CEde 520: Nitz--Blog 2

CEDU 520 has been both a fascinating class and process for me. I was pleased with how the planning went as we gradually built upon our IRB proposals over the weeks. The PowerPoint struck me as a particularly useful tool for creating the basic outline for our action research. I teach PowerPoint to my 8th graders, using all of the “bells and whistles” such as transitions, animation, and graphics. It was quite different, and informative, for me to do a simple research-oriented outline where the actual content, not the presentation tools, were of primary importance.

The article summaries have been most helpful in that the research we have read provided examples of how to conduct action research. The three general articles that we started with offered a broad background on technological use in education. Now that I have located my final five articles, I have narrowed my focus to business education and accounting-related pieces that help me to better understand technology-based teaching topics in my field.

I used ProQuest several years ago for my certification work, but I am most impressed with the improved ease of searching. I made great use of the search refining, reference list, and suggested topic tools. No doubt I will continue to use ProQuest for future research and reading in business education and classroom technology use.

Finally, I am very pleased with the excitement that my peers and principal have shown for my action research topic. My principal loves to see students offered more choices and my three approaches to teaching junior high introductory accounting provides well-researched options for future curriculum enhancements. My departmental peers are looking forward to reviewing my research in the areas of student achievement and engagement.

CEdu 520: Nitz--Blog 1

Now that we are several weeks into our Action Research Project, I must say that I am very pleased and comfortable with the process. By following the steps and time line, the process flows very smoothly. I am excited to implement my project and evaluate the results next semester. Actually observing and analyzing the differences in my Business Venture students will be fascinating. Between the accounting unit assessments and surveys, I am sure that the results will be enlightening and most helpful for my future teaching and my students' future learning.

The following positives about this experience come to mind:

• The incredibly supportive sharing with our Stritch peers
• Dr. Simmons' patience and timely feedback has been most helpful and even calming as we all dive in
• The support from my administrators, tech support people, and fellow teachers at Falls North Junior High has been very helpful. I am amazed at how many other teachers have done action research in their grad programs and impressed with how willing they are to offer their counsel for mine.
• Gaining understanding about the differences in experimental and descriptive research projects has helped me with our article summaries and with designing my project
• Using ProQuest has been informative. I have already thought of other units that I can improve by reading research-based online journal articles.
  

The following concerns and challenges come to mind:

• I am comfortable with my introductory accounting lesson plans. However, my steepest learning curve will involve designing reliable and valid student assessments and surveys.
  
• Understanding and interpreting the data collected plus the corresponding statistics
  
• Controlling the extraneous variables with a small sample size
  
• Our study team has worked well together and we have each added much insight to each summary. Our articles, however, have been fairly broad-based regarding technology use in education. Working on my own will be a greater challenge; however, I do look forward to learning more about instructional technology in business education and, in particular, accounting.
  
• Will my students in the control-group class feel disadvantaged if they know that my other classes are learning accounting through technology-based learning tools? Will my students even share these differences with each other?
  

General things that I have learned:

• Make sure to arrive well-rested, fed, and focused to our Oconomowoc class as the amount of material covered is comprehensive and important!
• Stay organized!! Use folders or files for our papers. On the computer, use well-named folders in which to store Word documents and bookmarks to get to pertinent class and research-oriented websites and online articles.
• Take an occasional day away from the action research project. This practice certainly allows me to come back recharged, refocused, and thinking of new ideas.