Week 3 web conference and discussion topic

Dr. Borel started the conference by discussing the ILD course and the new changes that Lamar has made to the program.  She also discussed the online calendar of critical dates.  She gave good insight on how to find this information and what to look for to make sure that we stay on track.  Many people have questions about if we have classes during the holidays and when the breaks are.  Dr. Borel stated that this website should clear up most of those concerns.  We discussed how we need to be the responsible ones who deal with our site supervisor.  Dr. Borel reiterated that we need to work hand in hand with our site supervisor to make sure they stay on top of their weekly tasks.  We went on to talk about our 2^nd web conference without University Field Supervisors but I completed this task during week one and uploaded the assignment.  We talked about Tk20 and how we are not to submit for review until we have all 7 documents uploaded correctly.  Until then we are just to upload items and hit save, not submit.  We then began talking about the week three assignment, the 4 parts, and the details of the assignment.  The action research project must follow the template or else it will be sent back and we will not get credit for the course.  Next we started going over the APA activity.  Dr. Borel started going over example problems in the week three assignment.  She helped us complete a few questions in the assignment to make sure we are on the right track.  She also helped us navigate through the book and where to find the correct information that we need to complete the assignment.  I appreciated this activity because it is reassuring to have a few examples that we know are correct.  It shows that Dr. Borel is on our side during this course and she truly does want us to succeed.   After going through a few examples of the APA citation questions in the week 3 assignment, Dr. Borel talked more about our big week 4 assignment which is the Action Research paper.  The entire paper is not due but a large section is.  We have to submit the title page, the introduction, the review of literature and the reference section.  The review of literature is going to be the most difficult along with making sure that our APA citations are in perfect form.  Even though this seems to be a challenging task, Dr. Borel is making sure that we are well prepared for this by giving us access to many available resources that will lead us in the right direction.  We closed out the web conference by discussing a few more due dates such as the discussion board and she opened up for questions at the very end.

Part 2A.

APA: When I first read all of the requirements and guidelines for this action research paper, I must admit the long list of formalities worried me.  It has been a while since I have conducted a formal research paper.  Back in college I used to be able to knock these papers out of the park and I was getting consistent practice with APA guidelines and formatting but that was quite a while ago!  Studying the APA manual and watching the tutorial has helped me tremendously.  I was actually able to settle down and break down each section of the tutorial into parts easier to understand.  I learned that APA formatting really does make a research paper so much easier to understand and mostly navigate through.  It keeps things consistent and organized so that if someone needed to access your paper they would know what sections to look in and what materials to expect.  In the tutorial I learned some great tips on how to write without coming off as bias in my language.  I really thought the tutorial would just be about specific APA punctuations and where to put surnames and things of that sort but it has great strategic writing advice. It discussed appropriate language to use during your research paper and how to write without offending different groups.  When splitting a research paper into the APA groups it should break down to Title Page, Abstract, Intro, Methods, Results, Discussion, Reference page and Appendices.  Having this format to study from makes things much easier for me.  The hardest part in starting my paper is always organization and having this task already completed should save me many hours this weekend!

IRB: I knew nothing about IRB (Institutional Review Board) before this class.  When reading the Lamar document and checking out my FCPS campus policy I learned that IRB's protect human subjects involved in research projects.  It is a federal law that you cannot conduct research involving students unless you adhere to proper protocol.  Also IRB's get extremely specific if you are involving special education students so if anyone has special ed. students involved in their action research data please do your homework and check these guidelines before you go any further!  I checked out Fairfax County Public School's IRB policy and they do have one in place.  I was able to locate their Research Application Resource Guide and it states that research projects cannot be conducted unless approved by the IRB.  Our county is always conducting research and putting new plans into place so they have extensive guidelines when involved in any student research.  After reviewing both the FCPS and Lamar policies my action research topic remains in the clear.  It does not involve any specific student data or any student names or particulars.  All of my data is derived from student registered devices, interviews, and voluntary surveys.  The data I collected is from our school technology specialist on how many students have registered digital devices in our school and what types of devices they are using.  My topic is how registered devices are affecting instruction in the classroom.  No specifics on students involved.  

Part 2B.

My Action Research Project is coming along smoothly and all of my tasks remain in order on my time line.  I would say I am about 80% through the bulk of the project itself and now I must focus all of my energy into this report.  My biggest lesson learned during this course and with this Action Research paper is that I need to prioritize tasks and complete them one at a time.  One of my weaknesses is that I tend to look over everything at the same time and just go around touching on one thing at a time, never really completing any tasks in a timely manner.  My wife suggested that I focus on one task at a time from start to finish.  I tend to get overwhelmed when I see a million things I need to complete and end up circling around the same tasks over and over again.  My faculty and students have been awesome during my research so far.  Everyone is so willing to be involved in the project and any information I needed from faculty members they all responded THE SAME DAY!  Hard to believe I know.  These next two weeks I need to keep the ball rolling at a steady pace and complete one section of this paper at a time and continuously check my work so I don't have to go back and re-do anything.  Good luck to all my classmates!