JeanMedastin



Current Research in Educational Technology: Final Draft Student: Jean J Medastin - jean.medastin@waldenu.edu Student ID#: A00189040 Program: PhD in Education Specialization: Educational Technology Professor: Dr. Timothy Green – timothy.green@waldenu.edu Walden University August 12/2012


 * Module 2 **


 * The five topics that will inform my research **


 * 1) Collaborative learning and distance learning**

I am interested in to know how group dynamics work in distance learning. Collaborative learning has always been part of my teaching because as an information technology instructor, I believe in problem-based learning where problems are solved collaboratively. The questions I would like to address are:

a) Do distance learning instructors how to intervene in a group if the process is not going well?

b) How will they need to shift or change their teaching style to enable collaboration to happen?

c) How do they recognize the “teachable moments” as Hurst & Thomas (2008) call them?

d) How comfortable do they feel letting go of control and allowing learners to take charge of the process?

e) How would they maintain a sense of community in an online environment because, as Palloff & Pratt (2007) argue, the physical presence or absence of a group member is not as noticeable in an online environment as it is in a face-to-face environment?


 * 2) Synchronous versus asynchronous communication in education**

This is another area where the literature can be very useful to my research. I am interested in finding out the factors that affect students’ preferences regarding tutorials mode. One advantage of learning technologies, as Maroom, Saporta, & Caspi (2005) argue, is to allow for the individualization of learning. Some are comfortable with synchronous interactions that they may perceive as presence. Others may prefer asynchronous communication. The fundamental question is how does learning style relate to technology-based delivery methods?


 * 3) Interactivity in online environments**

This area stimulates my interests in understanding how “electronic personality” as Palloff & Pratt (2007) define it will help facilitate interaction in online environments for students who are otherwise too introvert to communicate efficiently in face-to-face settings. The inverse is equally true for extrovert learners who may be turned off by electronic communication.


 * 4) Innovative teaching in college education for equal access**

Education and technology have become almost inseparable with all the creative ways students and educators alike have been able to use technology to their advantage. New terminologies emerge everyday as technologies are being used as learning tools. For example, the term C-Learning is used in connection with cell phone integration with learning (Wang, Chen, & Fang, 2011). I will explore the literature for clues on how affordable innovative tools can help provide access to education for the less fortunate of the world.


 * 5) Relationship between educational resources and school achievement**

In their study about the relationship between technological readiness and perceived learning, Wang, Chen, & Fang (2011) report the results of integrating cell phones into a Chinese high school English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. According to these results, because of their familiarity with cell phone technologies, the students in the study found C-learning interesting and effective for learning English. My question is what do we do when technological resources are scarce? Or does it matter whether students have access to technological resources or not in order to succeed? I will explore a question asked by Jimenez-Castellanos (2010): What role does resource variation play in academic achievement among students?


 * Research Interest **

My research interest is in the cost-effective use of educational technology to provide access to quality education for those who cannot afford to attend good schools or live in a country where there are no good schools.


 * Theoretical Foundations **

Establishing a correlation between equitable access to technology and achievement in higher education will help educators and school administrators to single out the missing component in their education system. It will also help philanthropic organizations to better understand the educational needs of a population that they may be inclined to help. The areas of research mentioned above will contribute to the formulation of my final research questions regarding technological access and education. According to Spector, Merrill, Merrienboer, & Driscoll (2008), communications theory is a fundamental consideration in learning. Instructional design and development, the authors argue, are human activities having the general purpose of facilitating and supporting human learning and performance. Does information technology facilitate the design of instruction for a larger audience?

References:

Beyth-Marom, R., Saporta, K., & Caspi, A. (2005). Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Tutorials: Factors Affecting Students' Preferences and choices. //Journal of Research on Technology in Education//, //37// (3), 245-262.

Hurst, D., & Thomas, J. (2008). Developing team skills and accomplishing team projects online. In T. Anderson (Ed.), The theory and practice of online learning. (2nd ed). (pp. 441-472). Edmonton, AB: AU Press.

Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online learning communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Oscar Jimenez-Castellanos (2010) Relationship between Educational Resources and School Achievement: A Mixed Method Intra-District Analysis. //Urban Rev 4//(2), 351–371. doi: 10.1007/s11256-010-0166-6

Spector, J. M., Merrill, M. D., Merrienboer, J. V., & Driscoll, M. P. (Eds.). (2008). //Handbook of research on educational communications and technology// (3rd ed.). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Wang, F., Chen, X., & Fang, W. (2011). Integrating cell phones into a Chinese high school EFL classroom: Students' attitudes, technological readiness, and perceived learning.

//Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange//, //4//(1), 91-102.
 * Module 3 **


 * Gap in the Research**

The gap that I have found in the literate reviewed so far is that the power of video-conferencing technologies such as Skype in making education accessible almost to its fullest to the students of countries that are at the lower end of the technological gap was not addressed**.**


 * Research Questions**

1) How can educational technology help bridge the gap between those who have access to quality education and those who don’t?

2) How can technologies like Skype classroom help in educating the less fortunate of the world?

3) How will the idea of using technology to provide access to education for the poor motivate students to stay in school?

This mixed methods study will provide a way to understand the phenomenon of fear among the Haitian High School students with regard to higher education and explore the possibility of using educational technology, particularly video-conferencing technology, to help bridge the educational gap between the advanced countries like the US and the underprivileged countries like Haiti thereby giving hope to those who may be overcome by fear. Imagine the fear of these students who are in their senior year of high school but have no idea what lies ahead for them! No hope for a college education, no hope for the future, no dreams of becoming an expert in anything even when they feel gifted to achieve higher goals. The information gathered through observation and interviews will shed light on the real needs of those who cannot help but to fear the worst.
 * Problem Statement**

Understanding that in this global village facilitated by advanced internet technologies such as video-conferencing the starting point for learning, as argued by Kop and Hill (2008), occurs when knowledge is actuated through the process of a learner connecting to and feeding information into a learning community where ideas are constantly being exchanged, I have opted for connectivism as the learning theory upon which to base my study.
 * Theory**

References:

Chi-Kwan Lee, A. (2002). IT Trends in Four Years of Incoming Students at the University of Hong Kong. //Educause Quarterly, 46//(4), 31-32.

Kop, R., & Hill, A. (2008). Connectivism: Learning theory of the future or vestige of the past?. //International Review Of Research In Open & Distance Learning//, //9//(3), 1-13.

**Module 4 **

 * Methodology **
 * **Research Methodology ** |||| **Strengths ** |||| **Limitations ** || **Authoritative Primary Source for This Methodology ** |||| **Why I Will or Will Not Use This Method ** ||
 * Phenomenological |||| This methodology allows researchers to obtain an in-depth understanding of individual phenomena; it provides rich data from the experiences of individuals |||| The data tend to be subjective due to its nature which poses threat to validity and reliability; it is also limited in generasability; researchers' biases may go undetected || Moustakas and Sokolowski’s writings. |||| This method will allow me to obtain the substantial data that I need for my research. I will use it in combination with a survey methodology to compensate for its limitations in a mixed methods approach. ||
 * Ethnography |||| Handles complex groups with ease and provides context behaviors; Very descriptive and relatively easy to repeat or follow up on results |||| Prone to researcher's bias and inaccurate content from subjects on a short term basis || Walford for education |||| I will not use this methodology because my study is not about understanding a culture. It’s about a social issue for which change is needed ||
 * Survey |||| The survey methodology is relatively inexpensive; it is useful in describing the characteristics of a large population; can be administered via mail, email or telephone; can accommodate large samples |||| Difficult to make generalization; Not very flexible and hard to adjust; largely depends on high volume response; close ended question that may lead to short and inaccurate answers. || Paul Lazarsfeld |||| **I ** will use this methodology because it will provide answers to the questions raised and the issues observed in my study. It will help assess the Haitian population needs, and to make comparisons of the phenomenon under study over time ||
 * **Research Questions ** |||| **Methodology ** |||| **Sample **
 * **Research Questions ** |||| **Methodology ** |||| **Sample **

. |||||| **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Data Collection ** || **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Statistical Analysis ** || How can educational technology help bridge the gap between those who have access to quality education and those who don't? |||| Phenomenology ||||  ||||||   ||   || How can technologies like Skype classroom help provide technical training and/or college education to the less fortunate in the world? |||| <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Survey ||||  ||||||   ||   || How will the idea of using technology to provide access to higher education for the poor motivate students to stay in school? and/or college education to the less fortunate in the world? |||| <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Phenomenology ||||  ||||||   ||   ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">1. **
 * ^  ||||^   |||| <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">About 800 students and local education leaders through focus groups and individual interviews |||||| <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Focus groups of participants and one to one interviews with community leaders ||   ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">2. **
 * ^  ||||^   |||| <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">About 2000 onsite and online surveys |||||| <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Letters will be sent to parents of about 2000 high school students requesting their permission to administer on-campus surveys with school administrators’ approval ||   ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">3. **
 * ^  ||||^   |||| <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">About 800 focus group participants incidents students, parents, and school teachers |||||| <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Focus groups of participants and one to one interviews with students ||   ||

**<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif';">Module 5 **
There have been many false predictions made about computers and technology by individuals rightly considered experts in their fields. For example, in 1989, Bill Gates//announced: “////We will never make a 32-bit operating system”////.// //However, his 32 bit Windows NT operating system hit the market only 4 years after his prediction. It’s tempting to proclaim the saturation of a topic when with the naked eye it is hard to conceive any improvement in a body of knowledge from which one seems to be able to glean all sorts of knowledge. Technology and education are not exempt from this phenomenon. Often, the very people who declare that a topic been sufficiently researched are the ones who later refute their own arguments.// How then does one determine if a topic is saturated and most likely does not need more research? That is a very daunting task indeed because it requires extensive research to actually find out all the research that has been done on a particular topic. The ultimate goal, however, is to find a gap in the literature. Dr. Abbie Brown suggested in the video, it is wiser to qualify a topic as being rich in research than saturated. Sometimes a researcher asks a question that seems to have already been addressed by a fellow scholar but if the question is refined enough a gap may start to emerge in the literature and the question becomes worth researching. Also, sometimes research in other discipline may create opportunities for research in another. For example, technology advancements have generated questions in education regarding pedagogy and knowledge delivery methods. The literature is the best source of confidence for researchers when it comes to determining whether a study is worth conducting because if a gap found in the literature is not the basis for conducting a study then it is a complete waste of time. There is no need to replicate a study that has been published and peer-reviewed. As agents of change, research should always aim at effecting change when designing a study. For example, when I considered video-conferencing as an area of interest, it was not to write more of what has already been written but to investigate the possibility of using video-conferencing in a way that would benefit the education field.
 * After the Data Is Collected: What Then? **
 * How do you know if your own question(s) should be refined before it is worth researching?
 * How do you gain the confidence of knowing that your study has value and is worth conducting?
 * How do you determine the potential for research in an area of interest?

A plethora of studies have been done on education, distance learning, and video-conferencing for collaborative learning but no one has considered this technology for direct learning between the experts and the poor. My study is an attempt to draw attention to the affordability and effectiveness of using video-conferencing technologies like Skype to allow natives of underdeveloped countries who live overseas to help educate their fellow men and women in a very tangible way (almost like face-to-face) without leaving the comfort of their home or office. I believe my study will bring down the wall between highly sophisticated educational systems and low-budget educational systems that limit students to a mere high school diploma. The eyes of governments will open on the possibilities of investing in low-cost technologies to educate their citizens. In a little town of nearly 67000 inhabitants who have just been victimized by a terrible earthquake that ravaged their already fragile country and took away the little that they had, there is a dream, a dream of a better tomorrow, a dream of rising above the circumstances and achieve the unthinkable: making a college education accessible and affordable to the injured but not hopeless community. The owner-principal of a small k-12 school of 400 students along with his wife have contemplated the possibility of expanding their school to include a technical college so that they can better equip their graduates for the workforce. They have decided to reach out to their college graduates compatriots and alumni who live and work overseas to help them build a future for their fellow countrymen and women through sponsorship and volunteering. As a result of a fierce campaign, many have agreed to participate in the sponsorship program while others have expressed the desire to offer their technical expertise at the skill building capacity. The latter seemed to be the ideal offer to the principal as it would satisfy the need for qualified instructors. The question is how would they do that if they cannot be physically there? Online training is not an option because none of the students can even afford a refurbished computer let alone having internet access in a country where the infrastructure is so limited that it turns every basic necessity into an unattainable luxury. This is where my study comes in.
 * Significance of the Study**
 * How will my study fill a gap in the current research?
 * How will my research advance the profession of educational technology?
 * How will my research effect positive social change through the “improvement of human or social conditions by promoting the worth, dignity, and development of individuals, communities, organizations, institutions, cultures, or societies” (Walden Dissertation Rubric, Chapter 1, criteria 9)?

Review the two video programs, “After the Data Is Collected: What Then?” and “Research Saturation in Educational Technology.” These programs provide insight into how to enhance former studies to add richness and freshness to new questions, as well as ways to disseminate research to the professional community. Building on these ideas, do the following: The three journals to which I would like to summit an article are the following:
 * Dissemination of Research**
 * 1) //Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT)// [] . I selected this journal because it one of the few scholarly journals in the field focusing entirely on research and development in educational technology. Also, most of its members work in Higher Education, which makes me feel right at home.


 * 1) //Journal of Research on Technology in Education (JRTE), a member of// [|//I//][|//nternational Society for Technology in Education//] (//ISTE)//. I chose this journal because, like the AECT, it is a well known international scholarly journal on the instructional uses of educational technology, which features blind, peer-reviewed articles that report on original research. It is a tremendous opportunity to contribute to the body of knowledge because my work is designed to foster change in education. Thus, having my research exposed for the world to see is a stellar advantage.

My two conferences of choice are: I have been presenting at a higher education conference for about seven years now. The name is HighEdWeb (Higher Education Web Development: [] ) and the purpose is to encourage innovations in Higher Education through web development. I chose this conference because it was a perfect combination for me combining higher education and web technologies. However, after having been through the PhD program, this conference will take on a different meaning as I will act and work as a steward of the Educational Technology discipline to effect change. The other conference I intend to present at is “The Georgia Educational Technology Conference” ([]). The reason is simple: I live and work in Georgia. Thus it makes to let the community know that a new steward of Educational Technology is their midst. Also, it will be a great opportunity for me to meet new people and learn about other conferences that I could present my study. =<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">References: =
 * 1) //Journal of Educational Technology & Society (JETS)//**.** **I chose this journal because it is perfectly aligned with my research interest as it is designed for** educators who seek to use technology to enhance individual learning as well as to achieve widespread education.

Hartnell-Young, E. (2009). The importance of teaching roles when introducing Personal Digital Assistants in a Year 6 classroom. //Technology, Pedagogy & Education//, //18//(1), 3-17. doi:10.1080/14759390802703982

Haughton, N. A., & Keil, V. L. (2009). Engaging with faculty to develop, implement, and pilot electronic performance assessments of student teachers using mobile devices. //Teacher// //Educator, 44//(4), 275-284. doi:10.1080/08878730903180218

Hew, K., Kale, U., & Kim, N. (2007). Past Research in Instructional Technology: Results of a Content Analysis of Empirical Studies Published in Three Prominent Instructional Technology Journals from the Year 2000 through 2004. //Journal of Educational// //Computing Research, 36//(3), 269-300.

Guo, R. X. (2010). Video Ethnography in Teacher Preparation. //International Journal of// //Learning//, //17//(7), 297-312.

Kiyici, F. (2010). The definitions and preferences of science teacher candidates concerning web 2.0 tools: a phenomenological research study. //Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology//, //9//(2), 185-195. Laureate Education, Inc. (2009) After the Data Is Collected: What Then? Baltimore, MD: Author.

Ramos, J. A. (2011). A Comparison of Perceived Stress Levels and Coping Styles of Non- traditional Graduate Students in Distance Learning versus On-campus Programs. //Contemporary Educational Technology//, //2//(4), 282-293 Teoh Sian, H., Toh Seong, C., & Ngah, N. (2010). Effect of an Interactive Courseware in the Learning of Matrices. //Journal of Educational Technology & Society//, //13//(1), 121-132.

Vuojärvi, H., Isomäki, H., & Hynes, D. (2010). Domestication of a laptop on a wireless university campus: A case study. //Australasian Journalo of Educational Technology//, //26//(2), 250-267.

Walker, A., Recker, M., Robertshaw, M., Olsen, J., Leary, H., Lei, Y., & Sellers, L. (2011). Integrating Technology and Problem-based Learning: A Mixed Methods Study of Two Teacher Professional Development Designs. //Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning//, //5//(2), 70-94.