EDET 636 Impact of Technology

What are the most important things to remember in conducting interviews? (Infographic) For my infographic, I researched tips for conducting interview questions.  Most of the sites that I read had the same tips:  be prepared and be organized.  One of the other tips that stuck with me talked about having the interview questions written down so that the person asking the questions knows exactly what they want to ask.  This helps keep the research consistent and the same questions will be asked to all of the subjects included in the research.  This is also helpful to move the interview along so that time is not wasted.  I included all of this information as lists so that it will be easy to reference as I look back at it later.   Sources: How to Conduct a Journalistic Interview. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/how-conduct-journalistic-interview/ McNamara, Carter. “General Guidelines ...

This week was hard for me to post on everyone's blog because I am travelling with a group of students from Sitka high school to Fairbanks for the week for a sister school exchange.  I did reply to everyone who posted on my blog and answered any questions that they asked me. I really enjoyed reading everyone's blog and I'm interested in seeing what people are able to find out about their research question.  I am most interested in Tony's topic because he is also a high school teacher like me and I feel that are topics are similar, I'm looking specifically at homework while Tony is looking at assessments but I think we have some commonality in what we are hoping to gain.

This week, I commented on the blogs of others.  I got some ideas for my research project by reading through my classmates blogs.  I like the idea of having students explain their learning through technology as mentioned in Carrie and Melissa's blog.  I do not have access to the technology that they do, however most of my students have iPhone's and can use them as voice recorders while they explain how they solved a problem. I am curious about my research proposal, I've been working on this for a couple of days and this is the first one that I've ever written. I did not have any comments on my blog this week, so I could not respond to any comments. 

Introduction: The topic that I am researching is homework in the math classroom.  I am specifically wondering about the type of homework assignment and if having a variety in the type of homework assigned will help with the completion rate among students.  I believe that homework is necessary because students need to practice solving and working with math problems by themselves.  In class, students are encouraged to work together to develop techniques and to explain math topics.  Homework is a great tool for learning because it forces students to work on their own.  If the first time a student tries to do a problem on their own is at the time of the test, I believe they will not be as prepared as if they had done homework on their own during the unit.  Traditionally I have only given pencil and paper homework, through this research project I am specifically focusing on alternate types of homework and looking at the completion rates during this process....

How will data collection ‘look’ for me?   I will begin collecting data by having students take a short questionnaire.  A few of the questions I am thinking about asking are something along the lines of: 1.      If you had to guess, what percentage of homework do you complete in this class? 2.      If the homework assignment was shorter, do you feel like you would do it more often? 3.      What is your overall grade in this class? 4.      Are you satisfied with your overall grade in this class? 5.      If homework were assigned online, would you complete it more often? 6.      Why do you think teachers assign homework? 7.      If homework were worth more than "work ethic”, would you complete more of it? Next, I will keep a detailed spreadsheet of student’s completion rate and details of the type of assignment it ...

What literature will inform your research? Research Questions:  Would a different type of homework assignment increase student completion rates? In my personal finance course, homework completion is very low.  The students in this class, who complete homework, routinely score higher on the assessments.  Therefore, I am wondering if I change the type of homework assignment will I get a higher completion rate.  I wonder, if I have a higher completion rate for homework, will I then have a higher average on assessment? Below are some resources that I have found: https://www.edutopia.org/article/effective-technology-use-math-class  "Technology that simply transfers a gradual release—the “I do, we do, you do” structure—to an online format is a form of passive learning that strips math of student agency and rigor". https://www.hmhco.com/blog/matt-larson-technology-in-math-classrooms "Students today cannot imagine a world without technology. ...

Of the three weeks, this week was the hardest for me to get started.  I was happy to see that after I posted and read others posts, we all had similar steps in what we needed to know and do for our research. One of the main questions I asked others on their blog was how often they planned on doing a formal observation, either an interview or survey.  The reason I asked this question is because I teach on a modified block schedule, so I only see any one class at most three times a week.  I've decided that I will need to make a schedule for collecting formal data.  Otherwise, I may get behind on my data collecting.  I believe I want to form my question about homework but have not yet completely framed the question yet.  This is another point that was brought up among my classmates, the idea of coming up with the right question.  I'm curious about next weeks essential question.  It seems like we need to find 15 sources to help us in our researc...

What will you have to know and do to begin your research? To begin my research, I will have to formulate a good action research question.   A well written question can not be answered with a yes or a no.  "We have found that good questions are free of educational jargon.  They use simple everyday words that make the point clear to all.  They do not prejudge the result."  (Rust, 5)  The question that I have been working on is:  Would a different type of homework assignment assist student learning? After formulating the question I will need to set up a timeline.  A timeline will help me keep track of my steps and make sure that I complete the research before this course is complete.   I will also need to decide how I am going to record my thoughts/reflections.  Some of the ways I thought of include keeping a journal, taking photos, conducting student interviews, and giving students a pre-assessment and post-...

This week everyone agreed that qualitative research is important, some of us are already doing it, and we would all do more research if we just had time.  I was able to post on Kurtis, Tony and Alice's  blog this week.  I appreciated how Tony was able to share his own experience with action research and it gave me a little better understanding of how it looks.  Alice and I may have an opportunity to collaborate on a lesson between our personal finance courses.  If this is the case, I may change the focus of my research from LMS (PowerSchool) to integrating (and using) excel in personal finance.  I'm interested (and a bit anxious) to see how this process will continue to unfold.  Kurtis and I agreed that making a connection with students is very important and will help as we move forward with our research, especially when it comes to interviewing students.  His point about quality not quantity stuck out to me. Looking forward to next week and c...