EDET 636 Impact of Tech Week 9 Reflection

I have about half of my data and I have begun to analyze it. It seems that students are more engaged and the data that supports this is on the IXL analytics page that I can see as a teacher. The time that students are on the program and the amount of problems that they attempt is greater than the paper Math Review data. In the final research paper, I will show the comparisons of the two. I am nervous in putting all the data together in a professional manner but I am sure I will be able to do it in a manner that gives important information to other teachers.

EDET 636 Impact of Tech Week 9 Blog

EDET 636 Impact of Student Technology

Week 9 Blog

Essential Question: How will you go about making sense of your data?

            In order to make sense of my data, I will start analyzing data as it is being collected instead of waiting till the research project is finished to analyze the data. As the data is being analyzed, I will look for themes or categories that are created through organizing the data. These themes should begin to answer the essential questions of the action research. (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016) As I am collecting data, I will end up using this data to help direct my next move in the research. For example, my students took their first IXL assessment to test whether or not they are retaining the skills that they have learned through this method of RTI via an online component and the data directed me to use a different approach to the online RTI. I decided to require students to have a notebook while working on IXL. The first two minutes we would write notes on the math skill we are working on and then the students would write down each problem that they are solving on the computer. This method was decided because of analyzing data right away and next week, I will be able to analyze this data after the second IXL assessment.

            The other data that I will need to try and make sense of is the qualitative data from student surveys of the two methods of RTI, online IXL and paper Math Review. The data will be collected through Google Forms and there are ways through this method to analyze the data. Graphs can be created especially if there are given options as answers to questions. The data can be exported to Excel of which can be used to create various visuals for the data. Hsu and Wang have used Google Forms to collect data for a classroom activity and they found that students have a great insight of data. (2017) With this said, I would like to present the data that I get from students and ask them to help me analyze. This gives students a chance to engage in the research. It seems like other teachers in our class has had success when the students are aware of the action research.

Resources:

Hsu, H., & Wang, S. (2017). Using Google Forms to collect and analyze data. Science Scope, (8). 64.

Merriam, S. B. & Tisdell, E. J. (2016). Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation. San Franciso, CA. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

EDET 636 Impact of Tech Week 8 Blog

EDET 636 Impact of Technology on Students

Week 8 Blog

Essential Question: How can data mining assist you in triangulating your research findings?

            Data mining is a method of research that finds useful types of data and looks at the patterns in the data to produce useful knowledge. Ma and Capri share that the techniques of research and interpreting data included in data mining are “decision trees, neural networks, rule induction, machine learning, and graphic visualization.” (2014, pg. vii) Martínez and López say that data mining requires a large amount of data “to extract the relationship between variables.” (2017, pg.41) With this said, I don’t know if I will be able to use data mining in my research because I will not be able to produce enough data and with the research I have done, I can’t find data this is directly connected to my action research.

            Through an example of research done in Mexico that required the use of data mining presented by Martínez and López, I can dismiss the variables of student engagement that are the least explanatory. Then I identify what variable might affect the student engagement and mess with the variables underneath that and see what patterns that I find. This should be repeated with every variable at the higher level. When it is all repeated and finished, then I look at what set of variables have a higher correlation of a positive impact on student engagement. (2017, pg.45)

            UPDATE: I have been collecting data through the IXL math program. It provides the amount of time in each skill and the amount of questions answered correctly and incorrectly. I have not given an assessment of the topics learned yet but I will be doing this next week. This will test the retaining of skills being learned through the program. With the data collected so far, I have seen more engagement in the Math Review but not as strong of understanding the concepts. Next week, after the assessment, I will be changing the format of this online RTI by providing a mini-lesson before and after the time allotted.

Resources:

Ma, X., & Capri, H. L. (2014). Data Mining : Principles, Applications and Emerging Challenges. Hauppauge, New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Martínez Abad, F., & López, A. C. (2017). Data-mining techniques in detecting factors linked to academic achievement. School Effectiveness And School Improvement, 28(1), 39-55. doi:10.1080/09243453.2016.1235591

EDET 636 Impact of Tech Week 7 Reflection

Gerald gave me a great source to have non-biased questions and observations in research of mathematic classrooms. I looked at the resource he provided and I think I can get better questions that have no bias that is connected to the engagement of students in the mathematics classroom.

It seemed with Gerald, myself, and Josie that unbiased opinions in observations is very important for us when observing students. I am interested in seeing how my classmates overcome the bias that we have as teachers when we are implementing our action research.

This week I was able to catch up on the material of the classroom. I got a few weeks behind. I look forward to implementing my action research plan. Actually I have begun with my beginning survey of how students feel about Math Review (RTI) especially when it comes to engagement of students. I collected the data of assessments to see if students are retaining the skills. The students also have begun working on IXL for RTI mid last week so that I can begin seeing students interact with the program. So far, I have good feedback from the students and from the program.

EDET 636 Impact of Tech Week 7 Blog

EDET 636 Impact of Technology on Student Learning

Week 7 Blog

Essential Question: What are the most important things to remember when observing your students?

 

            What I find as the most important thing to remember when observing my students is the fact that I will affect the settings of the observation because I am involved with the research and not a third party. This means that I will need to step away (metaphorically) from the class by disengaging so that I can have an accurate observation. This potentially might look like taking video of the class and then watching it later so that I can record what I see accurately and still be able to teach the class. In the observation of a social setting, the observer needs to take note of the aspects connected to the theoretical framework, the essential question, and the problem. (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016) These aspects might be the social setting, the physical environment, people in the setting, events, time, individual behavior, activities, interactive patterns, language, non-verbal communication, culture, goals, and human needs. (Whitehead, 2006, pg. 7-8)

Resources:

Merriam, S. B. & Tisdell, E. J. (2016). Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation. San Franciso, CA. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Piktochart http://piktochart.com/

Whitehead, T. L. (2006). Workbook for Descriptive Observations of Social Settings. Ethnographically Informed Community and Cultural Assessment Research Systems Workbooks. Retrieved from http://www.cusag.umd.edu/documents/WorkingPapers/SocSettings_Events_Act_Wrkbk.pdf

EDET 636 Impact on Tech Week 6 Blog

EDET 636 Impact of Technology on Students

Week 6 Blog

Essential Question: What are the most important things to remember in conducting interviews?

            When conducting interviews with intentions to obtain qualitative research data from students, we need to be careful with what questions we ask. If we are seeking for a formal interview and precise answers to questions, we will need to have questions prepared ahead of time. If we are seeking for more fluid information from the interviewee, we will prepare questions that can be followed up with another question that addresses the answer of the original. For my own interviewing process that will be done in my action research, I will be taking a semi structured method of interviewing by having more or less structured questions and providing flexibility in the questions. (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016)

            As the interviewer, we need to be mindful of how the person we are interviewing feels during the interview. If the person (student) is uncomfortable or feels attacked then the data being collected will not be accurate for the research. The interviewer needs to be respectful, encouraging, nonjudgmental, and nonthreatening when asking questions of all nature. (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016) People are more willing to share their thoughts and feelings with interviewers who are considerate, interested, and sympathetic to them.

            Another thing to keep in mind when conducting interviews and recording the data is that sometimes the responses that are recorded can be non-verbal responses such as a heavy sigh that implies stress or a head put down on a desk that implies boredom or non-engagement. This is important when recording the interview because it gives more accurate qualitative data that can be provided to the research.

Resources:

Merriam, S. B. & Tisdell, E. J. (2016). Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation. San Franciso, CA. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Piktochart http://piktochart.com/

EDET 636 Impact of Tech Week 5 Reflection

This week I read about how Gerald, Josie, and Erika plan to collect data. Their concerns they have in the collection of data made me reflect a bit more about my own method of data collection. I think I will need to do a bit more research on how to ask proper questions when it comes to collecting qualitative data. The Delphi Method presented in my classmate's post provided a new way to collect this type of data. In my situation I don't necessarily think it will help but having multiple rounds of surveys can potentially provide more accurate and concise data to student learning.

I need to begin my action research either next week or in three weeks so that I have enough time to collect a proper amount of data. I can't wait to change my method and see how it affects student participation/engagement and the retention of basic math skills.