographs Collection and one for the Library and Information Commons, with reports organized the same way in each for an easy side by side comparison. As I began to look at the data it did become apparent that there were differences in the patterns of use.

One area of interest to me is geography, and I began to focus on the map overlay of the world. The library gets internet visitors from 187 countries and the Historical Photographs collection gets visitors from 78. This is a large but understandable difference due to the discrepancy in volume of traffic--1,273,837 for the library and 10,462 for historical photographs during window of observation (6/1/08-3/11/09). The number of visitors from each country is given in order. All this was fascinating to me, but I wanted more--the percentages of visitors that came from each country, which was not given in the report. Common sense told me that countries with 1 or 2 visitors would have almost meaninglessly small percentages given the large number of total visitors, especially for the library as a whole. I decided to start by finding the percentage of visitors from the United States, the bulk of the total. By my calculations, 94.7% of the HPC visitors were from the USA, and 98.1% of overall library visitors was from the USA. It seemed like a small, but significant difference.

What did it mean? Upon reflection, the results did not seem right. The Historical Photographs Collection is a local history collection of the college. I would expect it to have more domestic visitors. The university as a whole has international programs that would lead me to believe that it would have a higher percentage of foreign visitors than the HPC. After thinking about this I began to suspect that the CONTENTdm reports involve more than the HPC, and this appears to be the case.

While initially frustrated that the reports run and time spend will not yield meaningful data analysis, I am happy that I was able to evaluate the data carefully enough to detect a problem that would have nullified the validity of the web metric component of my research. While I am not a natural with technology, the key component of research is critical thinking.

Web metric comparison of the HPC with the ASU library as a whole is not feasible given what I have discovered about the domains I was given access to. I may be able support usability tasks/interviews with web metric information about specific pages that come up in the research, but the primary source of data will have to be the tasks and interviews. Qualitative research 1, quantitative research 0.

So what have I done data wise these past two weeks? What I should have been doing all along. I may just pretend to be a researcher more often so I have an excuse to interview people.

Seriously, I spent the first week diving into teachers lesson plans looking for incidence of technology integration. What I saw was not what I expected. I know my teachers use technology far more frequently then is evident from their lessons. I personally developed (with input from a few key teachers) the fancy digital lesson plans that the teachers use at my school. Why a need for fancy lesson plan forms you ask. Teachers were not articulating to the administration what teaching strategies they were using to teach the children. We had far to much:

Monday: Page 24 in the workbook

We wanted the teachers to paint a picture for the administration and other teachers interested in integration with them. We also wanted to see how they were integrating technology. Was it a teacher centered lesson or student center instruction? I saw little of what I wanted, and in some cases, I saw literally nothing at all. What's the point of wasting a teachers time filling out just another form, I wanted these plans to be living documents that evolved. The result of my investigation? Back to the drawing board for lesson planning.

A little discouraged by my trip down lesson plan lane, I was not very eager to enter phase 2 of my data collection, interviews. A surprise to me, the results of my interviews were quite the positive. I have only completed three of my six planned interviews, but I am optimistic that the last three will be a fruitful as the first round.

During the interviews I asked the questions that no one stops to ask the teacher. What I found honestly amazed me in two of the situations. The teachers that I thought were not truly integrating technology, were the ones that secretly really had a grasp on what it means to teach a child in the 21st century.

I was let down by the data in lesson plan review, but the personal element fleshed out in the interviews may change the way I look at teachers forever. I want everyone to embrace and teach with technology NOW! I want them to jump in with both feet and not look back. I found myself getting a little cynical lately when I did not see that dogmatic dedication in ALL my teachers. Unbenounced to me, many of my teachers just needed a little more time to come around on their own. I actually had some seriously geeky conversations this week with people that I thought were "afraid" of technology.

Jason Mammano

This week, I conducted my first and only pre-study interview of the class that is participating in my Action Research Project. This class has some behavior issues and many students' effort is seriously lacking, so they don't often have the luxury of working in pairs or small groups. However, the very nature of literature circles requires that they do just such a thing, and I wanted to see how they interacted with one another before this instructional strategy was introduced.

So this week, after reading the narrative poem "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert W. Service at the conclusion of our poetry unit, I allowed the kids to work in pairs or groups of threes while they completed a poem analysis and some comprehension questions based on the poem. I actually uttered the sentence that my students very rarely hear: "You may pick your own partners." In a class such as this one, statements like this one are usually a problem waiting to happen...choosing their own partners means that they are obviously going to choose to work with friends and do more socializing than actual work. So at the possible risk of wasting class time, I let them choose partners for the sake of research.

This set up an ideal observation setting for me. I was free to circulate the room and listen in on conversations, check work progress, and answer questions, all while taking some observational notes on a clipboard. There were only thirteen students in class on this day, and they seperated themselves into six distinct groups. There were three pairs, two groups of three students, and one student who (not surprisingly) chose to work alone.

What really surprised me the most was the amount of information I could have collected. I really thought the observational process would be simple, but then I realized that trying to oversee six different groups of children really meant there were six different conversations, six different thought processes, and six different work products beging created simultaneously. It was very challenging to be able to offer help and answer questions while also just trying to observe how the students were working together.

I made some very sketchy notes, but quoting any conversation was almost impossible. I was able to go back and make some more detailed notes after the class had ended, but it was much harder than I thought to conduct a formal observation in the classroom while the students were working. I did learn a lot about the observation process, and I plan on using this first attempt at an interview as a learning experience for me. Now I know what to expect when we begin the actual literature circles. I will need to do a better job of removing myself from students, so that the observation process is not focused on answering questions rather than observing. I need to make sure that I am circulating the room constantly, and try to get more detailed converstation between students while they are working. I need to be able to pay attention to what the students are working on, and what they are discussing with group members whether it is assignment-related or not.

Bottom line, I learned that observation of an entire class of students is very involved, but it can yield great information about group dynamic and work ethic in a classroom. It will definitely be a beneficial data collection tool during the research process.

Amy Galloway

My research has definitely taken a turn, and I'm finding myself re-evaluating my methods/sources for data collection. The more I investigate young adult bestsellers, the more I'm realizing how complicated the notion of a "bestseller" actually is. I had initially intended to make simple lists from the New York Times and Publishers Weekly to determine which titles showed up the most frequently. However, as I did my research, I learned that these two sources may not be adequate. While the Times compiles all its lists weekly, Publishers Weekly only compiles its Children's Fiction list monthly (ironic, no?), so I'm trying to figure out if I should do something to weigh the results differently in my tallies of how many times each title appears.

Another snag I've encountered is the way the bestsellers are established--while both sources are fairly secretive about their specific methods for creating a list, it seems that their results may be fairly biased/inaccurate. The New York Times drops "evergreens"--titles that have been (somewhat arbitrarily) determined to be perennial sellers--and only receives sales data from certain unnamed booksellers. Publishers Weekly gets sales information from the largest merchants (Borders, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, etc) as well as independent bestsellers, but does not offer much information beyond that. I am considering using some alternate sources, if possible; Nielsen BookScan provides point-of-sale information from a wide range of sources, and online booksellers such as Amazon.com also have bestseller lists. I plan to assess all these sources this weekend to determine my final selections for bestseller compilation.

I'm also having a surprising amount of difficulty obtaining circulation records in my library. I've been in constant contact with the librarian in charge of circulation, and we're both amazed by how impossible it seems to get this information. The problem stems from the fact that our library maintains records per copy rather than per title, which would skew any reports that merely requested highest-circ items. We've contacted client support on our cataloging system and are waiting for a response, but I think I might alter my search and base the library's "bestsellers" on the titles with the highest number of holds.

So, after all these obstacles, I'm clearly a bit behind on my schedule. As I intend to read and analyze several of the top titles from these lists, I'm anxious to figure out exactly what sources I'll use so I can get the novels finished in time. Hopefully I will be able to begin reading the bestsellers at the beginning of next week. If all else fails, I may just select a representative sample of books that just appear on several lists, instead of using a more quantitative approach. Beyond this aspect of my research, however, things are going well. I am interviewing my teens, which has turned out to be a lot of fun, as well as being informative and surprising. Next week I will continue interviews and hopefully get this bestseller business all straightened out.

Tara Smith

I am still in the process of arranging my interviews, but have the surveys completed and have been analyzing the data in preparation for the interviews. The surveys were sent and returned via email. The first part of the survey covers basic personal information, the second and third sections ask the participants to rate the their comfort, proficiency, and perceived usefulness in regard to computers and technology in general as well as the learning platforms for ASU online courses, including the AET Zone, AsULearn, discussion boards, Wikis, and class blogs. The final set of questions calls for 2-3 sentence answers about a the participants' experience with online courses.

The first sections of the survey have taught me a short lesson in preconceptions. From personal experience and my perceived opinions of others' ideas, I had thought tha, given that none of the participants fell into a digital generation, that computer proficiency and comfort levels might fall into the "moderate" and perhaps even "low" ranges. However, the vast majority of the students indicated high comfort levels and high levels of proficiency with all technologies, with many students updating their own computers and performing above-basic troubleshooting. Almost all replies indicated that the participants turned to computers and the internet first for informational needs, including questions, socialization, and household management.

Of the 5 learning platforms, the AET Zone ranked first in usefulness and ease of use and, while tools such as blogs and wikis ranked high in ease of use, most did not find them particularly useful.

Participants also indicated that they felt the online classes (meetings in glass classroom and online assignments) tended to be harder than face-to-face meetings and classwork, echoing the articles from my lit review that indicated students rarely felt that internet courses were the 'easy way out.' Technological issues, such as faulty equipment, problems loading software and plug-ins, and poor connections all negatively affected the effectiveness of online meetings, and the nature of the online meeting rooms, according to the participants, often caused confusion with too many people tryiong to speak or catch the professor's attention.

The convenience of online meetings was not as large a factor as I had predicted, and students appreciated the lack of drive time but disliked the early meeting time and idea that the online meetings took away from free time.-John Harrington

The data that I have been collecting has surprised me and made me hopeful about our future generations. I have been observing Kindergarteners learning about the location of the Equator and the Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn. They learned about differences in skin tone and how geographical location in relation to how close or far away you are from the Equator affects your skin tone. Those that live in countries closest to the Equator have darker skin and the farther away you live from it, the lighter your skin to absorb the necessary nutrients from the sun. They also collected data from their parents about their ancestory and placed their pictures in the area on the global map where they originated. They are continuing to learn more about geography, countries and cultures.

In addition to learning about other countries and their cultures, these students are learning about the poverty of some of those countries. Using a Read to Feed program designed by Heifer International, they are learning about what poverty means. During one lesson, the children were given pictures of food to color and cut out. Then each student received a plate and were asked to place on that plate how much they usually eat in a day. On a second plate, they were given rice in different amounts. The teacher explained to the class that the amount of rice that they had on their plates was all some children in other countries get to eat in a day. The students were amazed; they asked questions like "how do they survive on so little food?" and "why don't they grow more food?" The teacher explained that these countries do the best they can with what they have but that we can do something to help them.

Using videos provided by Heifer and stories such as The Chicken and the Worm, Beatrice's Goat, and Give a Goat, the students learned that giving even a little can make a big difference. They learned the difference the gift of a goat can make to hungry people. They learned that goats provide milk and food and that a pair of goats can provide income for a family by selling either the milk or the goat's young ones. Then the learned the same things about the gift of a cow.

The lessons for yesterday and today focused on the book The Chicken and the Worm. This book talks about the differences in chickens: their colors and the colors and size of the eggs they lay. It also talks about the differences in worms. Then the book talks about what each animal does to help the ground. For example, worms dig in the ground making small holes and softening the dirt making it easier for plants to grow. Chickens also do their part by scratching and pecking the ground, as well as providing manure which provides necessary nutrients for the plants. The students were asked to draw pictures and write sentences describing what both worms and chickens do to help us and what we can do with what they provide.

Today was the last day of the Read to Feed program at this school and the school dressed up as farmers to raise awareness for what we all can do to help fight poverty. The school was decorated and the kids had the opportunity, for a small fee (as little as a penny), to have their pictures made behind realistic looking farm clothing. The teacher admitted that the goal for donations to this project was set really low because of our current economy. The goal was set at $250. However, the final total at the end of the school day today was 1, 265.13!

I feel like this project and others like it has the potential to make a real difference in a child's life. There is a lot that can be learned through lessons of this type. I loved witnessing this project and the effect it had on these Kindergarteners.

Sherry Fender

It certainly has been an interesting two weeks of data collection. I have interviewed all 5 of my participants, and the results were much like I anticipated. For 5th graders, they were very unfamiliar with weather content, other than temperature and the existence of clouds. Although that was troubling from a teacher’s perspective, from a researcher’s, it could work to my advantage, making it hopefully easier to show the impact of the planned instruction. They enjoyed “doing” science – activities and experiments were the primary ways that were mentioned, along with reading books about animals, which was their favorite “part” of science. All of the students said they enjoyed science, although Amy’s response was not as convincing as the other students!
I particularly enjoyed interviewing Ms. Sanders, the teacher in Classroom 2. She is having a difficult year with her students, as her students are struggling to be successful for various reasons. When I asked about the students from her class that I was interviewing and observing, she was not as concerned about Amy, but concerned about Reilly and others retaining the information that we have taught this year. It may add an interesting twist to this project, but I would be interested in looking either now or later at the impact that using media resources made on retention and application of the content. She remarked that the kids were now referring to the Classroom A (the classroom that is using media resources, as opposed to Classroom B which is using textbooks and more traditional methods of teaching) as the “fun” science classroom.
I have also been able to observe the students 3 times in the classroom setting. The first was during a 15-minute video on weather tools, during which they filled out a viewing guide. After watching the video, all 4 students were able to recognize the 6 basic weather tools and describe their use. In contrast, after reading the passage in Classroom B concerning the same tools, they were only able to give the use for 4 of the tools and recognize 2 of the 6. The students were also observed using an Interactive Weather Maker, accessed through the Media Center’s mobile lab. They were actively engaged in experimenting with different weather variables to create different types of weather. They were also able to draw conclusions about the causes of different types of weather, such as clouds, wind, and various kinds of precipitation.
Data collection seems to be going uneventfully, which is a nice surprise! I haven’t had to make any changes as of yet, however, I may have to alter my time line a bit next week. We were informed today that the 5th grade End-of-Grade in Science would count for the first time in our schools’ composite score (which affects our school’s grade on the NC School Report Card and ABC Bonus). This is a very difficult test, more so than our other EOG tests. So I may have to shorten the number of lessons that I teach in order to move on to the next goal so that we are able to complete our science instructional units prior to the EOG. I have a meeting with our principal on Monday to determine what changes we need to make in our science instruction in general, as well as how that could possibly impact this project.

The first thing I am thinking is that I put all these things in the beginning of my study thinking that something would go wrong, and I would have to shift around. Nothing went wrong, and I have completed three interviews an observation, and a student focus group! WHEW. It wasn’t so much the observing and questioning, but the writing afterward. For the first observation I took notes on paper. I will be wiser next time, and take my lap top computer which I had planned to do in the first place and forgot. The observation showed nothing new. I guess I was just hoping for a miracle.

For the interviews, first I interview and write down answers as close to verbatim as possible. Then I go to another task at work. It may be three hours before I get to type up the interview. By that time I have probably lost a little of what was in my brain. I feel a good researcher immediately types up the interview so they will be more accurate. I know I could use a tape recorder, but no one wanted to be taped, and I didn’t want them to be uncomfortable and quit on me. It was hard enough to get them to agree to help me in the first place. I will just stick to writing and do the best I can. The interviews shed a little more light than the observation, and I learned that teachers know a little more about their new technology than I thought they did, but they just aren’t using it.

I looked at all three teacher lesson plan books, and none of them had anything about technology written up. They do not plan for technology integration for their in class lessons, nor do they plan for the assistant who is in the computer lab. They just take their students and drop them off.

I met with the student focus group today, and spent most of the time talking about ways they like to use the document camera. Sad but true, they didn't know all the things it could do, and their favorite thing about it was watching movies on the big screen. They love the computers in their room, and said if they were good they got to play on them in the afternoon.

I feel that I am doing the best I can do considering I am doing my job and conducting research at the same time. My job is actually suffering more than my research. I think for the research process to work better, a researcher needs more time. They need to focus just on research when they are researching. I feel as if I am a juggler. As far as initial findings, I am finding that the teachers for the most part are using their document cameras most of the day. They are using them for glorified overhead projectors mostly, but they are sometimes using them in other ways such as book capturing and sharing as well as internet sharing.

I have actually changed my project a little to just gather information from upper grades 3-5. This will ease my work a little, and give me more time to think and reflect.

The first two weeks of data collection have really been a challenge. It’s been pretty difficult to remove myself from my normal role in the classroom. I am observing, but I find myself trying to keep things moving instead of letting the production take its course. This class has also been stricken by illness, absences and special school events. A minor flu epidemic has worked its way through the class and at any one time, one-fourth of the students have been absent. This led me to postpone my first round of individual interviews until next week. There have also been programs related to high school scheduling for next year, including a period-long presentation by the high school JROTC. While our productions have continued in spite of all of these things, it has made it difficult to collect the amount of data I intended to have by this time. A normal shooting schedule for a weekly show involves a day of preparation on Monday, filming of anchor spots on Tuesday, filming sports on Wednesday, voice-overs and extra studio work on Thursday and interviews and special reports outside the studio Tuesday through Thursday.

From a positive standpoint, I have been able to collect student journals and I have gotten some interesting pieces of information. The students are motivated by the degree of autonomy that they have been given and they have a great deal of confidence in their own ability. Also, it is interesting to note that the most recent program was very popular with the class and in fact in Lisa’s journal she identified it as her second favorite show (out of 9) this year. Lisa felt that the staff actually worked together pretty well, and was particularly well planned. Layla also liked the show a great deal, but felt that some of the show was rushed because of too much talking by the staff early in the production week. Karen also indicated that the show was very good, but that the degree of stress was elevated at the end of the week. Christine, who along with Whitney, was responsible for the majority of the scripting and theme for the show stated in her journal that “we could have done better, if we had been better prepared when we started filming.” The shooting schedule for this week was rearranged because Christine, Layla & Whitney were attending a Student Government Convention on a normal shooting day.

I have noticed some interesting trends so far. In this class the students have the opportunity to select their weekly responsibilities based on a checklist that lists all of the production duties, and for the most recent show Hurley, the only boy in the class was the show’s director. Normally, Hurley has trouble with organization and is the class-clown, but he seemed to take his job very seriously and kept up with all of his responsibilities. He did have some difficulty keeping the other staff members on schedule and seemed a little intimidated by the rest of the staff. I hope that when I have the opportunity to interview him individually I will be able to get his perspective on the dynamics in the classroom. The students who handled the filming of interviews outside the classroom were very effective and completed their assignments with almost no outside assistance.

Considering the circumstances, I feel pretty good about the information I have been able to gather so far, but I certainly hope to have a much calmer and more data-filled next couple of weeks.

Jeff Kitchen

This week has been a challenging one with data collection. My students did complete their pre-surveys and we have began working on a project that will be one of the entries to the portfolio. However, many students have been absent due to illness, as the flu is making its rounds through the school population. Since my class only has ten members, collecting data becomes tricky when even three people are absent. Also, Friday we had a Student-Faculty basketball game to raise money for Juvenile Diabetes. It is a great cause and everyone had a wonderful time, but it did take away from instructional time and time collecting data.
The students are very excited about participating in this study. This surprised me a bit since they have been videoed about fifteen times as I have been preparing my National Board portfolio, not to mention the focus groups and the rounds of reflection we have done as a class. Karen mentioned that she is "getting to be really good at all of this reflecting business." That is a great thing! Not all students are as keen as Karen, though. Andrés, with his typical dry humor, stated that if he "never reflected on his progress again, it would be too soon". Andrés is otherwise, however, very cooperative. He honestly just likes to voice his opinion, no matter what.
One unexpected turn of events is that Andrés has started to come out of his shell a bit with the rest of the class. Normally, he sits alone and tries to have a little contact with others as possible. However, since this study began and the class has done more structured reflection and goal setting, Andrés has started helping others, voluntarily sitting with the class, and generally being more of a valuable part of the class. I am not exactly sure at this time why this has occurred, but I am certainly not complaining. One reason could be that he wants others to see what he can already do with the language, since everyone is setting their goals and sharing what they are with their groups. Another possibility is Andrés feels that he has a lot to offer to share with his classmates. I will continue to observe as the study continues to try to determine the reason for Andrés' new-found social behavior.
Next week, we will continue to work on our project, one of several that will be included in our portfolios. Also, I will be conducting several one-on-one interviews with my students. Finally, my students will be continuing to set language goals and reflect on each person's progress.
Tina Mallén

Data collection is not at all what I had anticipated. When you think you have a plan everything goes he total opposite way! Which I suppose make everything more interesting and exciting at the same time. However, as a researcher it makes you constantly be on your toes to think of a solution or a different avenue to try. I can say that I am a little tired after these two weeks. But I guess I will grin and bare or should I say reflect and learn from it.

I had originally planned to have two different groups that I would compare my data to one group that was using the different reflective practices and one group that wasn't. Unfortunately, the time and crazy schedules that first week made it impossible to use two groups. I have decided to just observe one group of students and follow their progression through the reflective practices I have decided to use. That first week I had time toward the end of the week to sit down with my four students from the original group one to interview. I interviewed each one separately while the rest of the class was working on an assignment. My assistant watched the rest of the class while I was out of the room. Each student meet with me in the library on a few of the cushion chairs. I had given each student a copy of the questions prior to asking them. It was interesting how at first their reaction to the interview process was very nervous and unsure of what to say and expect. After about the second or third question most of the students had lighten up and were comfortable to talk about the different topic I had hoped to gain some insight on. Each student felt that reading is a task you must spend time on and be active, thinking readers. They had all experienced times when reading was difficult because the text to was too hard or because they were not interested in reading. I am not sure that it mattered but my students had just completed a benchmark test for our county to prepare them for their EOG testing. A lot of their responses seemed to stem from their experience just the week before, so that might skew some of their views about reading. We did discuss a few of the different strategies they use to be more active readers and help them understand the text better. Most of the strategies were things they had learned in previous years or months in school, such as writing in the margins to track their thinking and to reread passages to help understand difficult meaning. I informed them that they would be participating in a study that would determine some better ways to help them understand reading and gain a deeper meaning from the text.

This past week, I began to observe these students in their natural setting of the classroom while they are working with the text I had chosen. I decided that I was not trying to test how well students could read the text and I did not want the lack of ability to be a factor. I decided to use a text that I was reading aloud to the whole class and that they were very interested in. I have students discuss their reactions to the text as more difficult concepts arise as one of the reflective practices. They have also begun to use journals to reflect on the actions or issues in the book. I am excited to see what their journals will show me in the research process. They seem to be doing well using the different reflective practices and putting their thoughts down on paper.

So right now things are running smoothly and I hope to see some of their growth through these different practices. I am right now positive of the changes I have made in my research approach and I hope it will lend some interesting data.

Nikki Jaynes

The first two weeks of data collection has been very rewarding, and I can now see my project coming together. I have been conducting mainly observations the first two weeks of data collection. The third grade class that comes to the computer lab only comes two days a week. I wanted to see their reactions as they used the program for the first time, and see if they were still excited in the second week. I showed the students on my smart board how the software works before they went to their seat. They were able to get on the software program with little programs, and became engaged in the software. I saw students working on math, language arts, and science problems. They were having fun and learning with this software. The students asked me repeatedly if they were going to get on the program the next time they came to class. The students were working on their typing lessons before they started this program. They were using Mavis Beacon an excellent typing program, but it can get tedious when they are learning how to type. I wanted to use the Jumpstart 3rd grade software program between typing lessons. The main thing that I observed where the students expressions and what they said to themselves while working on Jumpstart 3rd grade. I saw students that had facial expressions that were very excited to be working on this program. I heard students muttering this is neat as I walked past their desks. I felt that this observation was very rewarding, because it supported everything that I am trying to accomplish with this research project.

Data Collection Day One

Probe Questions were administered to Blair. Blair is a 17 year old male identified as Traumatic Brain Injured. He is in the 10th grade and has a one-on-one aid. This is a student specific assistant to aid him and stays with him for the entire school day. For the duration of this stud, he participated in on-campus work through Vocational Rehabilitation, which is offered through our county. He has attended IEP meetings but never expressed interests or desires. Using the scale established with my study, I used a 0-3 rating scale to score Blair’s answers. He scored an 18 out of 30.

Reflection

After the first interview, I began to re-evaluate my questions. I picked 10 probe questions which were supported by research to be valid interview questions in relation to my topic. But I found that the student became bored with answering the questions. The questions are wordy and require a lot of thought to be considered by the student with disabilities. I believe that each question is valid for my end result, so I need to make some type of change. I am going to split the sessions into 2 instead of gathering data all in one session. My peer review of my research stated that I needed to revise my questions, and a very valid point considering the attention span of students with disabilities. To receive insightful and valid data from the students, which will ultimately help the students, I feel I should interview them in 2 sessions. The data collection process is actually a lot harder than I had anticipated, I am not a patient researcher. I will need to focus more on the student’s actual answers, instead of what I expect them to say.

Shannon Mosteller

My first round of data collection went pretty much as I expected. I used observations to pay particular attention to the interactions of the study participants in a group setting. What I noticed was their effort to draw their peers attention to them instead of to the task at hand. I am using five students, and for the most part, I noticed many simialr behaviors in each of the students. The boys seemed to be more interested in the social aspect of the group. I saw each particiapnt, in differing ways, make efforts to engage members of their groups as well as members of the other groups in conversations that were unrelated to the assignment. As a group they were unengaged and 3 of the 5 did not fully complete their part of the task, the 2 that were completed, were done to the bare minimum, no extra effort or thought was put into this activity. This is what I expected and it will serve as a baseline for me to compare the results of the following data collection. I observed all of the students in one form or another making an effort to avoid sharing their thoughts and ideas with the group, 4 of the 5 were observed playing and making jokes to divert the other students attention from the task they were to complete, and there were several instances where they asked other students to tell them what they should do. The result as a whole of the first round was that these students do not want to give their peers the opportunity to hear their original thoughts. They did not want to appear they were enjoying or even interested in the activity. We are doing this because we have to was the sentiment largely expressed by this group of students, each in thier own way.

Craig Cavender

I have spent these last two weeks interviewing my participants. It began somewhat slow because middle school students can be very forgetful. I had a few interviews scheduled before school that some my participants forgot about. I had to reschedule interviews for after school or during school. I was not expecting to reschedule my interviews so often and I did not take into account that they may forget their interview date and time. This has altered my original time line. After completing all 6 interviews this week I have seen a common theme, most of my participants have some stereotypical views of Latin America. Some of these stereotypical views involve food from Latin America (tacos and burritos), money (all of Latin America use pesos), and people (anyone with a dark complexion and accent are from Mexico). I also see that TV and popular chain restaurants play a role in these stereotypes. Another problem I have encountered is the response from my participants e-mail pals. They have not received a response from the Colombian students. I may not be able to use their e-mail exchanges as part of my data if they don't receive responses soon.

Although some of my participants forgot about their original interviews, they have been very cooperative and are excited to participate. They feel very important and are interested in what is coming next. After completing these interviews, I am able to invision how this study will procede and I believe I will see an impact on my participant's cultural awareness by using different types of technology.
Kristen Clark

My research is crawling along. I have found it to be difficult to interview students that are consistently suspended or absent. I am considering going to another classroom to use students that I had last semester especially since the attendance has been a problem. I have talked to three of my interviewees and asked several questions. They are extremely honest. They remind me of the elementary school kids that I had last year. They don’t necessarily tell you what you want to hear, but what the truth is. That means they aren’t too concerned about using a library. What I have noticed is that they are sure interested in the book we are reading in class and I over hear them discussing books they have read in other classes. They always want to get on the computer and read the current newspaper. Little do they know they are using the resources that the library would offer. After questioning another teacher it seems that the students would be more likely to use the facility than her. I was mighty taken aback from that. All my students have been very forthcoming with information. They don’t seem to mind talking with me about school stuff.

Heather Greene

I decided to interview my students as a focus group. I ended up meeting with a smaller group of students than I had originally planned for due to not being able to get the signed forms back. We met first thing in the morning over several days. This is the same group I had been working with since last spring. They had worked very well together and I expected no less from them this time.

The responses I received at first were exactly what I had expected. They enjoyed reading, but they knew they still struggled with comprehension. They had all enjoyed the latest literature circle they were involved in. When the students began to discuss how they wanted to set up their own reading activities, they became very interested, and actually had a lot of input. I was very surprised! They actually wanted to do another literature circle with a different book. They were interested in reading a funny book and picked out Diary of a Wimpy Kid. They decided that they wanted to create a model of the book using play doh. This has caused so much excitement in my classroom that the whole class is asking questions.

Barbara Cloninger

I really thought I had not collected enough data to do a good job on this assignment, but boy, as I begin to analyze the data and do the data representation, I am beginning to see what the data is really telling me. I began by interviewing students on their feelings about reading and what they like and dislike about reading. Most of them indicated they they liked reading, but not enjoy reading on their own. They also did not enjoy having to go back into the story and pull out details, and having to think critically about the story. One student admittted that he still had problems with reading comprehension.

I then allowed these students to have input in designing learning/reading activities, and the materials they will use. I have found that their motivation levels are skyrocketing which was maintained throughout the project. They went above and beyond what I expected and that was surprising to me since this group is below grade level. They are working with grade level material and most of them are doing a great job! I can not express to you how much this is a total change! Most of class is either working below grade level or struggling due to lack of motivation or learning difficulties. Not only did this small group's motivation level increase tremendously, but the entire class became interested in the activities and they became motivated.

The students in my small, project group decided to use literature circles to carry out their activities. We had previously done literature circles in class, and they had enjoyed doing them. However, they wanted to modify the activities by using playdoh to build a model of the book. They chose the book they wanted to read by decided first that they wanted to read a funny book. One of the students had already read Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the second book in the series previously with his older brother, and liked it. There are several other books in that series, so they wanted to do the first book.

Once the students started the project, their motivation became contagious to the other students who weren't in the group. The entire class wanted to participate, so I ended up having to find books for the class to participate in small group lit. circles with these books. I ended up having 4 groups of students working in Diary of a Wimpy Kid. They all enjoyed it, although the teacher next door, was very critical commenting that the Diary books weren't "good literature". I was offended by that remark.