These are my notes from Sandra Plair’s session “Action Research: What Do We Know About Learning in the Cloud” at the “Teaching and Learning in the Cloud Conference” in Holland, Michigan on 21 Oct 2010. MY THOUGHTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Session description:
We often consider the technologies we use to be beneficial for teaching and learning, but how do we REALLY know? This session will focus on the use of action research as a strategy that teachers can use to examine (and find evidence for) the impact that cloud based tools, or whatever technology you are implementing, has on learning and teaching. We’ll also look at the process for submitting a proposal for the Action Research Award from MACUL, which was developed to share findings about implementation efforts and their effect of students
Sandra Plair is @miztech on Twitter
Action Research:
– Allows for self evaluation and assessment
– can be very effective to share what works in our classrooms
Action research is teacher research, investigating their own practice
Manfra in 2009 cited in Hendricks observes action research began back in the 1950s
Action research is a spiral and content specific
– taking action, studying consequences, studying what happens and then sharing the results
Australian educational action researchers define the process this way:
– Questioning
– Planning
– Implementing
– Observing
– Reflecting
– Re-planning
Consent from children and parents is always important for action research
Control groups not required but can be very helpful
There do NOT appear to be many teachers and university educators now doing action research and publishing findings on blogs
– couldn’t find common tags for action research on delicious.com
Practitioner journals
– MCTE, MAME
– Educational Leadership
– THE Journal
– The Clearinghouse
– Learning and Leading with Technology
– MACUL Journal
We want MACUL to be the go to organization about research in educational technology
– action research can share results faster
Award is $500 that goes into your pocket
MACUL Action Research Award
Deadline this year is 15 Dec
Recommended resources:
– “What Works: A Practical Guide for Teacher Research” by Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater and Bonnie S. Sunstein
– Action Research Journal
– Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, Jan 2009 issue dedicated to action research www.joci.ecu.edu
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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