EDLD 5366 Reflection

Week 5 Assignment

Course Embedded Assignment Reflection

EDLD 5366 Digital Graphics and Web Design

Self- Assessment

Creating the animations and our group website during this course was a real challenge and tested my abilities.  At first everything seemed overwhelming when I read that we were going to have to develop two different animations and create an entire group website that needed to be published but as we worked our way through each assignment week after week I could see myself growing with the use of technology and learning new skills every week.  I was able to self-assess my work week after week using reflective practices.  The value of reflection shined through during this course as I was able to look back on what I created and see how it can be improved or implemented in different ways.  Gerstein makes an excellent point in her web article about reflection when she talks about how reflection makes learning more meaningful and not just an activity that was meant to occupy time (Gerstein, 2011).  The information I knew about design principles was totally blown out of the water with the new information I gained such as the C.R.A.P. principles when it comes to design.  I can now design things in less time that are far more effective and simple.  My designs before were too busy and crowded with no purpose.  The information I have gained in this course will continue to be used throughout my teaching and administrative career.

Learn as a Learner

When I began thinking about how I would take on the assignments of creating animations and especially creating two different pages of our group website I did not know where to begin.  I learned that if I just take one task on at a time the overall task becomes more manageable and less stressful. With the first assignment, I took Schawbel's advice when it comes to branding.  I took some real time to think and research about my passions and how I can bring these into my own personal brand (Schawbel, 2009).  So much of my learning that took place in this course took place with the help of my amazing colleagues.  My group decided to make our own personal facebook group just for collaboration between the four of us.  This was extremely helpful and it allowed me to get quick answers from my team instead of trying to contact them each directly.  During this course one of my favorite learning aspects was posting on the discussion board.  I enjoy looking back to see feedback on my discussion post and getting constructive criticism.  My colleagues in this course are all teaching professionals and one would really miss out if they chose to ignore the help their group can offer.

Lifelong Learning Skills

One of the most important things I will take away from this course is how to learn from a variety of sources.  Formally as a student I was just search for learning opportunities when they came from my instructor.  In the last five weeks I have learned so many different things from my colleagues and the professors set us up for this success with the required group collaboration.  I now hold the skills to be a lifelong learner and I feel that in my school I can find new ways to learn from my colleagues by asking the right questions and initiating professional discussion that leads to new learning.  As a lifelong learner I still want to know how to motivate my colleagues to work more collaboratively instead of independently.  I have learned the true value of collaboration in this course I want to bring this practice into my building.  I plan to keep researching and finding new practices that will give me ideas to find success in this area.  Hopefully within my research I will be able to create, plan, and administer more professional development sessions during our teacher workdays to promote healthy collaborative practices.  Throughout the readings in this course I came across Bloom's Digital Taxonomy and totally agree with the idea that newly learned skills need to be implemented as soon after instruction as possible in order for actual learning to take place (Churches, 2008).  We need to find ways for instruction to be in the hands of our learners within the same class period so they will go home remembering the lesson from the day.  This brings me into my next topic of implementation.

Implementation

Websites can be implemented into the classroom by any teachers from K-12.  In the elementary level most of the websites need to be for parent use.  Teachers can post relevant information for the parents which will alleviate many of the questions that teacher might receive in emails or phone calls.  If  a teacher keeps a website up to date then he or she can make their life a lot easier!  We need to remember that students are proficient with technology at an amazingly young age in this current time period.  They are far more advanced than we are when it comes to learning new technology.  Students from middle school or even fifth grade and up can easily navigate a web page and pull important information.  With upper level classes students can post discussions and comment on one another's inquiries.  This is a way for students to learn from one another instead of always from the instructor.  Even in our graduate level classes we use websites to collaborate with one another and 90% of the time we answer one anothers questions when someone has missed something or us confused and  I know this saves the IA's and course professors hundreds of emails.  Websites are a way for the teaching and learning to extend beyond the classroom and class time.  Teachers can post assignments and blog about topics that will spark student interest and will maximize learning.

REFERENCES:

Schawbel, D. (2009, February 5). Personal branding 101: How to discover and create your brand. Retrieved from

http://mashable.com/2009/02/05/personal-branding-101/

Gerstein, J. (2011, August 16). Where is reflection in the learning process?. Retrieved from http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/where-is-reflection-in-the-learning-process/

Churches, A. (2008, April 1). Bloom's taxonomy blooms digitally. Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/studies-in-ed-tech/0020/blooms-taxonomy-blooms-digitally/44988

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!

Update on Action Research Plan: The Digital Divide

I am right on track with my action research project that is to be completed by the end of this school year.  I am just about to collect all of the registered device data for the beginning of this school year because our Site-Based Technology Specialist is still registering students devices that can be used in the classroom and in about a week I will be collecting the beginning of the 2013-2014 student data in regards of how many students are registering devices compared to last year’s data.  I will continue my teacher and student surveys in regards to my action research project and I have to collect data from out SBTS one more time and my action research project will be complete.  I contacted every department head in the school and got great feedback based on my survey questions about the digital divide.  Many teachers see our registered device policy as a necessity while some are still trying to get used to it.  Some teachers allow registered devices to be used at all times during instruction and some only have specific activities where they will allow the devices to be out and turned on.  Once the school year really gets moving, I am anxious to see how the school dynamic has changed compared to last year.  I am wondering the number of registered devices has gone up, stayed the same, or decreased.  I also noticed many interesting student Reponses in regards to my student survey.  Many students have the misconception that the faculty and administration is monitoring everything they are doing on their device, and that is the main reason they are not getting them registered.  We needed to have an intervention with the students that this indeed is not true and this policy is just to help them in the classroom.

Summary of EDLD 5301

This course has opened my eyes to an entirely new realm of research.  Before taking this course, I only knew research as searching literature and conducting a few tests.  My main problem during my research was my timeline and how I would jump from topic to topic with no structure holding my plan together.  Action-research has taught me to take a systematic approach towards researching new inquiries.  That’s another favorite term that I learned during this course: inquiry.  I find it much more intriguing to inquire or wonder about something rather than just labeling something as your “topic” for research.  If you inquire about a topic, that means you personally find it interesting and wonder about the possible outcomes that research could unfold.  Making the research personally intriguing motivates the principal-researcher to give maximal effort towards their research and data collection.

As much as I sometimes hate to admit it!, the assignments we were given played a major role in my learning and new found interest in action research.  I don’t think I would have collaborated with my mentor as much as I did if it weren’t for the assignments where it made it mandatory.  My principal offered great insight regarding data collection and analysis and also helped me effectively plan out my timeline in a way that could consolidate tasks into school tasks that were already scheduled to take place.  Also the assignment to create the draft in week three allowed ample time to evaluate, assess, and reflect on the plan to make effective revisions. 

The video lectures gave me guidance on each week that was always needed.  Sometimes within the class we have so many directions, questions, and answers coming from a million different sources that it can make my head spin.  Being able to sit down and watch the video lectures which are uninterrupted was a nice way to start off each week because it gave an overview of each week and directed a purpose for the beginning of the week’s assignments.  I always noted and appreciated how the professors would ask each other critical frequently asked questions to better clarify each week’s learning purposes. 

The Discussion board was another useful resource that allowed us to grow as students and collaborators.  We are given criteria to write about and comment on each other’s thoughts and writing.  I personally look forward to reading others responses on my posted thread each week.  Our classmates are so insightful and motivating it is always the boost I need in the middle of the week! 

Blogging is my new favorite use of technology within our class.  I have never been a part of a blog let alone created one myself before this class.  The comments I received on my blog were extremely useful in the development of my action-research plan.  I used those comments to make revisions and they also verified some of my plans that I wasn’t so sure about. I also liked the idea of administrator blogs where colleagues can learn from best practices used at each other schools.  Why work alone when we have so many insightful classmates and professional colleagues willing to share their work?  When I become an administrator one day I plan to utilize the use of blogs within my professional community.  I also plan to integrate the use of professional blogs within my faculty.  It can be part of our faculty meetings and professional development practices.

This was a great class that has taught me a valuable new skill that I plan to use from day one of my administrative experience.  I do not foresee myself using the old style of research from here on out.  The systematic approach we take towards action research is my favorite aspect of the strategy.  Thank you to all my classmates and to the professors for making this class an amazing learning experience that will be used from here on out! 

Draft of Action Research Plan

Action Research Plan: The Digital Divide
Goal: To determine what impact our new registered device policy is having on classroom instruction and to determine whether or not my school is experiencing a “digital divide” with the use of the new policy.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Meet with members of the leadership team and discuss the implementation of the registered device policy and the purpose of my action research project. (Setting Foundation)	Steve Howes Site Supervisor	March 2013	Meeting Location Notepad	Collaboratively find a specific purpose of action research project.  Branch off other questions and inquiries that will lead to insightful research towards goal.
2. Meet with technology specialists within my school to discuss benefits of new policy (Setting Foundation)	Steve Howes Head Librarian Technology Specialist	March 2013-April 2013	Meeting Location Notepad	Answer questions and/or concerns regarding new policy.  Document benefits and steps of implementation.  Discuss role of technology specialists within policy.
3. Gather baseline data of how many students currently have registered devices in school. Obtain data from Technology Specialist. (Analyzing Data)	Steve Howes Site Supervisor Technology Specialist	April 2013	Meeting locations Computer Excel documents containing recorded data.	Document beginning baseline data of how many students at LJMS currently have registered devices.
4. Gather beginning baseline data of what types of devices students are registering.  Obtain data from Technology Specialist. (Analyzing Data)	Steve Howes Site Supervisor Technology Specialist	April 2013	Meeting locations Computer Excel documents containing recorded data.	Document beginning baseline data of the different types of devices students are registering and how many of each type are registered.
5. Interview team leaders to discuss how many teachers are allowing students to use registered devices in the classroom. (Developing deeper understanding)	Steve Howes Team Leaders both 7th & 8th grade. Site Supervisor	April 2013-May 2013	Computer Meeting Locations Interview document with questions	Record and gather answers about how team leaders are implementing new policy to their teachers and whether or not they are allowing students to use their registered devices.
6. Interview teachers from each team to discuss whether or not they are allowing students to use their registered devices and if so, what exactly they are using them for. (Developing deeper understanding)	Steve Howes Teachers both 7th & 8th grade.	May 2013-June 2013	Computer Meeting Locations Interview document with questions	Record answers and data of how many teachers are allowing students to use their devices. Document examples of use and best practices of teachers.  Discover how this has aided classroom instruction.
7. Survey students on whether or not they have a registered device, and if so how does it help them in the classroom.  If they do not have device, students explain why not. (Developing deeper understanding)	Steve Howes Random selection of students Site Supervisor	June 2013	Surveys 10 computers Classroom Technology Cart Excel program	Gain insight of the “Digital Divide”.  Discover information of who does not have registered devices and why.  Also discover examples of student use.
8. Gather beginning of year data on how many students have registered devices and what types.  Obtain data from Technology Specialist. (Analyzing Data)	Steve Howes Technology Specialist Site Supervisor	September 2013-November 2013	Computer Meeting Location Excel documents containing recorded data.	Record more data on numbers of registered devices and document differences compared to last school year.
9. Meet with Site supervisor and instructional leaders to discuss professional development practices towards gaining a better understanding of the use of registered devices for students. (Taking action for school improvement)	Steve Howes Site Supervisor Assistant Principals School Technology Specialists/Leaders Instructional Leaders	September 2013-November 2013	Meeting Locations Notepad Computer	Document best practices, plans towards professional development, and staff improvement towards gaining a better understanding of digital devices and student use.
10. Interview staff members on their understanding of policy and how they plan to implement this into their classroom instruction this school year. (Exploring Programmatic Patterns)	Steve Howes Site Supervisor Select population of 7th & 8th grade teachers.	November 2013-February 2014	Meeting Locations Notepad Computer Interview Document with questions	Record insightful information of how professional development has impacted teacher learning and teacher plans of implementation of policy into classroom instruction.
11. Survey students on whether or not they have a registered device. If so how does it help them in the classroom.  If they do not have device, student explain why not. (Exploring Programmatic Patterns) (Analyzing Data)	Steve Howes Random selection of students Site Supervisor	March 2014	Surveys 10 Computers Classroom Technology Cart	Record data that will show differences from data collected last school year.  Also document how students are using registered devices and how this relates or is different from last year’s data.
12. Conduct ending survey with teachers and team leaders discussing whether or not they are allowing the use of registered devices in the classroom and how they are aiding instruction with the use of this policy. (Analyzing Data) (Exploring Programmatic Patterns)	Steve Howes Teachers both 7th & 8th grade  (same as before plus more)	April 2014	Surveys Computer Excel Document	Record conclusive data regarding numbers of teachers allowing use of registered devices.  Show how this data has changed or stayed the same since beginning of action research plan.  Document best practices of teachers aiding classroom instruction.
13.  Meet with Site Supervisor and Instructional Leaders to discuss results of action research plan. (Sustaining Improvement)	Steve Howes Site Supervisor School Technology Specialists Instructional Leaders	May 2014	Computer Presentation Software Data Analysis results Meeting Location	Discuss ending results of action research plan.  Show differences from beginning of plan to end using graphs and line charts for data analysis, discuss answers to interviews and surveys, conclude and discuss analysis of digital divide.