Action Research Report Template

Abstract or Executive Summary

(This is a ½ to 1 page executive review of the completed action research study - basically, an overall summary.  Wait until you have the results and conclusions of your research study to write this.  The purpose of an abstract is for the reader to quickly see if this is a report that they wish to read.  So, be sure to include the basics, i.e., school, location, problem addressed, intervention, and results as clearly and succinctly as possible.)

Title and Author

The Effectiveness of Wireless Internet and Bring-Your-Own-Device on Freshmen STAAR Scores

By: Dawn Walker

Introduction / Background (Section One) 

As we continue into the 21^st century, technology is our future, so it was inevitable that our education system continued to move toward more technology learning in the classroom. Robinson High School, a suburban 3A public school in central Texas, installed wireless internet and provided all students and teachers with a login to the system. As a science and technology teacher, I was compelled to find a way to use the wireless access to improve my freshmen biology EOC scores.  Our English scores and our overall Hispanic student scores were also a source of concern, so the need to improve scores and justify the time, effort, and money put in to implement wireless internet and BYOD made sense to go together into research to improve our school.

Several challenges were imminent as I proceeded through my research. The first challenge was the technology itself. Looking back, the teachers should have been trained on initially getting their students onto the system and ensuring that all devices worked properly. Another issue was that not all students have a device to access the network.  In order to address the challenge, I donated several devices and I am looking at inviting others to do the same. When I am teaching and using the technology, I must either have an alternative to using devices such as using individual whiteboards or assign groups with at least 1 device per group. 

The problems that I confronted during my research were numerous. First, we had a late change in principals which did not allow me to communicate my wants and the project itself as we started school.  The next problem was teaching schedule changes starting the 2012-2013 school year. I did not end up getting my technology integration PLC period in which I intended to use to help the teachers with technology usage and training. The last problem that I confronted was the lack of enthusiasm by the teachers to try to put the use of technology into their lessons.

Ultimately, I would like to find out if or how the technology helps our students be more successful on the End-of-Course tests, specifically in my area of biology and the previously low-performing English/reading tests. There are several sub-questions that I hope to answer along the way such as

• How are inquiry and reflection fostered by using tech tools and devices?
• What supports are needed to help teachers utilize devices in the learning process?
• How are teachers using devices in class?
• What can I learn from their implementation that would help spread this work among other teachers?
• How can we use devices to better prepare our students for tests?
• What are students’ attitudes towards device use in class?
• How can we help all students have devices to use in class?
• What has worked/not worked in other schools implementing BYOD?
• Is there a significant increase in biology and English EOC scores for freshmen?

• Is the increase in scores in part due to the implementation of BYOD?

As in all cases, the students ultimately should benefit from my research. The outcomes for the students will hopefully include improvement in attitudes about their learning, increased effort in problem-solving and inquiry, and overall improvement in test scores. Overall, my study will add to student academic achievement in the classroom.

BYOD – Bring Your Own Device – Students are allowed to bring their own tablets, handheld devices, smart phones, and computers to connect to the wireless internet and use in class.

EOC – End of Course Exam that students are given in Texas at the end of the year to test their achievement in each core subject area

Literature Review (Section Two)

            Even though technology use is increasing in our students, schools do not have the funding to provide 1:1 computing for each student. Bring Your Own Device is a less expensive alternative to providing each student a computer or even worse, not letting them use technology at all. Many articles and blogs are currently addressing the reasons for and even the reasons against BYOD.  Scott Meech states that BYOD is the future of Ed Tech. In his article on the website EdReach, Meech goes on to say that trying to ban devices costs the school resources, has a negative impact on school culture, and prevents more effective learning in the classroom (2011). 

            In his list of pros and cons, Ianin Sheffield lays out many more benefits to learning such as new horizons becoming apparent and BYOD supporting independent learning. His cons list offers many cons, but none of which decrease learning (2011). After looking at the research, Robinson ISD board members, superintendent, and technology leaders decided that BYOD was the path that our school district would take.

(more research to be added)

Action Research Design (Section Three)

Subjects

The target population for the research study is all freshmen at Robinson High School. These freshmen will be taking four End-of-Course exams in May of their 9^th grade year.

Procedures

To begin the research, in July 2012, I sat down with my other campus integration specialist and we reviewed the tools that we already knew about and how they could be used in the classroom. Then before the new school year started,  I started looking into blogs and research on the internet about what other schools were doing with their BYOD and more tools and applications to use. I have continued to do this throughout the research process. At the beginning of school we shared some tools briefly at faculty meetings, but due to having new administration and not enough time to meet to discuss time during the beginning of school in-service, we did not get to present these the way we wanted. So in early October, we planned 2 hours of in-service specifically related to using tools in the classroom. Due to a change in scheduling, my PLC period had to be removed and I have not been able to visit with the subject areas to assist them in using technology specifically suited to their subject area. I have consulted with different students and teachers about the technology that is being used in class for the last 4 months and found that it is not being used as often as I would like.  My plan is to meet with the technology director and administer a survey to the freshmen students in the next few weeks. The survey will find out how many are consistently bringing devices to class, which classes they are using those devices in and how often they are using them. I also plan to go into some classes that are using the technology and observe how the teachers are individually using it as we get closer to testing. My next data collection will come when we get the EOC test results back for the freshmen, which will most likely be in late May 2013. My final survey for the year will be surveying the teachers during the last week of school. I would like to focus that survey on finding out how often the teachers used the technology and how they feel the program can be improved.

Data Collection

Data collection will include informal discussions with teachers and students as I receive information of technology usage in classrooms, observations, surveys, and test score data. Two surveys will be administered. The first will be a survey of all freshmen. It will include multiple choice opinion questions that are yet to be determined. The second survey will be with the teachers in the school.  I will look at the group responses as a whole but also look at freshmen teachers as a group also.  *More information is being collected and will be added.

Findings (Section Four)

Data will be collected, analyzed, and added as it becomes available.

Conclusions and Recommendations (Section Five)

Conclusions will be made at the end of the study.

References (Final Section)

Meech, S. (May 22, 2011). EdView. In EdReach. Retrieved Feb, 2. 2013, from     http://edreach.us  /2011/05/22/the-future-of-ed-tech-is-%E2%80%9Cbring-your-own-  device%E2%80%9D-byod/

Sheffield, I. (October 26, 2011). Pros & Cons of BYOD in Schools. In ProConLists. Retrieved   Feb.  2, 2013, from http://www.proconlists.com/list/education/byod-in-schools/863

Questions Answered in Week 3 of my mid-program Internship for Supervision course:

Use this workspace to tell about the target audience to share your Action Research Project Results.

In the past 4 years, I have immersed myself into the possibilities of technology use in the classroom.  After being asked to take on the position of technology integration specialist on my campus, technology has become one of my educational passions. I have tried to use technology in my biology curriculum in order to diversify and enhance learning. Seeing that many of my difficult and at-risk students embraced and performed very well on tasks using technology, I have tried to figure out more ways to get students involved in inquiry, problem-solving and assessment using technology. When we were told that we would be getting wireless internet access in our high school and that students would be able to use the access in the classrooms on their own devices, I decided to try to make the most of it. Our principal was a key component in making this happen and shared a study from another school with me that started me wondering.  The school that did a survey of their students after 1 year of BYOD reported that 985 of their 1450 students had a wireless device that could be used.  Out of those 985, only 400 had gotten an account and were using them at the moment of the survey.  The most common reason for not using devices was “Teachers do not allow us to use the technology. Teachers just want us to have pens and paper and read the chapter and answer the questions or problems in the book. I do not need to carry a computer to do that.”  A lot of money and time has gone into putting in the wireless system, and I, as well as my principal, do not want that to go to waste. Tech tools will be around for the rest of my teaching career and I want our students to understand how to responsibly and inquisitively use it to be lifelong learners.

     Sharing my research of the implementation of wireless and BYOD will be a huge part of my project.  I have a Campus Integration Team of specialists and the technology director that meet at least once a month.  I will be using them and my blog to share ideas and get ideas for greater effectiveness as the project continues.  Using a presentation and an inquiry brochure, I will share my final inquiry with faculty at a faculty meeting and at my sumative conference with my principal.

     In my inquiry brochure I will include my purpose for the research, the design of the inquiry including the research done (observations, feedback emails and surveys from teachers, student surveys and EOC scores), the data collected (feedback and surveys from teachers and students, data from EOC reports), and my concluding thoughts. What I hope to see is that the teachers and students buy in to the idea of using their own technology to boost learning power. If this is the case, the research will serve as a means to justify the time, effort, and money put in to implement wireless internet and BYOD as well as hopefully motivate those teachers who have not used the technology to their benefit. If my research does not show that BYOD has played a part in gains in EOC scores and learner attitudes, then I will need to look at what we did and work on ways to change the way our teachers approach instruction in order to have effective use of the technology.

Use this workspace for writing about how you plan to share your Action Research Project Results. 

After completing research for the first year of the implementation of Bring-Your-Own-Device, I plan to share my findings using an inquiry brochure and presentation at a faculty meeting at the end of school. My brochure will include the background information pertinent to the project, the process I used to implement the research, what I learned, and concluding thoughts including where we go from here. I will create the brochure using Microsoft Publisher and create a Prezi to share the important points of my research.

Use this workspace to explain the importance of these four critical tasks.

           Sharing all of the critical tasks adds validity to your research and allows others to critically analyze your research so that they can use it or decide how much of the research might be similar to what they are trying to do and how they might go about it. Providing background information brings a personal touch and adds some emotion or passion to the research. Sharing the design allows others to not reinvent the wheel but use what you might have done and tweak it to fit their needs. Data is what drives research. It is very important not only to have personal data from participants, but also numerical data to back up your findings and use comparatively. Providing concluding thoughts allows you to go back and reflect on the process so others can see what you got out of it and either use it or offer their input.