Using Blogs in Education

Blogs are a wonderful reflection tool. Since action research involves so much reflection, administrators can use blogs to keep track of their inquiries and results. Educators can use blogs as visual data repositories while collecting and analyzing information.

How Can I Use Action Research?

I think action research is all about reflection and change-two things that educators should constantly embrace. Action research involves asking questions, gathering data, adjusting practices based on the findings of the inquiry, and sharing results. Action research is cyclical; it never ends. Once you satisfy the requirements of one inquiry, reflecting on those changes will lead you to the next question to investigate. As an educator, I am often forced to make changes to my current practices by outside consultants, instructional coaches, or universities providing grants to the school. Therefore, I was pleased to learn action research is driven by educators themselves and involves researching matters that are of importance to the individual. Action research leads to constant learning.

I think I will be able to use action research to continually improve. As I fly through my fourth year of teaching, I can understand the temptation to become stagnant. I plan to use action research to reflect and challenge myself to raise the bar higher. Action research will help me identify areas of weakness and possible professional development needs. Hopefully I will also be able to increase student learning, improve my teaching methods, and contribute to positive change on my campus.

Course Reflection

I was very excited to take this course and begin working towards my masters degree. I wanted to get an A in the class and learn a lot of new things. I actually had no idea what to expect coming in to the course. I knew the title of the class was Concepts of Educational Technology and had read the short description on the website but that was about all I knew. I was pleasantly surprised at the course outcomes. I was glad to be able to create several hands on technology tools such as a wiki, blog, wordle, and an animoto video clip. I also learned a lot about copyright issues, instructional strategies, and other topics technology facilitators must master. I have not received my final grade in the class yet, but I anticipate I will meet my goal of earning an A. Overall, I was satisfied with the course.

I was actually surprised at how relevant all the course material was. It seemed like I could immediately use at school what I had learned the night before from the course. I have already tried having my students make Glogs and look forward to having them use Wordle in the near future. I feel challenged to spend time instructing my students on copyright and security issues they face online. I also look forward to creating wikis to enhance various parts of my job. All of the articles I read that described the digital native culture we are now in help me understand my students better. The course also helped me realize that all areas of school, not just the academic classrooms, can benefit from technology. I was pleased to see that the new technical skills and the new knowledge I have directly relate to my job at school every day.

I did not get to attend many of the web conferences because most of them were scheduled on nights when I was at school coaching. I had looked forward to these times to connect with the professor and other students in the class. I was able to view them afterward, but missed the opportunity to engage in discussion. The web conferences I did attend were frustrating because they took so long to get going due to technical difficulties. Also everyone seemed very stiff and though helpful information was given, I did not feel like I developed any relationships with my colleagues. Since this is an online program, getting to know other classmates is more difficult than in a traditional program, but I had hoped to be more successful in this area than I was. I think I will be able to get to know the other members of my cohort better as we move through the program.

I was able to complete all the course assignments. I found that there was a lot more work than I had expected there to be. Each week I had intentions of reading the selected articles on the first day of the week and then posting to the discussion board. This only lasted one or two weeks. The rest of the time I found myself scrambling to post at the very end of the week, after I had already completed my assignments. I guess I did not really find much benefit from the discussion board; it seemed like everyone was too concerned about their own posts and citing sources properly and submitting the required number of posts to really have engaging, helpful discussions. In week four I really procrastinated because I did not like the technology book I had chosen to read and so I put off doing any of the assignment until the last minute. This made me feel very rushed until the end of the course.

I really enjoy going to school and learning new things so I was ecstatic to begin this program. This course helped me realize that I have many technical skills, but need to find more opportunities to be a leader. I also think that I am right in the middle of the digital immigrants and digital native divide. This puts me in a unique position to understand both sides of the spectrum very well. I am very open to trying new things and using technology, but get discouraged from doing so by lack of technical resources and the time to develop new lessons. I really enjoy trying new technical toys and look forward to implementing all I have learned with my students. I did not realize this program was going to be so challenging and I am feeling a little overwhelmed by all the internship requirements, but am determined to push through to the end.