Final Presentation Video for Action Research

I was able to finish my video reporting on my Action Research. Here is the link! Please check it out and tell me what you think!

http://web.me.com/karyoung/Action_Research/Embedded_Final_Presentation.html

Master's Degree at FullSail-Year in Review

    The courses that I have taken for FullSail’s EMDT have been challenging and fulfilling.  I thought I knew how to write until I learned APA. I found myself in deep water and having a hard time keeping up. My mother had a stroke; I rushed up to be with her and my father and stayed for over two weeks in June. Planning the funeral and supporting my father and family had to be squeezed together with the first month of a challenging course. I felt like the CD, Sharon Wyly, was understanding and very supportive. I decided if I could pull it off that month, the rest of the year would be OK.
    In July, I was so at home with the knowledge of Multiple Learning Styles. This is such a part of me it was like coming home. Everything we learned yelled, “Yes! This is why the Arts are so important in education!”  I contend that the arts in education feed and teach the “whole child” and are what can keep a kid in school.    Dr. Deason was an inspiration. I was assigned to a group that did a project on gaming in education. I enjoyed the group collaboration. I copied many of Dr. Deason’s comments into documents so I could go back and review them.
    September opened my eyes to 21st Century learning, and was instrumental for me choosing my action research subject. I think this course is what sold me on the importance of technology in education in general. Dr. Siegel was a fun professor, and later in gaming I realized he’s pretty much crazy! I know that gaming needs to find its way into education. Not a gamer by heart, he turned my heart towards it.
    Two of the reasons I chose this program were the music and film courses. The music class was difficult, but taught me so much that is practical and useful in my job and my love of music and film. Kathy Craven was an awesome film teacher; I learned a lot in her class. Each new project was a challenge, but I grew so much! These two classes directly influenced my AR, which was teaching film to students. Our end project in cycle 1 was a music video that also was my end project in our music class.
    Flash was difficult, and LMO was too much reading, too much writing! Though I did enjoy Udutu. All in all, I have learned so much it is astounding, and I feel like a whole new world has been opened for me. What a ride!

Karlene Young Wk 4 Project publication ideas

I posted before that I was going to try and publish my project to SITE. Since seeing others’ presentations, I have decided I would like to submit it to ISTE as well, and a shortened version with a short film clip to Edutopia. My classmates suggested that one. I feel like I would like to do a lengthier version to submit to a journal that would be much longer as well. We’ll have to see if I have time to do that this next month. I haven’t looked at the new class yet.  One month left in my Master’s Program! Yea!!! I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s been a great ride.

Karlene Young Wk 4 Publishing Project Frustrations

I have been particularly frustrated trying to get ready for the Wimba session this Saturday evening. We are supposed to look at our fellow classmates’ presentations, but so many were not done, it was almost impossible to get it accomplished. I am so impressed with some of my classmates! Erin Roe’s is good enough to be published right now. She is amazing and has done an awesome job on her AR. I think Fullsail needs to hire her to teach the music class! (Nothing against Repp.) I think she needs to present at a conference with her project. Hers was 39 pages long, and I emailed her the question, “What about the 2000 words?” I had a pretty good paper when I realized it was 3000 words, so I started chopping. I feel like mine is a little too jumpy and scattered now as an article. I loved how Erin’s was so thorough. So I am guessing that we need to have several differing sizes to choose from, but I should have kept the original 3000-word doc. I feel like I am not done with this assignment. I’ll comment after the Wimba session as well.

After

Well, last night gave me a royal migraine, and then I got the flu to top it off. Six out of eight of us in my household came down with it since Thursday. I’m glad I was pretty much done with my assignments! I loved the presentation part, and would have loved to sit in on all of them. But-enough torture! My classmates are totally amazing and I am very impressed with the majority of the AR projects. I hope we can all be published.

Karlene Young Wk 4 Response to Jacob Berry

This was his post:

Publishing Leadership Project

How often do you have a student fail the first six weeks?  This student, lost and confused has to try and figure what he missed, and keep up with current classroom activities.  I want to embrace the “Digital Native” in each student and allow them to not fall behind.  With all the technological advances that have come about, why not allow our students a chance to gain a reprieve for their errors, a mulligan if you will.  As educators our job is not to fail students, but to correct their mistakes and show them the right path.  My Action Research embraces technology and promotes it as an avenue to help a student learn and not allow him to fall so far behind that we lose them forever.

Say goodbye to the way we learned.  Blackboards are a thing of the past; digital projectors and smart boards are the wave of the future.  I am not saying we should throw away the foundations we grew up on; I am stating that today’s youth needs to be taught at their interests level.  We should incorporate the Internet in our lectures and activities.  We should allow students to complete work online.  Not only does this prepare them for college, but teaches them life skills that will be beneficially to their future careers.  If we as educators do not change our mentality toward technology, we will expand the gap between our students interests and our own.

Baturay & Bay (2010) discussed how problem based projects made the learners feel more connected to the content.  I have seen first hand through my project how students get into role-playing and acting out scripts.  I have also seen how allowing them to complete an interactive video assignment, online, can help stimulate their understanding of the material.  By creating engaging projects, we embrace the constructivist in all our students.  Using the Internet is great when you have the resources to use.  However in my school, two computer labs with 30 computers each are in use all day.  The opportunity to use them is scarce.

I was told by an administrator that the bureaucracy of getting equipment took months, almost a full year.  Computers sit in storage until the proper work is filed, and by the time it placed in a classroom setting, it old technology.  In order to offer a credit recover system the educational system has to change.  Technology needs to be distributed out quicker.  If you want to motivate a student, give him access to a computer.  I have seen how a student who could not use Microsoft Word, can grow in one semester, into a knowledgeable contributor.

The first step in creating a productive credit recovery system is to teach the teachers how to better reach their students through technology.  Many teachers thought that technology meant PowerPoint slides with pictures.  Technology can be Google maps incorporated with videos of a region of the world, while incorporating it into a class presentation of an area.  Teachers need to be taught how to use the gifts at their fingertips.

Second step is to create an online curriculum that engages the students on many levels.  The problem with classroom instruction is that over the years teachers become stuck in their teaching rut, unwilling to change.  This style may not be as conducive to learning as they think.  Why not take a step back and create a curriculum that is different from what they had in class.  After all, why place the same content on the web, in the same approach as the teacher.  If educators would spice up the classroom, theirs a good chance credit recover might not be necessary.

Third step is to educate the students to the basic skills of online work submission and how to use the Internet to their benefit.  Prensky calls students Digital Natives, but my research has shown that it only goes so far.  Students understand Myspace.com, but many cannot even use Microsoft Word on attach a document to an email.  Before a student reaches high school, they should be able to do most common tasks for Microsoft Office products.  I have seen first hand that assignments created by students with first hand knowledge of PowerPoint, are far more complex and engaging than those of less familiar students.  If teachers at the middle school level set a good foundation, teachers at the upper level can build and increase students’ computer skills.

While my Action Research was on creating an effective credit recovery system, I can truly say that if we adopted many of the concepts I used in my project, for everyday teaching, my credit recovery system might not be necessary.  Until then, I think that if teachers allowed their students to recover grades online after they fail a six weeks grading period, it would only help the student understand future concepts.  Maybe we should take it one step closer, and allow them to do it every two weeks.

My research was too broad.  I had originally started to show the cost effectiveness in an online credit recovery system.  It soon morphed into a social/racial experiment due to the area I live in.  In all reality, the research would have been more fluid if I would have focused on this simple question,  “Would an online Credit Recover System help students under the content better?”

My response:

Hi Jake! Long time, no hear...

I loved the presentation. I have a few edits if you want them. (Let me know.) I came into the presentation first, not your web page, so I was not understanding what credit recovery was. I finally got an ah-ha moment half way through and it made sense. Knowing that, I think it would help your presentation to put in a sentence explaining credit recovery to the layman. (Me, in this case...) I think this is a great idea! I'm going to look over your website as well.

Karlene

Karlene Young Wk 4 Response to Leslie Perry

This was her post:

Wk4 Publishing Project #2: The Decision (Blog Post #2)

Ultimately, the decision of what to do came down to practicalities.  I do not want to go through this experience to do something that will not be presented or printed.  Since most of the conferences listed in the Resources section on this HW project are happening within the next few months, there is no chance of submitting to present there and no opportunity to apply for next year.  As such, I have focused on preparing a document for submission.  Step 1 done.

The next step was to dig deeper into the publications listed in the Resources section of the online HW page.  Ultimately, I found the goals of the International Society for Technology in Education to be the site I kept coming back to and I felt their mission statement aligned with my thoughts on education and where I envision myself heading professionally.

Here is their Mission Statement:

“The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE®) is the premier membership association for educators and education leaders engaged in improving teaching and learning by advancing the effective use of technology in PK-12 and teacher education. Home of NETS and ISTE's annual conference and exposition (formerly NECC), ISTE represents more than 100,000 professionals worldwide.” (http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=About_ISTE)

I noticed that there are several publications produced by ISTE and I spent some time looking at the requirements for submission for these.  Immediately, I knew that the most appropriate journal to submit my research would be L&L – Learning and Leading in Education.  This journal is geared towards practitioners in education such as Superintendents, Media Specialists, teachers, technology coordinators etc.  That would be the audience I aim to reach.  In addition, the submission guidelines say “L&L articles emphasize practical ideas and provide how-to tips for integrating technology appropriately into K–12 classrooms, curriculum, and administration.”  Once again, the focus on practical ideas for integrating technology aligns well with my writing and personal style.  I also feel it is the most effective use of my time and energy for this project.

Getting down to specifics, I plan to write a “Feature” article.  The description of this is:

“Features: These articles showcase successful projects or models that incorporate technology for staff development, student learning, or infrastructure implementation. Features illustrate how projects or models helped teachers use technology to make a difference in student learning. Features should be about 2,000 words.”

This description of what type of article is desired for L&L is exactly what my Action Research project presents.  Additionally, in reviewing the online edition of this month’s L&L, I felt that the design of the magazine was done well, and important component since I am a also a professional graphic designer.

The first step was to actually join this organization.  Without that, I couldn’t even look at the digital edition of the magazine.  It cost $39 to become a full-student member.  With that done, the next step is to send an email to the editor in advance of sending the article.  In this email, I need to give a brief description of the article idea and why this is useful to L&L audience and includes the kind of technology used and primary effect on learning.

On we go…

Link to Submission Guidelines:

http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/LL/Submit_Articles/How_to_Submit_Articles_to_LandL.htm

Leslie-

I am excited to get to know you and learn of your action research! I remember hearing you talk to the CD about the fact that you weren’t a teacher, you were a PTA president, and he said, “Just take it up to the next level.” Kudos to you! I too found SITE (just a mix of the same letters), joined the national organization over it, AACE, and am writing an article as well. I think I’ll look into ISTE as well. I’ll submit it to more than one place. You ought to look into SITE as well! Here’s the link to my blog post about it: http://dramamrsyoung.blogspot.com/2010/04/karlene-young-wk-2-possibility-for.html

Check out my AR site-this is the link to the Publishing Leadership Project: http://web.me.com/karyoung/Action_Research/Publishing_Project.html

I’ll see you in Wimba on Saturday!

-Karlene