Action Research Plan Draft

PART 1 - BACKGROUND


The GOOSE CREEK CISD Technology Plan for E-Rate Year 12, 2009 – 2012 needs assessment describes existing conditions within the district stating that all 6th - 8th grade students on two junior school campuses have wireless ultra mobile devices (Classmates) for use at home and at school. This is in line with the technology plan’s goal 1.1, to EXPAND THE USE OF 1:1 ULTRA MOBILE DEVICES FOR STUDENTS. Additionally, Goal 4, to ALIGN INSTRUCTIONAL GOALS WITH TECHNOLOGY GOALS TO IMPROVE TEACHING AND LEARNING and Objective 4.1: working in collaboration with Staff Development and Educational Technology, revise instructional planning to incorporate the use of 1:1 ultra mobile devices and laptops for students and teachers, are support by the Classmates. Last year was the first year that these computers were available for use. Horace Mann Junior School is committed to the goals stated in the district’s technology plan. The computers were issued to students; they were instructed to bring them to each class and to take them home each afternoon. The Horace Mann Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) met at the end of the year to evaluate the use of the Classmates. This evaluation led to some conclusions that will need to be addressed.

1. Infrastructure/network problems hampered the use of the Classmates.


2. Lack of use in the student’s classes contributed to them not being taken to classes. The majority of students took them home and did not return to school with them each day.


3. As the year proceeded, teachers experienced difficulty facilitating instruction using the Classmates due to conclusion 1 & 2 and consequently chose not to use the Classmates.
   
   

The ILT’s investigation included input from members of ILT but it did not include a formal measurement that included direct input from all teachers. There is a need to create a baseline that include input from all teachers at HMJ to which any results from program changes can be compared. To work toward the district technology goals, the ILT is considering issuing class sets of the Classmates to teachers. This will limit the use of the classmates but hopefully it will insure that they will be used affectively for instruction.

Research/Guiding Questions-

• What is affective educational use of technology?


• What management issues might teachers experience when using 1:1 laptop computers?


• What impedes teachers incorporating 1:1 laptop computers into their instructional methods?


• How do infrastructure/network issues impact the implementation of Classmates?

PART 2 - ACTION RESEARCH PLAN Draft

Goals and objectives/outcomes of the research investigation

• Establish baseline usage for the Classmates


• Change the Classmates from student issued to teacher issued to increase instructional use of the Classmates


• Anticipate, identify, and remediate class room management issues associated with using the Classmates


• Identify educational technology method types for classifying usage with the Classmates


• Collect data (log form) on Classmate usage, including method types as identified in research.


• Track infrastructure/network problems experienced by teachers and students to look for correlations in usage frequency and type.
  

Activities designed to achieve the objectives

• Change from issuing a classmate to each student to issuing class sets of the Classmates


• Meet with teachers that are issued class sets of the Classmates to provide information about the project including the research/guiding questions. Additionally, the group will discuss identified research methods, and Classmate management issues.


• Log infrastructure/network problems
  

Resources and research tools needed for data gathering

• SurveyMonkey


• Teacher Surveys


• Infrastructure/network problem log


• Summary of literature describing affective use
  

Process for monitoring the achievement of goals and objectives

• Collect baseline information through teacher surveys.


• Collect usage/summative information through teacher survey at the end of the school year.


• Compare the baseline information with the summative information looking for frequency of use, and method types implemented.


• Track infrastructure/network problems experienced by teachers and students
  

Assessment instrument(s) to evaluate the effectiveness of the action research study

• Teacher survey that includes instructional method types used, and frequency.


• Study usage data and the infrastructure/network problem log to look for correlations in usage frequency and type.

My Other Blog

You are welcome to visit my other blog, TeachEduTech.
It was started as part of my course work but I've added some other related entries.

http://teachedutech.blogspot.com/

Action Research Project Idea

I will be doing a action research project. Since my degree is in technology leadership, I'm pursuing ideas in that area.

At the campus level and at least, the classroom level, there is a disproportional emphasis placed on the technology TEKS as compare to Content TEKS. It seems that few teachers know of the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology. If they do know of the LRPT, less urgency is placed on the implementation of those TEKS than content TEKS. There are probably several reasons for this, one being that our success on the technology TEKS is not at such high stakes when compared to content TAKS.

Unfortunately many educators are missing valuable opportunities to help their students with content TEKS by deemphasizing or ignoring the technology TEKS. If teachers get a vision for how the technology TEKS support TAKS and enhance instruction, they will begin facilitating the use of technology in their classes. The issues of technology infrastructure reliability and teacher technology training are central; however, the magnitude of these issues cannot be addressed within one action research project.

I'd like to study technology implementation at my school. The STAR Report would be a place to start but an action research project would need to define the understandings that teachers are working with. Our 1 to 1 computers, Classmates are being issued to teachers for use in their classes. Last year they were issued to each student and they were to carry them to their classes and to their home each day. For reasons currently unknown, a very large portion of the students did not meet the expectation. Consequently, many teachers were not able to incorporate Classmate usage into their classes.

With this change, a practical action research project could address this years implementation of the classmates. Through teacher questionnaires, information could be collected pertaining to last years use of the classmates. Many questions could be explored.

How often were the Classmates used in classes last year?
How did teachers use the Classmates last year?
Do teacher know their technology TEKS?
Did last years methods affectively support the technology TEKS?Did last years methods affectively support content TEKS?
With the new format of issuing Classmate class sets to teachers, are they being used more often?
Are the methods being used this year supporting the technology TEKS?
Are the methods being used this year affectively supporting content TEKS?
Is technology in general being used more by the teachers or by the students?
How do the methods being used compare to research pertaining to high affective strategies?
What problems impede teacher and/or student use of technology?

I think that I could provide qualitatively and quantitative data that could be used to measure growth. Is this a reasonable action research study? Is this a meaningful action research study? Could this topic satisfy the requirements of an action research study?

I invite your insight and discussion on this topic.

J. Keith Cummings

Action Research Defined

Educators work in a complicated environment that is influenced by dynamic variables. Success can be illusive. Attempts to duplicate success from one school to another can have very unpredictable results. Practitioner inquiry provides a problem solving process that is reflective that provides solutions that are tailored specifically to a school or even a class. As a method, it can be simple described as ongoing spirals of reflection and action. Practitioner inquiry helps a professional or group of professionals reflect on the dynamics of the environment, create solutions specifically tailored for their environment, and evaluate the results of the solution.

Specifically, practitioner inquiry involves (1) diagnosing/understanding a problem that needs to be resolved, (2) designing action that is based on data and literature, (3) implementing the action, and (4) evaluating the effectiveness of the action to identify areas needing improvement. This is very similar to what science teachers facilitate their students to do. The scientific method tests theories and poses more questions for study.

Marjorie Ringler describes this process, also called action research, as cyclical and as having four steps. They are as follows; (1) define an Issue to study, (2) review of professional literature, (3) take action, and (4) use and share results.

Traditional research paradigms are linear, leading from a problem and ending with the implementation of a solution. Educators are applying a solutions provided by “outside experts,” typically from a university. Practitioner inquiry is different from traditional educational research. It shifts the defining of a problem and the formation of the solution to the problem from an outside source to an inside source. An educator’s unique perspective provides the best vantage point for defining a situation and forming a solution that is tailored specifically for that situation. Additionally this perspective provides an added insight. Available and applicable resources are best realized by those from within the institution.

One tool in accomplishing action research are blogs. Professional communities using action research can use a blog as a forum. Blogs are ideal for sharing reflections, defined problems, pertainent literature on problems and for share the general result. Another useful tool for conduction a specific action research are wikis. They provide the needed control and alerts to foster communications in an efficient way.