EDET 636 Impact of Technology

What has your research shown? Introduction: Why do some student’s complete homework and some don’t?  This is a question that I have wondered about for quite some time.  I know that doing homework helps raise test grades but how can I convince my students that it will raise theirs?  “There is a positive correlation between homework and student achievement on unit tests”.  I wonder if I change the type of homework assignment from something traditional (do the even problems from the back of the math lesson) to something more interactive and engaging, if I would have a higher completion rate? 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 pr...

How will you format and disseminate your research? Formatting: Introduction - including the stated research question (very important) Literature review - what you read that helped to form your research Method - specifically stating the data collection methods Results discussed - its important to state any limitations to the research Disseminating the Research: Think about target audience What obstacles might occur as you are disseminating the research - how can you avoid them? Present the research using various methods - written, graphical, audio, etc Post online - fast, large audience Transfer the results to others - let others make use of your research, seek out those who you think can benefit from your research https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276455086_Writing_Up_Qualitative_Research https://www.slideshare.net/Celcius233/linking-research-to-practice https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/events/2017-03-01/8_result-dis...

What primary concerns exist in ethics, validity and reliability in Action Research? Action research in education is tricky, every year we have a new set of students with different backgrounds and different social settings.  As educators, we do not want to compare one group of students to another, however we do want to do what is best for them.  Continuing to look into and evaluate our practice makes us better teachers.  "Action research helps the teacher to turn from the traditional methods of teaching to those methods that are modern and effective hence ensuring the satisfaction of the needs of the students."  (Joyce) Action research is a way for teacher to do this. There are some concerns in action research around ethics, validity and reliability because it is not run like scientific research, there is not a comparison group where all the factors can be controlled.  I believe action research has a place in education.  Ethics help to make ac...

How can data mining assist you in triangulating your research findings? Definition: (noun) T he practice of examining large databases in order to generate new information. (online dictionary) Data mining in education is often referred to as EDM, Educational Data Mining.   "Data mining is about extrapolating patterns and new knowledge from the data you’ve already collected" (Alton)  A lot of companies use data mining to analyse marketing, retail, finances, and manufacturing.  Also the government uses data mining to detect money laundering or fraud. Increase use of technology has led to large amounts of data being stored.  EDM is making it easier to analyze the data to help  identify at risk students, increase graduation rates, assess institutional performance, optimized subject curriculum renewal and better understand students and the settings in which the learn.  The hope is to improve teaching and learning within the educational...

What are the most important things to remember when observing your students? (Infographic) I had fun creating this infographic, I was able to choose my template much faster than the prior week.  I chose to make my infographic as the 8 tips on observations.  I feel that these tips are helpful and good reminders when doing an observation. My eight tips: build relationships, be efficient, use time wisely, collect evidence, comparison, outside influences, frustration and boredom all came from the readings I listed below.  I feel these tips can be used for observations as well as good teaching practices.  All of these tips are important, but for me I feel that time usage is one of the most important tips because if you are rushed you will not make good observations.  If you only do one observation, you are not truly understanding the child and the environment, multiple observations must be done to get a good overall picture.  And finally, being able t...

I really enjoyed this weeks infographic assignment.  At first I thought it would be really easy to create an infographic about interviewing but as I dove in deeper to the pictochart website I quickly learned that it would take longer than I thought.  The infographic provided a nice way to quickly view information about interviewing. This week I was able to comment on others blog post.  My main question to them was where and when are they going to conduct their interviews.  This was a topic that nobody addressed in their blog post.  I'm thinking that I will conduct the interviews outside of my classroom (at the end of a hallway) while the rest of the students stay inside and work.  Since I have high school students, this option should be work okay for me.  I plan on conducting an interview at the beginning and at the end of my research project. What I learned this week.  From Tony's blog I learned that it is important to open with 'ice breaker'...

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 ...