Overwhelmed by the scope of our idea of investigating the viability of iPads in the classroom, realizing that we can't possibly explore such a broad topic effectively in such a short time together, we sought the advice of another Community Leader, Robin, in an Eluminate room on February 2nd.
We started to discover that we needed to narrow our focus, but even more than that, figure out what our focus is. What is our essential question? What is the learning we want to achieve through this project?
Here is the text portion of our brainstorming chat as it relates to our action research. (We, or at least I, spoke far more than I typed in the chat.) Robin started by presenting us with questions to think about.
The participants were me, Faith, Stephanie, Kathy and Stacey and Faith-- our whole team.
Moderator (Robin Ellis): What is the issue you are going to work on, and why.
What do you want the learners to know and be able to do as a result
How will you work as a team on this
Why did you choose the topic, have others, in different schools done something you can build upon, find out through some research, ask those in your networks to share
What is your plan and why do you think it will work
How will you know you have been successful, what evidence will you have at the end to say or that changed/improved/stayed the same.
Faith Ward: yes as it relates to our blended learning goals
Alice: And by learners, do you mean students, or other teachers?
Elizabeth: I think both
Kathy: so we'll measure our success by whether or not we adopt the ereaders???
Elizabeth: I think our product will be being able to tell our school leaders whether ereaders are a viable option for our school
Elizabeth: because the school board wants to know whether they are the future for us
Kathy: I'm not sure but it's my understanding that our Board does want us to move in this direction, but I'm guessing we'll be investigating if it's worthwhile for us to go with this program
Elizabeth: goal: answer the board's question
Elizabeth: there could be a move to ereaders if we determine it is the future
Kathy: and it may be the direction for one division and not another division if that's what our research shows
Elizabeth: if not, we should probably determine a more economicallly feasible option for our students (textbooks are becoming too expensive)
Elizabeth: yes Kathy and possibly it will work for some disciplines and not others
Kathy: right -- as I said in our team meeting, the English department could adopt ipads today
Elizabeth: criteria- if they are academically rigorous enough
Elizabeth: We'd measure it against what we have now
Robin Ellis: suggests maybe you are looking at informed decision making? Or the value of adding technology to tech rich curriculum?
Alice: are we too broad? That is my biggest question
Stephanie: I agree, Faith...researching if the whole school can move to iPads seems daunting
Robin Ellis: exactly
Elizabeth: why don't we just research what options are available and for which disciplines/ divisions they are a possibility
Kathy: I thought we were going to focus on the humanities since none of us teach in the science department?
Elizabeth: so we've narrowed it down- we research what ereaders are available for the humanities and if they are a better option to what we have
Kathy: and we can investigate this across divisions siince we do have team members from low di, middle and upper
Elizabeth: I mistyped not what ereaders are available but what eBOOKs
Elizabeth: we are looking at what is available on iPads
Elizabeth: not other ereaders
Kathy: right-- and we're going to visit a school that has adopted an ipad program this year
Elizabeth: we have a school close to us that we can visit
Elizabeth: I like the idea of seeing first hand how it is working for others
Elizabeth: and if there standards are the same as ours
Elizabeth: so we have a viable action research project!
Kathy: I think I have a better understanding of "action research"
Elizabeth: is there a way to access all past projects?
Robin Ellis: http://plpnetwork.com/category/featured-project/
--
We are making progress, right?
-Alice
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