Index of course materials Course designed by Gail Gruber, WNMU, Silver City, NM

Research

Research can be viewed two ways - as consumers or producers. The chapter in the text gives a fair picture of other's research with you as the consumer. Just imagine what teaching would be like if we didn't have the results of any research to guide us? Maybe you have been in some classrooms where it seems that way.

We will not become producers of research in this class. I do want to discuss one method that is possible for you to use in your classroom (and is required the semester that you take Methods of Research at WNMU). It is called Action Research. The purpose of Action Research is to solve "a specific classroom or school problem, improve practice, or make a decision at a single local site. The goal is to improve practice immediately within one or a few classrooms or schools. Teachers and administrators conduct action research (McMillan, 1996). Action research can use an individual, collaborative, or schoolwide model. If you are interested, you can obtain more information on Action Research at these sites:

http://www.acs.uwa.edu.au/csd/newsletter/issue1097/reflections.html

http://www.parnet.org/

http://www.mcrel.org/resources/links/action.asp

We need to be good consumers of research in order to make the most effective use of the technology available in today's schools. If you need further information, look up the references at the library. Interlibrary loan will get them for you when they are not available locally.

You can also search for more information on-line. A new resource provided by the State Library and available at Miller Library is ProQuest Direct. You can access ProQuest from home at http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb using the username: 86h2bmhwkd and password: welcome. Check out ProQuest at this time, looking up your teaching field and technology. If you use both keywords, you will find articles which refer to both items.

The midterm position paper requires you to research the use of technology in your chosen area of education. If you want to be a health teacher, learn more about how technology is being used in the effective teaching of health. If you want to be an early childhood teacher, tap into the debate about the use of computers in this field. These are just two examples of research topics. You are not required to be researching computers. Math teachers may want to study the use of graphing calculators. The main requirement is that you research technology in your area of education and decide what your stand is concerning that topic. I do not want a listing of research but want you to synthesize what you find and come up with your own opinion. The main requirement is that this paper be formatted in APA Style.

Happy Researching!

Bibliography

McMillan, J. H. (1996). Educational research: Fundamentals for the consumer (2nd ed). New York, NY: Harper Collins.

EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS of educational technology was the theme of the Secretary's Conference on Technology in July 1999. That theme is also the focus of 13 papers prepared for the conference.

The papers, as well as the conference agenda & "spotlight schools," are at: http://www.ed.gov/Technology/TechConf/1999/

Index of course materials Course designed by Gail Gruber, WNMU, Silver City, NM