Action Research Week 4

This week focused on fine tuning and finding strategies for sustaining improvement through action research. I was able to work this week on my action research plan by meeting with my site mentor and going through steps to ensure that my plan is sufficiently designed. My mentor and one commenter had noticed that the action research proposal mentioned a reference to doing a survey to determine campus perceptions on technology use. This was incorrectly written by me as my action research plan is intended to measure current technology levels and to increase integration over time.

As mentioned previously, I learned about various academic strategies for sustained improvement in the course textbook, Examining what we do to improve our schools. The authors discuss systematic ways to foresee and confront challenges to action plans. This helped me to think strategically about problems that will arise during the implementation of my action plan.

I appreciated all of the comments I found on the discussion boards this week. In particular, Shendolyn Anderson gave me feedback on a number of ways to model and teach technology integration as part of future staff development activities I will be incorporating with the implementation of my action research plan. Shendlolyn mentioned various methods of using technology to facilitate teacher learning such as videotaping my own classroom with technology integration. These are useful suggestions which should help me be more successful in my implementation.

Action Research Plan: Final

 

Action Research: How can we increase teacher adoption of available campus technology resources?
Goal: The goal of this action inquiry is to investigate how we can effectively increase technology utilization by teachers in the classroom to facilitate greater learner engagement and achievement.  Technology resources are becoming increasingly available on campus however many technology resources are underutilized.  We hope to find ways to motivate teachers to effectively increase their technology use in the classroom.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Investigate research on theories of change and adoption in teacher practice.	Gregory Gedeon	December 5th 2010- December 19th 2010	Lamar University Library, Professional Journals, Internet Searches	Interview teachers to get informal data on personal motivators of practice change to compare to formal research findings.
Investigate current level of classroom technology utilization.  Baseline usage statistics will be assessed in order to measure technology implementation change at plan termination.	Gregory Gedeon, Sarah Sanchez, Classroom teachers	December 12th 2010- December 18th 2010	SurveyMonkey, Professional Staff, ITS personnel, personal computer	First SurveyMonkey will set baseline campus statistics to compare future survey with to evaluate action plan effectiveness.
Create inventory management system for campus technology resources to monitor check-out of hardware.  Usage statistics will be monitored throughout action plan and changes will be noted.	Gregory Gedeon, Sarah Sanchez	December 19th 2010- December 30th 2010	ITS personnel, Professional Staff, personal computer	ITS will be responsible for checkout monitoring.  Field interviews will be conducted with teachers to verify hardware integration into instruction practices.
Start employing strategies learned from research to target changes in perception and technology use.  Some expected findings include staff development on technology use and extrinsic motivators.   *strategies will be updated here as they are learned through research	Gregory Gedeon, Sarah Sanchez, Classroom Teachers	December 19th 2010- May 1st 2010	Previous research from first action step, information from surveys, laptops, classrooms for staff development or PLC’s	Learned strategies will be evaluated for effectiveness based on final survey outcome.
Determine change in technology use through comparisons in new survey with baseline survey and data gained through inventory management program.	Gregory Gedeon, Sarah Sanchez, Classroom teachers	May 2nd- May 15th, 2011	SurveyMonkey, laptop, spreadsheet software,	Final survey will attempt to account for any change in teacher practice with relation to technology integration.  Data from management system will also be compiled to determine final effectiveness of action plan.

 

Format based on Tool 7.1 from Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools

(Harris, Edmonson, and Combs, 2010)

 

Week Three Reflection: Draft Action Research Plan

With this week came the launch of my action research. I have started to follow my plan by researching into known motivating factors in influencing teacher change in instructional practice. I have been conducting preliminary research into motivating factors for teacher change to better understand strategies to affect teacher adoption of technology.

For example, one obvious strategy to affect teacher practice is through ongoing learning. Ongoing sharing and learning amongst teachers is a quality found in the best of schools (Taylor, Pressley, & Pearson, 2000). Staff development in effective technology implementation is a must if there is to be any change in usage.

I will continue to research teacher practice change while I begin to formulate my first survey. I hope to develop a survey this week that is effective and simple for teachers to participate in. It will also be important to create a survey that is succinct in order to facilitate greater participation.

The core of this week's readings focused on the dissemination plan for the action research. This blog will act as my main communication point but I will also be communicating with my campus faculty throughout my action research. Faculty communication will come mostly in the form of email.

Taylor, B. M., Pressley, M., & Pearson, P. D. (2000). Effective teachers and schools: Trends across recent studies. Ann Arbor, MI: Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED450353).

Draft Action Research Plan

 

Action Research: How can we increase teacher adoption of available campus technology resources?
Goal: The goal of this action inquiry is to investigate how we can effectively increase technology utilization by teachers in the classroom to facilitate greater learner engagement and achievement.  Technology resources are becoming increasingly available on campus however many technology resources are underutilized.  We hope to find ways to motivate teachers to effectively increase their technology use in the classroom.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Investigate research on theories of change and adoption in teacher practice.	Gregory Gedeon	December 5th 2010- December 19th 2010	Lamar University Library, Professional Journals, Internet Searches	Interview teachers to get informal data on personal motivators of practice change to compare to formal research findings.
Investigate current level of classroom technology utilization.  Baseline usage statistics will be assessed in order to measure technology implementation change at plan termination.	Gregory Gedeon, Sarah Sanchez, Classroom teachers	December 12th 2010- December 18th 2010	SurveyMonkey, Professional Staff, ITS personnel, personal computer	First SurveyMonkey will set baseline campus statistics to compare future survey with to evaluate action plan effectiveness.
Create inventory management system for campus technology resources to monitor check-out of hardware.  Usage statistics will be monitored throughout action plan and changes will be noted.	Gregory Gedeon, Sarah Sanchez	December 19th 2010- December 30th 2010	ITS personnel, Professional Staff, personal computer	ITS will be responsible for checkout monitoring.  Field interviews will be conducted with teachers to verify hardware integration into instruction practices.
Start employing strategies learned from research to target changes in perception and technology use.  Some expected findings include staff development on technology use and extrinsic motivators.   *strategies will be updated here as they are learned through research	Gregory Gedeon, Sarah Sanchez, Classroom Teachers	December 19th 2010- May 1st 2010	Previous research from first action step, information from surveys, laptops, classrooms for staff development or PLC’s	Learned strategies will be evaluated for effectiveness based on final survey outcome.
Determine change in technology use through comparisons in new survey with baseline survey and data gained through inventory management program.	Gregory Gedeon, Sarah Sanchez, Classroom teachers	May 2nd- May 15th, 2011	SurveyMonkey, laptop, spreadsheet software,	Final survey will attempt to account for any change in teacher practice with relation to technology integration.  Data from management system will also be compiled to determine final effectiveness of action plan.

 

Format based on Tool 7.1 from Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools

(Harris, Edmonson, and Combs, 2010)