Rachel

Thrun
Week 12: Action Research

PSA LINK TO VIDEO/PRESENTATION:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0JkAF5ct6g
Target audience: Administrators and Teachers

Problem is clearly defined:

Our students interact and live within a digital world and as educators, it is our job to foster the
21st century skills that our students need to be successful in the real world. These skills are:
critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. (National Education Association).
While technology use in the classroom can help equip our students with these skills, it’s up to
the teacher to redesign the learning space and environment, and use available technology in
meaningful, authentic ways. Currently in schools there is a divide in how technology is used in
the classroom due to lack of training or the generational difference amongst teachers. This
divide amongst digital use is separated into passive use in which technology is simply used to
consume information, and active use, where students use technology to create, design, build,
explore and collaborate. (Department of Education)

How research will help solve the problem: Why should you be asking for help with this?
A divide in digital use impacts the learning from our students. If teachers use technology for
more passive means, students don’t get to engage in the 21st century skills they need to be
successful. Research states the nature of the training that teachers receive can have a major
impact on their effective use of technology to bridge the digital divide” (Jonhston, 2015).
Research can help us figure out if more training for teachers will help lesson the digital use
divide.

Research conducted in the school districts, may show that more training on how to properly
integrate the technology available will help teacher be able to equip students with the skills they
need to be successful using available technology. Teachers need time and training so they are,
more confident, have a better understanding of the way technology can be integrated into their
curriculum, and obtain the skills to be effective.

What is the desired outcome?

With proper training, teachers will be confident in their ability to bridge the generational gap and
digital use differences so that they will be able to properly integrate technology into the learning
environments so that students use it in a more active manner while practicing 21st century skills
. With this training the digital use divide can be narrowed.
Sources:
http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2016-nmc-cosn-horizon-report-k12-EN.pdf
http://www.pewinternet.org/files/old-
media/Files/Reports/2013/PIP_TeachersandTechnologywithmethodology_PDF.pdf
https://tech.ed.gov/netp/learning/
http://wikieducator.org/images/4/4b/What_Research_Says_-_Training_Teachers.pdf
https://publish.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=wmer
http://www.nea.org/tools/52217.htm