Action Research Project Title: Using Technology Affectively in the Classroom          

Blog URL: http://shannajan.blogspot.com/

Number of AR Project Documented Hours: 20

AR Project Summary (at least 250 words):  Meeting students in their learning space and making them successful in the classroom should go without saying. Teachers should be able to use technology affectively in the classroom in order to achieve higher scores as well as to maintain a classroom with high expectations and little to no behavior issues.

In my Action Research Report I am comparing several different classrooms scores, behavior, and parental involvement. I am arguing that the more technology that used in the classroom, the more affective the teaching, learning, time on task, and parental involvement they have as well.

In the initial weeks of me getting the teachers on board and sharing what I am trying to prove, they were a little worried that having me observe and watching them would impede what they are trying to do. I gave them some time to get in the routines of what they wanted to accomplish before I started observing. So in this process I think I may have skewed my results somewhat. I feel like the teachers that were not used to the technology, tried harder than they ever had to make sure they are utilizing everything, and they started updating their websites more than they had before. Learning this, I thought I might have to change my research topic, but I decided against this because I wanted them to see that the efforts they put forth were actually working. Some of the teachers were veterans to the use of technology so their scores were higher overall, but I pulled the scores from the other teachers previous years, and they were higher than they were at the same time last year. They also seemed to have a better behaved class and a higher rate of parental involvement than they ever had. So, while my initial research topic changed a little, the results were exactly what I thought they would be.

 

Action Research Report (1^st Draft)

Using Technology Affectively in the Classroom                                         Shanna Hollis

 

Abstract

I will re-write when I am finished collecting all data, but my draft one is below:

Meeting students in their learning space and making them successful in the classroom should go without saying. Teachers should be able to use technology affectively in the classroom in order to achieve higher scores as well as to maintain a classroom with high expectations and little to no behavior issues.

 

Introduction / Background

I am a teacher at Birnham Woods Elementary. This is my fourth year at this school and sixth year of teaching. I have a passion to share the importance of technology and bringing up a generation of savvy tech students in order to be better prepared for the future. While I do believe that paper/pencil does have its place in schools, it should not be the norm these days. Having three young girls, one already in first grade, I think it is more important than ever to make sure they are meet by teachers that are ready to take on the challenge of teaching these students in the digital age. Technology is no longer “new”. It is time to understand that students we see in our classrooms, don’t even remember a world without it. So shy are some of the teachers still teaching our students of today, like they did yesterday?

The purpose of this research is to show staff, parents, and community members how important technology used affectively in the classroom truly is. If it is not happening-you should demand it from your schools. If teachers are reluctant, find ways to help them. The data will speak for itself.

The students in elementary school cannot be forgotten. We have to submerge them in technology, teach them about safe practices, and educate them of how to explore all the things they have at their fingertips. If we can do this affectively, their behavior is better as well as their scores.

This is not something that can happen over night-or even in a few weeks. This is something that every principal, teacher, and staff member needsto buy into so that we can start offereing the trainings teachers need in order to make it affective.

Literature Review

Work in progress

 

Action Research Design

I focused on two different grade levels, first and second. I wanted to make sure to include two similar grade levels that did not have the state assessment in that grade level. In each grade level I chose a class that used technology daily and one that did not. I chose to use class averages instead of breaking them into subgroups.

Procedures

Since I was conducting the research over four different classrooms in two different grade levels, I had to coordinate my time so that when I was observing them they had their homerooms, they were not at drastically different parts of the day and I had to make sure the teachers were aware that what I was trying to do was to simply learn. I did not want to sway the way they normally teach, so I did not let them know I was doing the research to look at the technology used affectively in the classroom. I made it seem I was watching student behavior when the teacher was teaching a lesson and also if it affected their scores. (My mentor/AP was on-board with what I was doing and wanted me to make sure I always referred to them as class A-D. At the conclusion of my research I will let them know).

The way I went about collecting all of the data I am using involved several different types of collection. I started with simply observing the classrooms for about 30 minutes each time. I was making notes of student behavior and just general time on task. Next I gave the students a survey about how they like the classroom and what they were learning. I moved to looking at behavior charts and finally to benchmark scores.

 

 

Findings

I will have my chart inserted here as well as a link to my presentation.

 

Conclusions and Recommendations

With all the data collected it is clear that using technology affectively in the classroom improves student performance as well as behavior. It also opened up a more distinct communication line for parents and teachers. The parents of the classes with more technology used everyday felt like they always knew what was going on in the classroom and were never surprised by their childrens scores on both tests and behavior marks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Work in progress

 

Educational Leadership in Technology

This class has been a huge learning experience when it comes to graphics and how to use them effectively. I had never heard of the CRAP principles of design, but now contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity are things I pay attention to.

Since this is the fourth technology class in my program I feel like I had a leg up on some when it came to using Googledocs to collaborate and divide the assignment so that each student felt like it was fair. I know some are not as far along in the program and were a little lost when it came to certain areas such as embedding the things on our Googlesite and doing the creative commons. Having the knowledge made me an asset to the team.

I was most intrigued learning about the Blooms Digital Taxonomy standards. “There is a clear disconnect between the media students are accustomed to using outside the classroom and the media they predominantly use within the classroom” (Multimedia Applications for the Classroom, 2009).

I learned about the original Blooms chart when I first started college classes about teaching. When I started to work the school used the chart provided in the article, Blooms Taxonomy Blooms Digitally.

Then when I saw the chart with the verbs and saw that the “ Key to this is the use of verbs rather than nouns for each of the categories and a rearrangement of the sequence within the taxonomy” (Churches, 2007). Now moving onto the digital Blooms chart makes it more relevant to what teachers are charged with teaching in their classrooms today. It leaves me questioning why my school has not shifted to this chart? I plan on sharing this with my admin team so that students are met in their learning spaces. “Technology is their native language and they expect to use technology in school” (Understanding Multimedia Learning: Integrating Multimedia in the K-12 Classroom, 2008).

As most of us probably are in this online program, I learn at my own pace and am very effective in that. Time management is usually on my side, and I like to set plans in motion so others are on my page. I took the lead for the group by laying out the plan in Googledocs and assigning everyone’s roles and letting them know when each section was due. I feel like I contributed to this group a great deal by getting things rolling.

Citations

Churches, A. (2007, April). Bloom's digital taxonomy.

Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/article/8670

Multimedia Applications for the Classroom. (n.d.).

Retrieved from:

http://www.cited.org/output_pages/printDefault.aspx? page_id=106

Understanding Multimedia Learning: Integrating Multimedia in the K-12 Classroom. (2008, September).

Retrieved from: http://www.brainpop.com/new_common_images/files/76/76426_BrainPOP_White_Paper-20090426.pdf

https://sites.google.com/site/5edtechleaders/

Check out my team website for my EDLD 5366 Class!

Reflection of Web Conferences

The three web conferences I attended focused on very different things. The first was all about forming groups. Students were asking questions about if they could be together. I already knew who I wanted to be with because of the last course we had groups in. I was happy to be with another new member as well. I learned from the conference that we would need to be ready to post to TK20 at the end of the class and that it ends earlier than usual.
The next conference I attended was more about groups and was making sure everyone knew how to make the videos about themselves not too long. She provided her digital story for us and made sure we knew to go to Resources for all the up to date information.
The last web conference was all about trying to get everything finished before the last day it is due as well as things such as what the next class would be and when it starts. I was excited to hear that we have s longer break than usual on that our class does not start until January 14th.
I also learned that my eportfolio could be my blog or my google site. I was told by an IA that it HAD to be my google site, which I had not updated since the first class. I have always put things on my blog so I consider that my eportfolio. Abernathy said this was fine as long as I just always use the same place to put all of my things.
While there were many web conferences held during this class-much more than usual-I felt good about everything and really didn't feel the need to attend for any clarification. Everything was laid out and very straight forward in this class. The only time I was confused about something is when we actually did not gave to submit an assignment (which was also talked about during our last web conference).

I had to create a movie in my EDLD 5363class and ofcourse it had to be something about us. The most important things to me are my family and friends so that is what I chose. To tell a little about me, means to talk about the people that helped shape me into the person I am today. The background music happens to be the song my husband and I picked as "our song" when we were in junior high.  This turned out to be pretty fun as well as made me very emotional. The fact that it had to be under 2 minutes made it difficult. Being a mom of three beautiful girls, I wanted to show more of them. I will use this in the future. We always do various types of slide shows for the kids birthdays as well as family reunions. I look forward to making many more in the future. I Hope you enjoy!!