Week 4 Posting

Tool 7.1 Action Planning Template
Goal: To find the correlation between classroom use of technology and student achievement and participation.

1. Meet with Administrators/Staff to approve action research plan
Review Action Research Plan with staff to refine the goals and objectives

2. Observe two classrooms at least three times with teachers who use technology
Observe classrooms and note how technology affects students engagement. Document specifics of how student engagement is affected.

3. Observe two classrooms at least three times with teachers who do not use technology.
Observe classrooms and note how lack of technology affects students engagement. Document specifics of how student engagement is affected. Make note of the differences in classrooms from different days and each day’s use of technology.

4. Interview at least four students on their perspective of teacher use of technology.
Interview each student chosen randomly with administrators approval.

5. Interview the four teacher’s classrooms I observed.
Interview each teacher and email ahead of time to schedule the interview. Maybe the interview will be done by email if time is short.

6. Compile interview questions from teachers and students. Assess to see if there are any correlations between teacher and student assessments of technology.
Have other teachers look at my questions and results to check for any biased results or questions.

7. Interview librarian and observe library to see how technology correlates with student engagement.
Verify if students are more engaged while on library computers for their class projects. Interview librarian to see if she sees in strengths or weaknesses in student use of technology.

8. Assess whether more observations are necessary. If so complete 4 more observations of students and 2 new observations of different classrooms.
Have students fill out questions in interview, interview other teachers after classroom observations.

9. Reflect on findings and decide if there is a correlation between teacher use of technology and student achievement.
Look for correlations and if data is hard to disseminate then discover how these problems can be fixed for more research.

10. Begin to specify if some modes of technology are more effective than others.
Categorize all the different modes of technology and which were most effective.

Action Research and How I Can Use It

Action research is an effective tool for analyzing and bringing about positive change within a school. If implemented correctly it involves everyone within the school, which means specific needs are being met. From my point of view of being a teacher I see individual problems that many wont see or can't see due to my position and my view point. If I am using traditional research to attack these problems, I may be missing critical elements that are unique to my classroom or school. Also through collaboration I have been able to talk through issues that I would have not been able to solve as quickly without others input.

My action research is dealing with the effectiveness of technology and test scores within my school. I will need to utilize my administration and my colleagues to help me evaluate issues and look into why technology and its use has a positive correlation on student engagement and learning. I can also use my classroom as part of the research since I use technology and can immediately see the effectiveness of my implementation of it. The best ideas for why technology works may have not been discovered yet, which makes this project interesting for me because I may discover some new information that my entire school can use.

Action research will also push me to be more reflective and active in my classroom as I analyze different student data pertaining to their use of technology. This project carries some difficulties in how I am going to isolate certain variables so I can tie student gains directly to the technology being used. I know through collaborating with my principal and colleagues we can come up with some ideas to test how effective technology is in the classroom.