CIG697
Educational Technology Portfolio
Research
1) Select an artifact that illustrates your ability to analyze research that you've read and evaluated.
The first artifact that I selected illustrates my ability to analyze research and evaluate its importance. In this artifact I discuss the major findings from academic journals in relation to the benefits and challenges of blended learning implementation.
In reflection of all the topics I have learned about in the course of my studies, I still feel that blended learning is a key issue in educational technology. Blended learning can be a great benefit to the educational system, so long as it is implemented in a correct and meaningful way. While researching this topic, plenty of benefits for both teachers and students are apparent. For teachers, blended learning enables them to automate tasks, leaving more time for teachers to commit to actual content creation and data analyzation (Moore, Robinson, Sheffield & Phillips, 2017). It is important to note that this is not just a benefit blended learning provides; Implementation of technology to streamline clerical processes can be attained in traditional face to face or virtual classrooms. Students benefit because blended learning models readily foster individualization and personalized learning, which are paramount in fostering high levels of content mastery (Powell et al., 2015).
Blended learning has many challenges that dull its appeal to a wider audience. The major challenge being the type of student who benefits most from this model: the student who has high levels of self-discipline and self-motivation. This type of student is already doing well in a face to face or virtual classroom. Those who stand the greatest benefit from
blended learning are unfortunately lacking in these traits. There are obviously other challenges facing blended learning, but I view this as the greatest obstacle in showcasing to others the viability of blended learning as a worthwhile investment.
The most important thing I have learned in this program is that educational technology has its limits and is not this all powerful panacea that will solve all of the challenges plaguing education. The idea of an education system that fails to reach any number of students is a major issue that education faces, yet at the end of the day, technology may not be the best tool for the certain situation and instead is dependent on how that technology is implemented and if people are able to optimize it to reach all students. Blended learning is one such tool that can be used to combat this problem but is not the only solution nor may it be the best solution to certain circumstances.
References
Moore, M., Robinson, H. A., Sheffield, A., & Phillips, A. S. (2017). Mastering the blend: A professional development program for k-12 teachers. Journal of
Online Learning Research, 3(2), 145-173.
Powell, A., Watson, J., Staley, P., Horn, M., Fetzer, L., Hibbard, L., Oglesby, J., & Verma, S. (2015). Blended learning: The evolution of online and face to
face education from 2008- 2015. International Association for K-12 Online Learning.
2) Select an artifact that illustrates your ability to conduct research and effectively communicate processes, implications and results.
The second artifact that I selected illustrates my ability to conduct literary research and communicate findings that are applicable to topics within educational technology. In this paper I discuss what changes need to be made to technology based professional developments for educators based on findings from journal sources.
This research topic is near and dear to me because, as an educator, I hated how non-informative and mundane professional development trainings for technology were. When introducing new technology tools that the district expected us to use, they failed to include how it actually looks when being implemented in classes and the relevance and impact it would have in the classroom. Often, trainings would feel like infomercials disguised as educational presentations. These offered little in understanding why educators should use the tools, which often meant, they weren't used.
While I didn't conduct research physically on how educators feel about current trends in technology professional development, I did research the topic extensively using my own experiences to guide my research. What I found were the types of technologies that succeed in the classroom and the types of concerns that inhibit teachers from implementing said technologies. Often teachers own lack of understanding of how technology can be used as a tool to enhance one's current practices and lack of confidence in using the technology is what holds teachers back from implementing the tools they were
"trained" on. As I wrote in my paper, professional development should be a time where teachers foster their self-efficacy for technology and actually experiment with the technology using hands on learning. This allows time for teachers to feel confident about the technology that they are using and how it will improve how they view implement the technology in their own classrooms.
If I research this topic again, I would like to do interviews with actual teachers about how they view their own professional development opportunities. Do the views of those I interview match what the research I found suggests? Two years have passed since I wrote this back in late 2016. This doesn't seem like a particularly long amount of time, but the advances in technology say otherwise. That being said, I am interested in how teacher training programs are addressing the new technological developments within the education world. I would love to incorporate research on that within my original topic to see if there have been any strides or changes in how technology professional development is carried out.
