Patricia's ETEC Portfolio for 2012

I’ll start by saying that overall, this was an impressive read both for the level of detail that was included and for the succinctness of the writing. Even though it was long, it wasn’t overwhelming to work through the information.

As it parallels our “checklist” I noted the following.

     * The Literature Review section makes a sincere effort to “develop a storyline”…. and it wasn’t overly peppered with distracting references.

     * It was impressive how the study proposal highlighted all the counterarguments to potential validity concerns. There was also clear examination of the ethical concerns that may arise. Although this wasn’t in our checklist, it is very important for my particular research interests and provides an example for me to reference.

     * The data analysis included an incredible level of detail, outlining both the research methodology and the foreseeable data analysis techniques.

     * The focus question was clearly mentioned (no hypothesis) and the outline of subsequent questions was thorough.

     * The one area that I was hoping to see highlighted, (and even though it was mentioned it didn’t really pop), was the significance of the study and the information about why it’s needed. I had to read and reread this section because I was looking for a clear argument, but I couldn’t find a convincing statement about the need for this study.

All in all, a helpful read and thoughtful comparison for my own proposal assignment.

P. Collins

Action research general thoughts –

I had heard the term “action research” discussed before during my teaching. In fact, we had an administrator who was suggesting/pressuring us to participate in such a venture. However, I new nothing about it and now that I have done some readings – I can see how errant he was to be looking for participants in his venture.

The readings legitimized action research for me as a formal type of study. For some reason, I felt that action research was somewhat less legitimate given the fact that it was school based research and not conducted by an external researcher. Now I can see that it is actually much more applicable and legitimate due to it’s grass-roots nature and the affordances of a school, a teacher or a group of teachers having the ability to conduct their own study and develop action plans for areas of focus that directly concern them.

I can see that I had a slightly “two-tiered” mentality regarding this type of research. As if, because of the context, it is somehow not as genuine? And that is absolutely wrong. If conducted well, it can more then likely produce results that are equally relevant, if not more relevant, then other types of research. Especially when juxtaposed with the thought that it can bring about more immediate changes/influences of the practice of a teacher and the learning for students.

After completing the readings and ruminating over the ideas I keep circling back to one central theme.

How do you truly design a flawless study of human beings?

If one truly takes into account all of the factors that can influence the validity of an experiment (specifically with educational research) I can’t see how it would be possible to proceed. It makes sense, that you can mitigate the effect of these variables with the type of design that you employ but it seems to be the extrinsic validity that would be the most difficult to eliminate. When a researcher conducts an experiment on a specific segment of the population will those results have any applicability to another segment of the population? And isn’t this the basis for developing sound theory? That the results should be replicable by another researcher? Or maybe the underlying insinuation is that the results can only be reproduced in that specific setting.

This topic – understanding experimental research – truly seems to be a convuluted and expanding practice. It led me to question as well, what does it mean to be peer-reviewed? And what do peer-reviewed look for to determine validity? I have skimmed through some other documents to further my background with the subject and have them below anyone had an interest.

PC

Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research

http://www.uky.edu/~clthyn2/PS671/CS_part1.pdf

Understanding and validity in qualitative research

http://www.msuedtechsandbox.com/hybridphd/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/maxwell92.pdf

Criteria for the peer-review process for publication of experimental and quasi-experimental research

http://www.aepc.es/ijchp/articulos_pdf/ijchp-303.pdf

I chose to review an article from the Canadian Journal of Native Education which contained a research journal from UBC research Amy Parent.

The three ethical issues that she addressed (although there were more) are as follows.

1) Reflecting the understanding of how central appropriate research can be to the decolonialization process A. Parent conducted her research in a manner that was true to the epistemology of Canadian Indigenous communities. To do this effectively, she utilized a wholistic qualitative research method which emphasizes the “ecological aspects” of ethical research identified by Flinders (1992). Incorporating a combination of sharing circles, individual interviews and paired interviews in a setting that was familiar and comfortable to the participants.

2) The second issue that she addressed was the need for ethical research to be cognizant of a community’s needs. This was accomplished by adhering to traditional protocols and involving a community elder as a guide to ensure that “relational” aspects of ethical research are met.

3) And the third ethical issue managed was to safeguard the needs and show responsibility to the participants involved in the research. This was managed in a variety of ways, but one of the most significant was to hold information sessions that openly highlited the research implications and the ethical considerations for the participants.

As a final note, I was a bit surprised that no mention was made of altering the participants names to protect confidentiality. Do you think this is just assumed to have been done? Or do articles make special mention of this practice?

PC

Flinders, D. (1992). In search of ethical guidance: constructing a basis for dialogue. Qualitative Studies in Education, 5(2), 101-115.

Parent, A. (2011) “Keeping us coming back for more.”: Urban Aboriginal Youth Speak About Wholistic Education. Canadian Journal of Native Education. 34(1) 28-48.

Having been completely removed from actively participating in research for over fourteen years, this course should pose an interesting challenge. I know that I have joined in the discussion before…. as to what constitutes good research. And my personal thoughts are that good research is always conducted in compliance with the scientific method – and has been, or is in the process of being submitted to a peer review journal.

I am ruminating on a couple of ideas for my research proposal topic, including:

1) Does open access to community based distributed learning options increase Aboriginal person’s probability of attending a post-secondary program.

2) Does open access to community based distributed learning options increase Aboriginal student attrition in senior grades?

More thoughts to follow,

PC

This week’s exploration into the topics of Situated Learning and Distributed Cognition were quite challenging for me. This difficulty stemmed from what I perceived to be a complete separation between the two ideas. It was like trying to compare apples…. to kiwis.

For comparisons sake, I can say that with both of these philosophy’s the summation, or the outcome of what we perceive in an individual’s learning is significantly more than what we, the observer (be that parent/educator/researcher) can visualize happening. And that’s when all similarities seem to stop.

As to identifying which one has a greater implication for teaching and learning – that is not a question that I am able to answer. Although I am quite familiar with the philosophy behind situated learning I did need to really dissect both the papers that were provided on distributed cognition and even further some research of my own so that I was sure that I got the fundamentals right. And after learning what Distributed cognition actually is and how impactful it is to understanding the role of educator and learner I cannot honestly say which theory would be more influential.

When you consider distributed cognition in the light of transactive memory, there are certain parallels. In fact, the idea of transactive memory did pop into my head during the course of the reading but it is in the subtleties where the differences lay. While transactive memory refers to the storehouse of knowledge bases that a person has memorized (be those other people, websites, reference books) it does not necessarily incorporate the learning that may have occurred from utilizing those resources. Here in lies the important difference: Distributed cognition does incorporate an individual’s multitude of experiences (including scaffold), conversations, and involvement with readings/artifacts/technologies in their ability to perform a cognitive task.

Alternatively, situated learning describes how a cognitive task is best achieved and reinforced when it is completed in an environmental manner befitting the particular task. I read in another class that it’s bringing someone to the lake and helping them swim versus giving a person a book in a classroom on swimming. That learning activities need to be appropriately “situated” to be maximally effective. A task that can seem monumental from a public education classroom.

PC

If there was a cartoon drawn for comparison’s sake of the differences between a behaviorist approach and a constructivist approach to teaching it could be summarized with the following narrative.

B: Please sit still and I will tell you everything I know…. because you know very little – and I get paid to share this information with you. And stop talking

C: But I’m only chatting with my partner about something I saw on TV related to this topic

B: You couldn’t possibly have anything insightful or relevant to contribute. Please open your text resource to p. Wahhmmp wahhhmpp wahhhmpp wahhhmpp wahmp.

C (internalized): Man I get tired of this guy yipping at us. And this textbook is out of date. When do we get to go into the lab and do something fun?

It was easy to appreciate the author’s strong opinions on this issue because it sincerely mirrored much of my personal experience with education from the age of 11-16. And truth be told, I’m rather surprised I stuck it out with continuing education because my experience in post secondary paralleled high school quite closely. It was the love of new knowledge that really kept me hooked, and this type of motivation isn’t always present in the students I work with currently.

When Von Glaserfeld argues that communication is about so much more than a vehicle for the knower to transfer his/her understanding to the learner I almost danced a gig. This ties strongly into my cultural understanding and experience in Aboriginal Education, specifically with oral history and Aboriginal epistemology. The author further elaborated how Western education has been “heavily conditioned by centuries of use of written language.” And maybe this means we’ve thrown the baby out with the bath water…. Perhaps in our efforts, since the Industrial Revolution, to design education around written language we have dismissed some of the key effective strategies that have been a part of our pedagogical practices since the beginning of our beginning? Like story-telling, mentoring practices, play, and shadowing.

On another note, I have never given much thought to how I impart skills through my coaching vs. my classroom teaching. And I really had to chuckle when I realized that almost all of the activities that I use when introducing the skills and fundamentals of my sport have a seed of ZPD. I don’t give the players a rule book, a lecture and then an assessment on what they’ve learned the next day. They get a basic introduction – and then we play. And it is directly through the experiential aspects of this play that they build their understanding of the further fundamentals required for fuller proficiency in the sport.  As to how this might unfold in a Biology 12 classroom when I am trying to teach Biochemistry, I am not sure that I have the answer. Does anyone else have any ideas?

I loved the opportunity to try out building an app. Last year some colleagues were talking about how easy it can be, but I seriously thought it would be way beyond me. Just for fun, I started an app for my town (unpublished) that allows people to follow and comment on food trucks. You never know where they are, or what they have to offer here in town. We were at a wine festival last weekend and I couldn’t believe the array of food trucks that must of have been hiding in some food truck forest I didn’t know about. And I was thinking how great it would be if there was a means for them to let it be known where they are and what’s on the menu.

The affordances are endless!

I was wondering if anyone has found any apps that are specific for schools or teacher’s classrooms? What I would have liked to see would have been some more examples of what people have built in appshed. If there was page on their site specific to this I missed it. Great job OER apps group.

PC

The year was 1977 – three young and upcoming programmers from Ampex (producers of digital storage systems) took a risk and branched off to start their own company. One of them was Lawrence J. Ellison

Serving as Chief executive officer from the beginning, Larry Ellison has been a man with far reaching dreams. When the company was awarded a contract from the CIA to produce a program allowing “relational database management” they developed a revolutionary software – code name Oracle.

Oracle has since been integrated into IBM operating systems and made available for public consumers. They have also become the overseers of the open source Java programming script. The recent launch of their Oracle Academy has provided a means for students, both secondary and tertiary, to be exposed to the Java fundamentals and programming for no cost or a nominal yearly fee. Fostering early student interest in computer science and programming in over forty countries. The company has come a long ways, and surpassed expectations, as has it’s founder.

Born to a single mother in the Bronx, he was subsequently adopted by family. His Uncle and Aunt raised him in a very modest, lower-income environment. And although his natural aptitude for science and math was identified early, he clashed with formal education dropping out of both the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois. Like many other successful entrepreneurs, Larry emerged from a disadvantaged background and was decidedly rebellious as a youngster. As an adult he openly seeks the thrill of physical adventures.

Research into Oracle Academy has brought to light the altruistic aspects and community-minded commitments of this software giant. Their team seems genuinely interested in promoting ways for computing to be brought to the next generation by producing savvy and relative educational opportunities. It is also a good marketing strategy, ensuring that future leaders in the tech field have a familiarity with the company’s software platform.