EDLD 5301 - Final Course Reflections

     I have learned so many things in the past five weeks in EDLD 5301 Research course.  The EDLD 5301 Research course gave me an opportunity to examine the difference between action research and traditional research.  In this course we took a look at how action research benefits educational leaders and the stakeholders in school and educational settings.  Reflection is such an integral part of research and an important skill for leaders to have.  We learned that blogging is very beneficial in sharing what we learned from our action research.  The readings and tools from Examining What we do to Improve Our School:  8 Steps to Improve Our School (Harris, Edmonson, and Combs, 2010), and from Leading with Passion and Knowledge:  The Principal as Action Researcher (Dana, 2009) gave us examples of action research in educational settings.  These readings and discussions enabled us to choose an action research topic and begin to make a clear purpose in explaining why this action research project is important in our professional development.  We had an opportunity to meet with our site mentor and review our internship plan and brainstorm about potential research topics.  We identified at least nine areas that are common targets or themes in school-based action research.  We took a look at interviews of three school leaders who discussed their action research projects.  This gave us an opportunity to reflect on what we learned from these scholars by watching and listening to their interviews.  We developed a framework to approach action research and share strategies that would help us to better understand how to conduct an action research project.  We gained a better understanding of the time frame and the understanding that it may take months to complete the project.  This process would be to develop an effective plan that would guide us through our action research project.  We developed our action research plan and included our goals, objectives, resources, tools, persons that will be responsible, and the process of monitoring our achievement of goals and objectives.  This allowed us to collaborate with our classmates through the discussion board and through comments on our blogs.  We also had an opportunity to focus on some additional strategies to sustain and support our action research.  We developed an effective blueprint of how we were going to conduct our effective action research project and utilized our site supervisor, the instructional associates and the Lamar University faculty.  This gave us an opportunity to look into some strategies such as the Force Field Analysis, the Delphi Method, and the Nominal Group Technique to provide us with support to sustain our action research project.  We utilized the Tool 8.1 CARE Model to provide us with a strong rationale and framework for our Action Research Plan conference with our site supervisor.  I firmly believe that the collaboration with my site mentor and my peers really assisted in helping me further develop my Action Research plan.  This past week, we had the opportunity to access the quality of our inquiries utilizing the quality indicators of practitioner research. 

My Action Research Plan is located on my blog at  http://tectrendz.blogspot.com/.  My action research inquiry will involve developing a method to help make technology staff development collaborative, job-embedded, and ongoing to enhance professional growth and student success.  I hope to use input from my site mentor, other district principals, peers, teachers on my campus, technology leaders from other school districts, and information from previous staff development to help with action research inquiry.  We are continuously learning and growing and I feel with the techniques that I have learned in EDLD 5301 Research, I will continue to grow, to inquire, reflect, and the gain insight to my wonderings through analyzing data, collaboration/sharing with others, and utilizing action research as a powerful tool.

Fichman, Nancy Dana (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge:  The principal as action Researcher.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Harris, S., Edmonson, S., and Combs, J. (2010). Examining what we do to improve our schools: 8 steps to improve our schools.  Eye on Education Press.

EDLD 5301 - Week 4 Reflection

      I am in the process of gathering information for my Action Research Inquiry through teacher survey questionnaires, meeting with departmental meetings, and through interviewing other district technology leaders. Additional strategies can be used as explained in the Harris text (p 94-96).  Some of these methods are the Force Field Analysis, the Delphi method, and the Nominal Group Technique.

     The Force Field Analysis method can be applied through the assessing and supporting of school improvement.   I will be utilizing the Force Field Analysis (Harris 2010) prior to implementation and during the Action Inquiry to create effective and relevant surveys or evaluation tools.  The steps for the Force Field Analysis, as outlined in the Harris text (Harris p 96) are as follows:

·        Describe the current situation

·        Describe the proposed change

·        Identify what will happen if no change occurs

·        Identify the forces driving the proposed change

·        Identify the forces resisting the change

·        Determine whether the change is viable (this can be done by assigning points to the forces driving the change and points to the forces resisting change)

·        If the change is viable, what is needed for implementation?  Will you need to reduce the strength of the forces opposing the change, or increase the forces driving the change?

     The Delphi Method allows for gaining a deeper understanding of the problem.  It can involve as many as 20 participants and still provides for a good level of confidentiality.  I will be utilizing the Delphi Method while conducting the survey research on our campus.  I will create the teacher survey using this method.  During the process, the participants respond to questionnaires in two or more rounds and sometimes the responses can be made through an email process.  As the process continues the group converges on a level of consensus to the original problem.  The following format is used during this process:

·        Send around a problem statement to staff

·        Ask staff to write down what he or she believes needs to be done

·        Retrieve the written comments

·        Reproduce everyone’s comments

·        Return all the comments to the participants

·        Participants read comments and then individually write a synthesis of the various ideas (this step is optional and often is omitted due to time constraints)

·        Collect everyone’s syntheses or you do this yourself

·        Make a new list of all synthesized ideas

·        Send the new list back to participants and ask them to rank items

·        Collect and compute an average and frequency of ratings; then return tallies to participants to re-rank

     The Nominal Group Technique is a five-step process that is usually completed in small group meetings such as departmental meetings or curriculum meetings, or at a faculty meeting with a facilitator leading the discussion.    I will be utilizing  the Nominal Group Technique to evaluate the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of changes made to the PLCs.  Use the results to come up with future Action Inquiry topics.

     To follow the format of this technique you would follow these five steps as outlined in the Harris text (p 96, 97):

·        Have each individual within a small group silently generate and write perceived needs/issues.  Do not allow discussion among participants at this point.

·        Ask each individual to share orally with the small group one perceived need/issue at a time.  The Facilitator then writes these on a flip chart with NO discussion.

·        Lead small group discussions of each perceived need/issue for further clarification.

·        Ask group members to rewrite and rate all perceived needs/issues listed in the previous step.  Numerical values can be assigned to each from 1-5 for example.

During this technique, the leader or facilitator of the group cannot be judgmental or allow judgmental comments from participants as they work through the issues for explanation.

Action Research EDLD 5301 - Action Research Planning Week 3

Goal:  We need a method to help make technology staff development collaborative, job-embedded, and ongoing to enhance professional growth and student success.

  Action Step (s)           Person(s)               Timeline:               Needed                 Evaluation

                                     Responsible              Start/End            Resources                      

1.Discuss my action research topic with my site supervisor Actual meeting with site supervisor to discuss action research topic	Myself and Randall Maxwell, site supervisor Myself and Randall Maxwell, site supervisor	November 19 November 29	Laptop – emailed site supervisor to set up meeting Laptop – tentative action research topic	Suggestions for action research topics – formulate topic Question and Answer about topic; ideas on teacher surveys
2.Create teacher surveys concerning current technology staff development and assessing the technology needs of teachers that could be developed into job-embedded mode Interview other district technology leaders to access their methods of technology staff development for potential job-embedded staff development ideas.	Myself, site supervisor, and participating teachers and administrators Myself and Participating technology leaders from other districts	November 30 – December 10 December 6	Laptop, teacher surveys, past district staff development packets for spring of 2008, 2009, 2010 Laptop, telephone for interviews, and journal to collect information from interviews	Evaluate the data from the teacher surveys and from the past staff development training to assess the technology training needs. Evaluate data from these interviews; create a checklist that can provide assurance that all needs can be met through a collaborative site/method
3. Using information collected from surveys and interviews, implement process for technology staff development to be a collaborative, job-embedded and ongoing process.  Gather and research on possible technology sites that would be potential and beneficial sources for staff development collaborative site.	Myself and Randall Maxwell, site supervisor, department heads in core subject areas	December 10 – January 20	Previous staff development packets, Excel spreadsheet containing cross tabulation of data from survey information and interviews with charts and graphs for explanation of collected data. Assess research on potential technology sites to decide which of these might be the most helpful for collaborative, ongoing staff development.	Determine if current technology staff development methods provide technology needs for administrators and teachers; teacher surveys, journal entries from interviews; field observations of teacher technology usage.
4.Create a campus site such as a protected Wiki site that will  provide technology staff development that is collaborative, job-embedded, and ongoing to enable teachers to interact with each other to develop more proficient ongoing technology staff development	Myself, campus personnel	January 20 – February 20	Laptop, Wiki template, internet for helpful technology sites that can embedded into campus site including webinars, videos, and other necessary information for collaborative site	Utilize survey and interview data, evaluate past staff development data, brainstorming sessions.  Interviews, field observations, meetings with departments used as evaluation tools.
5. Meet with teachers to train and implement the campus site.  Be sure that teacher’s technology needs are being met in the site to provide for collaborative, job embedded, ongoing staff development.	Myself, teachers, and Randall Maxwell, site supervisor	Meet once a month with department  meetings  for period of time  January - March	Continue to develop campus site to insure that technology needs are being met for collaborative, job embedded, ongoing staff development	Meet with each departmental meeting of teachers to be sure that they technology staff development needs are being met with the campus site.
6. Continue to meet with teachers and administrators to make changes and additions in the campus site.  Continue to make additions to the site and invite teachers to add helpful data to the campus site making it a collaborative site that everyone on campus can benefit from.	Myself, teachers, administrators, and Randall Maxwell, site supervisor	Meet as often as necessary during study time frame.	Continue to encourage all teachers and staff to make the site a collaborative effort.  Continue to organize helpful technology staff development material for the site.  Keep the site consistent and organize so that campus staff development site is “user friendly” to keep the staff development ongoing and job-embedded.	Collaborative technology staff development campus site.  Post more helpful technology sites that can be embedded into campus site including webinars, videos, and other necessary information for collaborative site.  Post helpful instructions on TEAMS attendance and grade book software, STAR CHARTS, instructions for Kuder career assessments, Starboard training modules, technology equipment training modules and any other helpful instructions.
7. Evaluate campus Wiki site for technology staff development that is job-embedded and ongoing.  Be sure that teachers and administrators needs are being met with the site.  Finalize action research project with teachers, administrators, and staff.	Myself, administrators, teachers, and Randall Maxwell, site supervisor	As often as necessary to assure that the site continues to be ongoing and to assure further development so the technology staff development site stays current and up to date.	Closing procedures to assure that the campus Wiki site can stay maintained meeting the technology needs of the teachers, administrators, and staff.  Continue to update site with current data.	Final observations, finals interviews with teachers to continue to make the technology staff development site a collaborative, job-embedded, ongoing site that all campus personnel can continue to use for technology training and staff development.

EDLD 5301 Week 3 Action Research Action Planning

ACTION INQUIRY: What can we do to make technology staff development collaborative, job-embedded, and ongoing to enhance professional growth and student success?

GOAL: We need a method to help make technology staff development collaborative, job-embedded, and ongoing to enhance professional growth and student success? My site mentor is interested in utilizing all of the technology tools, programs, software, and equipment that we have available on our campus. But sometimes teachers do not have detailed instructions, technology lesson plans ideas, or helpful links to be able to utilize some of this campus technology. Many times there are yearly staff development meetings on some of this technology, but when the teachers get back to the classroom, they do not retain what they have learned in a brief staff development.
Our action inquiry is to research this topic; "What can we do to make technology staff development collaborative, job-embedded, and ongoing to enhance professional growth and student success?" We need a collaborative staff development method that won't take teachers out of their classrooms and is job-embedded and ongoing to help teachers be able to utilize technology for lesson enhancement and student success. We need a method to provide a location for administrators, teachers, and staff to collaborate, learn, share, post, technology instructions (Star Charts, Star Boards, Elmos, Neos, Clickers, Student Island), helpful ideas, lesson plan templates, Lesson Plan Cycle, READ 180, helpful technology sites, and helpful YouTubes, instructions for 2007 Microsoft Office, Test INOVA data, TEAMS report data, TAKS reviews for the purpose of technology staff development in a collaborative, job-embedded and ongoing method to enhance professional growth and student success.
Sampling/Data Collection: 71 teachers on our campus will be surveyed on current staff development methods and on measures to improve technology staff development. Interviews of other technology district directors/coordinators will be conducted and completed to compare other districts' technology staff development methods.

Rationale: In reading, Leading With Passion and Knowledge, Dana uses a quote from Roland Barth (1981) about the importance of staff development. "Nothing within a school has more impact upon students in terms of skills development, self-confidence, or classroom behavior than the personal professional growth of their teachers. When teachers examine, question, reflect on their ideas and develop new practices that lead towards their ideals, students are alive. When teachers stop growing, so do their students."
     We want to review the Web site of the national Staff Development Council at http://www.nsdc.org/ to review the standarts for powerful professional development. Using this exercise noted in Leading With Passion and Knowledge we can look at our current school's staff development practices and inquire into methods to improve in this area. Fichman, Nancy Dana (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge:The principal as action Researcher.Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Action Research EDLD 5301

ACTION INQUIRY:  What can we do to make technology staff development collaborative, job-embedded, and ongoing to enhance professional growth and student success? 

 

GOAL:  We need a method to help make technology staff development collaborative, job-embedded, and ongoing to enhance professional growth and student success?  My site mentor is always interested in utilizing all of the technology tools, programs, software, and equipment that we have available on our campus. But sometimes teachers do not have instructions, technology lesson plans ideas, or helpful links to be able to utilize some of this campus technology. Many times there are yearly staff development meetings on some of this technology, but when the teachers get back to the classroom, they do not retain what they have learned in a brief staff development.

Our action inquiry is to research this topic; "What can we do to make technology staff development collaborative, job-embedded, and ongoing to enhance professional growth and student success?" We need a collaborative staff development method that won't take teachers out of their classrooms and is job-embedded and ongoing to help teachers be able to utilize technology for lesson enhancement and student success.  We need a method to provide a location for administrators, teachers, and staff to collaborate, learn, share, post, technology instructions (Star Charts, Star Boards, Elmos, Neos, Clickers, Student Island), helpful ideas, lesson plan templates, Lesson Plan Cycle, helpful technology sites, and helpful YouTubes, instructions for 2007 Microsoft Office, Test INOVA data, TEAMS report data, TAKS reviews for the purpose of technology staff development in a collaborative, job-embedded and ongoing method to enhance professional growth and student success. 

Reflective Practice Video Interviews - EDLD 5301 - Week 2

     I listened to all three scholar practitioners’ videos and I selected Dr. Johnny Briseno, Principal of Rancho Isabella Elementary, in Angleton ISD and Dr. Timothy Chargois, Director of Research, Planning, and Development in Beaumont  ISD.   The title of Dr. Johnny Briseno’s research was “The Effective Practices and Beliefs of School Principals in High Achieving Hispanic Majority Mid- Level Schools”.    During Dr. Briseno’s research, he used several action inquiries to complete his action research.  He utilized some of the following questions as topics for his action research.

1. In what ways do school principals of high achieving majority Hispanic schools account for the socioeconomic status of their students?

2. In what ways do principals of schools with high achieving majority Hispanic students involve parents in the educational process?

3. What are the actions of principals that have a direct impact on Hispanic academic achievement?

4. What strategies do principals of high achieving majority Hispanic schools use to establish a culture of success?

       This qualitative study investigated the effective practices and beliefs of principals in high achieving majority Hispanic mid-level schools. The research findings from this study affirmed that passionate principals who are involved, engaged, and led by example were able to transcend the social and economic barriers that separated them from their students and achieved success. Other findings from his research included the importance of building relationships with Briseño’s 292 students and recognizing these needs and then meeting these needs. Further, findings from principals in this study emphasized the importance of  and he used this quote from Covey, Merrill, & Merrill “keeping the main thing, the main thing” (Covey, Merrill, & Merrill, 1994).  He stated that principals supported teachers in focusing on the importance of academic success in school for all students. Based on the findings from face-to-face interviews, specific conclusions are discussed in terms of the research questions that guided the study.  Briseno felt that his study provided insight into the effective practices and beliefs of principals in high achieving Hispanic majority schools and through the process of his research, he was really enlightened to the practical methods of educating all students. As he interviewed the principals in his study, it was apparent that they truly believed in and cared about their students. Each of the principals’ approach in student-centered leadership was refreshing. What Briseno was most impressed with was the fact that principals in this study did not tolerate excuses for lack of student success. They each led with high expectations and accepted nothing less than a student’s best effort.  He found from his study that this type of leadership will eventually close the achievement gap among all students. 

     The second scholar practitioner video that I listened to was Dr. Timothy Chargois’ research video.  The title of Dr. Chargois’ research was “Student Achievement:  Identification of Impact Variables”.   Dr. Chargois’ study investigated the differences that independent variables such as

school size, class size, ethnicity, gender, and teacher years of experience had on fifth

grade 2007 TAKS math and reading results. The main purpose of his quantitative experimental study was to investigate the following questions when controlling for low socio-economic status (SES) at elementary campuses in an experimental district located in southeast Texas.  His action inquiry was to research and identify the differences among the following groups: (1) school size, (2) class size, (3) ethnicity, (4) gender, and (5) a teacher’s years of experience with respect to Grade 5 TAKS math and reading scores at elementary campuses in the experimental district.

Dr. Chargois concluded from his research that there were that there were variables that impacted student  performance that these variables continue to be important.  He completed research to show that the use of TAKS math and reading tests used to measure student performance and

its disparate impact on African American and did not score as high as other subgroups. While analyzing fifth grade TAKS math and reading results, school size, class size, ethnicity, gender, and teacher experience appeared to have a significant impact on student achievement.  African American students performed poorer on these fifth grade high stakes assessments at a higher rate than any other subgroup.  Asian students outperformed all other groups in the areas of TAKS math and reading.  White students outperformed all groups on both TAKS math and reading with the  exception of Asians. Hispanic students had the lowest performance of all groups with the exception of African Americans. Additionally, school and class size impacted

student performance. In this study, teacher experience impacted student performance

along with ethnicity. Overall, students in the experimental district benefited from placement in

schools with a population of 400-699; where class size was 16-19, and from teachers

with 6-10 years of experience with respect to Grade 5 TAKS math and reading

achievement.

Reflection - What I learned from these scholars:

     Both of these men’s research was enlightening.  It was interesting to find that in Briseno’s research he used interviews with principals for a collaborative effort to gather information about varying principals’ approaches for student success.  I was impressed to find that Dr. Briseno found that each of the principals that he interviewed use an approach of student-centered leadership and did not tolerate excuses for lack of student success.  Each principal led with high expectations and accepted nothing less than a student’s best effort.  He felt that from his study that this type of leadership will eventually close the achievement gap among all students.      

.       It was interesting to find that in Chargois’ research school size and class size definitely impacted student performance in the fifth grade TAKS math and reading achievement.  It appeared that students benefited from a school population size of 400-699 and that when class sizes were smaller and in the range of 16-19, student achievement was greater.  He also found that when the teacher’s experience level of 6-10 years of experience that the student achievement was greater.  Scholarly research can definitely pay off for students.  With research findings, we can use the results for greater student and teacher success.  When we share ideas collaboratively and reach research goal, it ultimately results in helpful and beneficial methods to help our school campuses be the best that they can be.  

Reflective Practice - EDLD 5301 Week 1

From the Discussion Board:


Amy asked the question, "How do we make PLCs more effective on our campus using action inquiry?"


In Leading with Passion and Knowledge:  The Principal as Action Researcher, Dana discusses the importance of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs).  Professional Learning Communities are very beneficial to my campus. The non-CLT members have an opportunity to collaborate and demonstrate their leadership capabilities.  The PLCs become continuous action inquiry sessions where the entire compus can feel engaged and gain ownership on the outcomes of best practices and research.  I want my campus to engage in an action inquiry on how to make PLCs more effective on our campus.


"Remember, having a shared vision is foundational before genuine school improvement can occur" (Combs, 2010, p.4).  I would like my campus to focus on the shared vision of improving our PLCs.  I think improvement in PLCs will assist my campus on other action inquiry topics.


Joyce replied to Amy stating that, our district has PLC time incorporated during the school day for every teacher in addition to their planning period.  In observing the core subject PLCs over the past five years, I have noticed a major difference in the effectivness of the PLCs.  The two PLCs I had direct knowledge and interaction were Biology and Chemistry as they met in the classroom beside mine.  All teachers had the same training, read the same books, had the same instruction guides and support of the same supervisor; however, the two groups could not be more different.  One worked as a well oiled machine.  They arrived on time and were prepared for the time they had together.  There was an agenda for both the week and individual days.  The students' achievement in these classes rose over 20 percentage points over the course of the school year based on pre and post testing completed.


In contrast, the second group could not get their act together.  Many of the teachers used this time to work on lesson plans, grading assignments or other "errands."  The teachers in the group would look at the same data being collected and each had an explanation on why the students were not performing, usually putting the blame on "lazy students."  Their solution for improving student scores was to work the students already successful and leave the other behind. 


Why there is such a difference between the PLCs would be an interesting inquiry, as well as, how to improve the effectiveness of the second group. 

I replied that I agreed with Amy that PLCs could potentially be very beneficial on campuses.  But I also read Joyce's comment about the two PLCs that met on her compus.  She commented that one ran like a "well-oiled" machine and the other had difficulty getting to their focus each meeting.  I agree that it could be a great action inquiry to find out why one worked well and the other not as well.  Focusing on these items, it is obvious that we all have so many responsibilities placed on us.  They range from lesson plans and grading to parent conference/calls and students mentoring.  It stretches us all really thin sometimes.  A possible solution could be to delegate the group leader position each time and rolate this responsibility among the group members.  This "leader" could be in charge of the agenda for that meeting period so more gets accomplished each time.  Each person would have a shared ownership in the mission of the group.  I agree that this focus on a campus would be a great action inquiry topic.

Genevieve asked an interesting question:  "How can we motivate high school students to want to learn?  It appears some students do not care about their educaton.  I would love to be a student in this day and age where we literally have the world at our fingettips because of technology and the internet.  The students seem to be so lazy and do not want to put effort forth in their classes, even in computer classes.  Sometimes I feel that we are not preparing them for college.  It realy bothers me when I have to constantly encourage them to complete their work so the students will have a grade instead of a zero.  I think a big factor is that I am a digital immigrant and they are the digital natives.  Students today do not know what it was like not to have technology available to them.  They have always had access to it.  An action research study would be beneficial to find out what it will take the students to get interested in their own learning and encourage them to want to learn as much as possible.

I replied that I think that high school student motivation would be an effective action research and it would be beneficial to find out what it might take to get these students interested in the learning.  You are correct when you say it seems they have the world at their fingertips with technology and the internet.  When thinking about this topic, it brought to mind the career assessment that is mandatory for all 8th graders to take in our district.  When they do the required career assessments, it really gets my 8th grade students thinking about career options and what they might do with their future.  They begin talking about colleges and about possible careers.  It might be good to 'plant the seed' earlier and get our students thinking about their future in 8th grade before they reach high school.  This career assessment is compolete with videos about career options, colleges, and possible majors that might be suitable for them based on their assessment results.

Fichman, Nancy Dana (2009).  Leading With Passion and Knowledge:  The Principal as Action Researcher.  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Corwin Press.

Harris, S., Edmonson, S., and Comba, J. (2010).  Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools:  8 Steps to Improve Our Schools.  Eye on Education Press.

Why Educational Leaders Might Use Blogs

EDLD 5301 - Week 1 - How Leaders Can Use Blogs

      A blog, being an online journal can be a great place for an educational leader to have an ongoing dialogue or discussion. This blog can be frequently updated and is a personal Web site that features diary type entries and links to many articles and other Web sites.  A blog, since it is owned by that individual can be updated regularly and the timeline is very important. Educational blog posts are normally one educator’s opinion, followed by other educators’ comments.  Educators that read books or articles, attend in-service conferences, workshops or trainings can have a blog space to share their experiences.  At these events an educational leader might learn some new and innovative approaches.  A blog provides a space for that educator to reflect upon these experiences.  It allows an opportunity while writing in their blog to reflect upon what they might have learned at these events.  They can share these experiences on their blog.  They can learn from their reflections and it allows other educational leaders to share in those experiences.  Sometimes an educator might want to showcase some of the activities that are happening on their campus or in their district.  A blog could be a place to post a syllabus, classroom activities, or campus events.  Blogging invites replies, comments,  and discussions about some of the ideas posted on the blog.  It allows for a connection and sharing with other colleagues and can provide an area where educators can learn from each other.  As an educator, we can never stop learning and growing in our professional experiences.  By sharing these experiences with others, we can facilitate change, reflect, and make improvements to benefit ourselves and other educators.

Fichman, Nancy Dana (2009). Leading with Passion and Knowledge:  The Principal as Action Researcher.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

EDLD 5301 - Action Research

EDLD 5301 – What I Learned About Action Research - Week 1

     According to Dana, “administrator inquiry refers to the process of a principal (or educator) engaging in systematic, intentional study of his/her own administrative practice and taking action for change based on what he/she learns as a result of the inquiry”  (Dana, 2009, p.2).  Inquiry leads to discovery in this process.  With educator inquiry or action research, a teacher or administrator can work in collaborative groups to solve or improve a problem.  I also liked the definition from Wikipedia describing action research as a “community of practice.”  Their definition states that, “action research is a reflective process of progressive problem solving led by individuals working with others in teams or as part of a "community of practice" to improve the way they address issues and solve problems. Action research is done simply by action, hence the name. Action research can also be undertaken by larger organizations or institutions, assisted or guided by professional researchers, with the aim of improving their strategies, practices, and knowledge of the environments within which they practice. As designers and stakeholders, researchers work with others to propose a new course of action to help their community improve its work practices” (Wikipedia, 2010).  After looking at these descriptions of action research, I focused on some of the ways that the inquiry process could help on my own campus.  It is a data driven collaborative analysis.  Action research is normally done in teams or groups.  They address an issue and work together to find solutions to their problems.  Action research can also be called “practitioner inquiry” or “classroom research”.  “This research would focus on the concerns of practitioners (not outside researchers) to discover areas for improvement” (Dana, 2009 p.5).  It would engage practitioners in the design, data collection, and interpretation of data around their question.  According to Dana, action research has many benefits.  The first benefit is that theories and knowledge are generated from research grounded in the realities of educational practice.  The second benefit is that practitioners become collaborators in educational research by investigating their own problems.  The third benefit is that practitioners play a part in the research process, which makes them more likely to facilitate change based on the knowledge they generate. (Dana, 2009, p.5)  Below is a great diagram developed by Kurt Lewin describing action research.  As shown in this diagram, action research contains the following phases.  First you have the action planning stage during where there is the collection and gathering of data.  The next phase is the action phase where there is careful examination of the learning processes and steps are developed to design, collect the data and begin the interpretation the data.  Finally, there is the last phase where the results are analyzed.  This phase would result in reflection and action.  It would be a continual process where educators would clarify and diagnose the situation, formulate action strategies for improving the situation or resolving a problem, implement the action strategy and evaluate their effectiveness, and finally clarify the situation.  This would be an ongoing process with much feedback involved.  John Dewey called for teachers to engage in “reflective action” that would transform them into inquiry-oriented classroom practitioners (Dana, 2009, p.6). Educators and administrators have to be equipped with the tools of inquiry, use these tools in the action research methods, and work collaborately to seek out change by reflecting on their own professional practice. 

   After looking at these descriptions of action research, I focused on some of the ways that the inquiry process could help on my own campus.  I think working collectively is the key focus to making action research a successful inquiry.  The continuous data analysis, collection, and measurement is important for the success of the inquiry.  This analysis with the collaborative group effort allows for continuous feedback, reflection and results in being able to make beneficial changes and improvements to help educators be more successful.

Fichman, Nancy Dana (2009). Leading with Passion and Knowledge:  The Principal as Action Researcher.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Harris, S., Edmonson, S., and Combs, J. (2010). Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools: 8 Steps to Improve our Schools.  Eye on Education Press.

Course Refections - EDLD 5306 Concepts of Educational Technology

Course Reflections

Concepts of Educational Technology course greatly exceeded my expectations.  I felt that there were so many things that I could learn about new technology techniques.   With technology moving at such a fast pace, sometimes you feel like you cannot move quickly enough.  There are new techniques, new equipment, new software, new digital devices, and new helpful internet sites.  In my job as technology teacher, technology liaison, and technology coordinator I knew that I had so many things to learn about.  This course allowed me to look deeper into the Texas Long-Range Plan for Technology and how we, as a district submit our technology plan. I knew that our district was required to make a long range technology plan, but I had not taken the opportunity to look at this plan closely.  It also gave me the opportunity to compare the technology plans with the state and national standards.  It gave me the opportunity to look at my own temperament and assess what kind of learning styles and leadership skills that I have.  The Kiersey Temperament Sorter was a great way to assess and I was not really surprised to find that after taking the assessment I had the traits of a Guardian personality.  I also had the opportunity to take a closer look at my technology skills through taking a survey.  This gave us better insight into understanding what areas we could provide enrichment opportunities and what areas that we need further support and training.  Technology is such a fast paced growing area that we never stop learning and exploring new opportunities for growth.  This course definitely helped me reach the outcomes that I hoped to accomplish.  I wanted to take a closer look at myself as an educator and technology coordinator and learn new techniques that could help me be better at my job.  I feel like that the techniques that I learned definitely aligned with the goals that I had set for myself and for the course.

            This course allowed me an opportunity to develop a blog and a wiki site which I can definitely utilize on our campus and in my own classroom.  We also learned how to create a video using the Animoto video site.  This enabled me to create the video and embed this video on my Wiki site.  This was a great opportunity to practice some of the skills that I could utilize in our school.  Blogs enable teachers and educators a discussion space so that they can communicate with other teachers and educators.  These blogs provide supportive information on various subjects involved in the educational system.  There is so much information available to teachers.  A blog gives teachers a method to communicate in a useful manner.  Blogs also offer a communication space that teachers can use with students whenever there is curriculum to display and create, writing, sharing ideas, and reflecting on work being carried on in the classroom.  Students today are growing up in a digital world. These "digital natives" learn in new and different ways. Educational technology leaders must learn to “adopt and adapt” to meet the challenges these technology-savvy students bring to the classroom.  The Wiki has gained a lot of attention in the education and learning communities because it is an ideal tool for increasing the amount of collaborative work done by students and teachers.  Students can potentially use a wiki to collaborate on a group report, gather data or share the results of their research.  Teachers and administrators might use a wiki to jointly write the structure and curriculum of a course and then the wiki can serve as part of each teacher’s course web site.   Instead of students creating a complicated website, students can create a wiki which will provide a ready to use site with a simple use interface, the ability to easily add pages, and very simple navigation structure.  These could definitely be great tools for us to use.

We all took a look at RSS feeds.  These feeds can be used to publish frequently updated works.  These can include entries such as blog entries, news headlines, and audio and video and can be stored in a standardized format.  This type of web feed includes summarized concise text.  Users can subscribe to a feed by entering into a reader such as Google Reader and then begin the subscription process.  We had the opportunity to subscribe to some relative RSS feeds.  I have not had the opportunity to look closely at these feeds yet, but I will have more of an opportunity later in the coursework.  We did stay very busy in this course, but I definitely feel that I have some very useful tools to use on our campus and in the classroom that I can share with other educators.  I look forward to sharing many of these ideas in in-service opportunities and on our campus with other teachers.

I feel like the course material was very easy to interpret and follow.  The explanations on the courseware and with the help of other educators in our group made it easy to carry out the assignments.  The Web conferences were helpful in explaining the details necessary to fulfill the course requirements.  The course material was easy to save and I had the opportunity to visit site and read material that I might not have done had it not been for this course.  The discussion board allowed us to communicate with other educators in our group to share thoughts and ideas about the course readings.  Reading the leadership book, “The Tipping Point” gave me an opportunity to look at trends and how they evolve.  We also had the chance to create the unique “Wordle” which I had not seen before.  You are able to create wonderful word clouds from words, phrases, or even entire documents and this enables a designer to make graphic displays for memorization, higher level thinking, or for discussions.  These tools can be used in so many different methods.  I definitely plan on sharing this on my campus and with my students.

            This course made me take a look at myself as a person.  I assessed my personality, temperament, leadership skills, and technology skills.  I already knew that I had many new techniques to learn, but I definitely think that I have grown as a technology person in the last few weeks by developing so many new skills.  These skills can help me on my campus, in my own classroom, and when I am a presenter at our district in-service training.  My attitude has also changed and I have found myself using a lot of the tools and skills that I acquired in this course and wanting to learn even more that can help me in the future.  I am glad that I had the opportunity to take a closer look at myself.  When you analyze yourself, I feel it helps you to be a better person, educator, and technology leader.  This was a very intense five weeks, but I learned so many things about myself, my technology skills and weaknesses, and how I could be a better educator, trainer, and teacher.  Sometimes it is very helpful to evaluate yourself, reflect, and think about the many methods that you can use to do your job in a better and more beneficial way.