Action Research Plan
My action research plan will focus on the use of technology by teachers at DHS. The district has made a commitment to prepare students and teachers for the upcoming challenges of the 21st century. The questions used to guide my research are the following:
What technology resources do your students uses on a weekly basis?
What technology resources do you (teacher) use on a weekly basis to aid in instruction?
Are the resources easily accessible?
Do you (teacher) know how to use the available resources?
Are you (teacher) aware of the resources that are available?
Goal:
The goal of this plan is to show that the teachers of DHS need more technological resources to promote purposeful engagement and collaboration to aid in 21st century based instruction.
Activities:
The means for gathering my data initially will be through reviewing the library equipment log to establish a baseline of teachers that currently use technological resources. Then I will create a survey which will be completed by grade 9-12 core subject teachers. In addition to the survey I will also conduct classroom observations of staff to analyze classroom instruction. Upon completion of the surveys and observations I will create a questionnaire that will be completed by students concerning their use of technology and their general opinions of technology use during instruction. I will also create a questionnaire that will be completed by parents concerning their views of technology in education.
Resources and Tools:
To gather information, I will use “Survey Monkey” and "WebSurveyMaster" to create and disseminate the survey to the teachers and the students. To collect my qualitative data, I will personally complete the classroom observations. The student questionnaires will consist of a few questions that can be completed during random times during the school day. The answers can be collected during passing periods, lunch, after school departure, and library time. The parent questionnaires will be disseminated through email, school functions, and school-wide parent conferences.
Responsibility:
Vernall Cole will be responsible for the collection of all data and the dispersing of all materials. The campus instructional technologists and the library media specialist will aid when necessary.
Timeline:
The timeline for the completion of the research will be approximately 10 weeks.
Assessment:
The assessment tools used to analyze the data will be the qualitative results from the classroom observations, student feedback and student/parent questionnaires. The quantitative data will come from the results of the library equipment use log and the surveys.
Revision:
Upon completion of the research the goal will be to add to the resources on my campus. The reflection of the data through charts/graphs will substantiate the need for the resources. I will also display a list of the current technological resources and the resources needed to meet our goals. I will also suggest a web link on our campus technology website to show what technological resources we have available. I will also have a copy of the district technology plan and the campus STAR Chart to reinforce the need for the additional resources.
I think the idea for your plan is very good. Technology use seems to be a rather loose term that can mean something as poor as "I put the worksheet on my smartboard and we talked about it." I think the surveys will require teachers to assess themselves and how they use technology. I like the idea of student surveys because we rarely ask their opinion. The only thing I would monitor is the reaction of the teachers to the surveys and observations. Some techers seem to become very nervous when their techniques are questioned. I would make sure all teachers knew that this research is for fact finding, not fault finding.
ReplyDeleteYour plan looks good. I will be interested in your results because this is an area that needs to be studied. Good luck.
Vernall,
ReplyDeleteWho will develop the survey items? Also, will you have a specific set of observation criteria that will be used to collect the observation data? Good luck as you implement your action research project.
Dr. Mason