EDUC+8846

EDUC 8846 Current Research in Educational Technology Course Content is located at http://educ8846currentresearch.wikispaces.com My personal work can be accessed at http://educ8846currentresearch.wikispaces.com/April+Carpenter __**Research Interests **__ (1) Primary Interest Area - Exploration of the Title 1 Teacher's Professional Development Activities That Produced the Greatest Level of Engagement With Technology Among Teachers and Students (2) Impact of the Title 1 School Administrator’s Proficiency and Utilization of Technology on Student Achievement Outcomes.

__**Theoretical Foundations **__ The Theory of Experiential Learning – This theory postulates that experiences are at the heart of how individuals receive, process, demonstrate, and reflect on their knowledge of the taught lessons. A mentor teacher is required and the learning must be active. The mentor’s instructional delivery should be one that capitalizes on the mentees learning style modality. Reflection, either through thought or discussion, being an important component leads to additional demonstration of the taught material, solidifying the learned material (Spector, Merrill, Merrienboer, and Driscoll, 2008).

**Literature Review ** __Technology Integration in the Title 1 Schools __ The US Department of Education has provided funding to support schools that do not have or lack access to technology. How are the Title 1 schools integrating technology? In what ways are teachers and students utilizing the funded technological resources advance learning? This topic will be looked at from the perspective of policy and planning for utilization.

__Types of ICT Professional Development __ What types of professional development provides the greatest transference to the K-12 classroom? This topic would look at the types of andragogy, espoused by Malcolm Knowles, utilized to train and develop adults. Looking at the types of ICT PD will be the foundation for exploring what is being served in the “adult classroom”.

__ICT in the Learning Classroom __ How is ICT being utilized to advance learning of objectives in the classroom? This topic would focus on the ICT utilization in the secondary school classroom research studies. The focus would be on the various ways of effective technology integration as planned and delivered by the teacher.

__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Teacher’s Attitude Towards Technology Integration __ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">What teacher’s attitudes encourage students toward integrating technology for learning? I will search for studies that provide the voices from the teacher’s point of view.

__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Student Attitudes Toward Technology Utilization __ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">What are the student’s voices concerning technology utilization in the classroom? I will search for studies that provide the voices from the student’s point of view.

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Gap in the Research ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Understanding the needs of the teachers in the Title 1 schools and delivering Professional Development in a manner that transfers to the classroom immediately, may enable the teacher to operate with greater levels of integrated technology in the classroom increasing student engagement.

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Research Questions ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">1. What do Title 1 teachers perceive to be technological integration barriers that must be addressed for successful integration into their schools? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">2. What strategies can a Professional Learning Community utilize to engage teachers beyond collegial to critical discussions enabling transformative practice with integrative technology? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">3. What are the teacher’s thoughts concerning Professional Development that their students were engaged with immediately after training?

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Problem Statement ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">What return on investment in Professional Development in technological integration rings for the Title 1 teacher? Attitudes concerning technology integration and its benefits have not showed any change (Uslu & Bumen). Barriers such as low confidence, lack of competence, and low resources hinder teachers in their integration efforts (Bingimlas, 2009). Understanding the nature of the software and hardware results in nonuse. Song and Owens (2011) have also acknowledged that urban teachers are inhibited in their educational technology practices. The socioeconomic status of the school highlights the degree of professional training the teachers receive and their ability to integrate technology (Song & Owens, 2011). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">The type of technological training that is delivered to the adult student impacts the proficiency and utilization towards integration of technology, into the course curriculum. Studies have revealed that formal and informal professional learning activities, teachers involved in collaboration, professional development programs, and individual learning activities have produced greater proficiency in their integration efforts. Engagement for all teachers can be increased by offering those activities that meet the teachers’ learning needs (Motoko, 2012; Prestridge, 2009; Song & Owens, 2011). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">In contrast, the literature does not address the professional development activities that produced the greatest level of engagement with teachers in Title 1 schools. What remains to be explored is understanding the needs of the teachers in the Title 1 schools and delivering Professional Development in a manner that transfers to the classroom immediately. This is significant in that it may position the teacher to operate with greater levels of integrated technology in the classroom.

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Theory ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Theory of Experiential Learning – This theory postulates that experiences are at the heart of how individuals receive, process, demonstrate, and reflect on their knowledge of the taught lessons. A mentor teacher is required and the learning must be active. The mentor’s instructional delivery should be one that capitalizes on the mentees learning style modality. Reflection, either through thought or discussion, being an important component leads to additional demonstration of the taught material, solidifying the learned material (Spector, Merrill, Merrienboer, and Driscoll, 2008).

|| **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Strengths in answering my research questions. Can be … ** || **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Limitations in answering my research questions ** || **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Authoritative Primary Source for This Methodology ** || **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Why I Will or Will Not Use This Method ** || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Qualitative Methods - Case study || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">-Used in real life context <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">- Questions answered involve exploration of a process. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">-“How” questions are best answered by case study. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">-They begin and use open-ended terms and they focus on single concepts (Creswell, 2009). || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">-Used when an area is under-researched <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">- Data analysis can be very complex <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">- Uses software packages like NVivo to manage data but are not used to do data analysis || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Hammersley, Martyn (2013). On the ethics of interviewing for discourse analysis. Qualitative Research, Sage Publications, Inc.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Methodology **
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Research Methodology **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Method 1:

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Halkier B (2011) Methodological practicalities in analytical generalizations. Qualitative Inquiry. 17(9): 787–797.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Thomas, G. (2011). A typology for the case study in social science following a review of definition, discourse and structure. Qualitative Inquiry, 17(6): 511-521 || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">I would like to utilize a case study because it provides a descriptive, exploratory or explanatory analysis of people or events. It is also used to explore the interconnection to underlying beliefs (Creswell, 2009). || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Qualitative Methods - Phenomenological || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">- Attempts to understand the structure of lived experiences rather than explain it. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">- Concrete descriptions of lived situations, often first-person narrative <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">- Described everyday language (Creswell, 2009). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">- Themes will begin to emerge. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">-May be challenging to locate participants <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">-Time consuming <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">-Based on the participant’s level of experiences. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">- Responses are subjective and the responses will vary in the uniqueness of the experiences. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">- Interpreting the data can be time consuming. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">- Finlay, L. (2009). Debating phenomenological research methods. Phenomenology & Practice, 3(1), 6–25.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Method 2:

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">- Frankfort-Nachmias, C., & Nachmias, D. (2008). Research Methods in Social Sciences (Seventh Edition ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">- I will not use this method due to the time constraints and the ability to locate participants. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">- This method is not cost effective. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">- Time consuming when analyzing the themes gathered. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Quantitative Method: Survey-Cross-sectional. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">-Used when an area has been studied and initial relationships among variables are suggested <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">-Used to comprehend more complex associations among variables <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">-Used when measuring cause and effect is important || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">-May be simpler when a large amount of data needs to be synthesized. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">-Waiting on return of survey data can be time consuming. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">- Cannot give any insight as to the causes of population characteristics because it is a predictive, correlational design. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Henson,Robin, Hull, Darrell, & Williams, Cynthia (2010). Methodology in Our Education Research Culture: Toward a Stronger Collective Quantitative Proficiency. Educational Researcher, Vol. 39, 3: pp. 229-240. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">I will not use this method because I desire to gather greater understanding of the topic versus gathering of numerical data. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Quantitative Method: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Regression analysis || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">- Dependent variable and several independent variables and the question is focused on understanding how changing the independent variables affects the dependent variables. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">-Aids in predicting what could happen (Creswell, 2009). || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">-The sample should be a random sample similar to the population of the study. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">- cannot account for values that are apart from the observed values <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">-limitations on how it can be applied to the population (random or nonrandom sampled) || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Nimon, Kim & Reio Jr.,Thomas (2011). Regression Commonality Analysis: A Technique for Quantitative Theory Building. Human Resource Development Review, Vol. 10, 3: pp. 329-340. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">I will not use this one as it does not lend to answering the research questions that I will be examining. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Mixed Methods is a combination of any of the quantitative and qualitative methodologies (Creswell, 2009). || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">-Used to combine the best of both qualitative and quantitative approaches <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">-Very popular when doing formative research in an area that leads to development of instruments or interventions that can then be tested quantitatively (Creswell, 2009). || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">-Time consuming conducting dual modalities of research. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">- Additional effort is required for the design, analysis and application. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Buchanan, David (1992). An Uneasy Alliance: Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods. Health Education & Behavior, Vol. 19, 1: pp. 117-135. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">I would like to utilize this method, as it would prove beneficial to support research questions. ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Method 3:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Method 4:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15.454545021057129px;">Method 5:

**__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">References __** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Bingimlas, K. (2009). Barriers to the successful integration of ICT in teaching and learning environments a review of the literature. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education, 5(3), 235-245. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Motoko, A. (2012). Professional learning activities in context: A statewide survey of middle school mathematics teachers. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 20(14).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Prestridge, S. (2009). Teachers’ talk in professional development activity that supports change in their ict pedagogical beliefs and practices. Teacher Development: An international journal of teachers' professional development, 13(1), doi: 10.1080/13664530902858493

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Song, S., & Owens, E. (2011). Rethinking technology disparities and instructional practices within urban schools: Recommendations for school leadership and teacher training. Journal of Technology Integration in the Classroom, 3(2), 23-36.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Spector, J. M., Merrill, M. D., Merrienboer J. V., & Driscoll, M. P. (Eds.). (2008). Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (3rd ed.). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Uslu, O., & Bumen, D. N. (2012). Effects of the professional development program on turkish teachers: Technology integration along with attitude towards ict in education. TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology –, 11(3), Retrieved from []