Fox Teaches Tech

http://foxteachestech.blogspot.com

Julie Loland
November 29, 2010

Julie Loland Field Study, Fall 2010, Page 1

 Fox Teaches Tech

Inquiry question
How can I contribute to the effectiveness of my professional learning community
by helping others effectively use existing and emerging digital tools and
resources to improve student learning?

Implementing the Plan

I created a website to share with my colleagues, full of ideas for interesting and
practical ways to implement technology tools and websites into classrooms at
Terry Fox Elementary. I tried to find tools and websites that fit in perfectly with
the teachers goals for integrating technology, by surveying and discussing their
ideas with them. I also tried to make use of a variety of presentation techniques
(descriptions, pictures, videos, links to other sites, etc.) to bring websites and
activities to life for teachers in an easy, non-threatening and interesting way.

I developed the site and published a number of posts in time for the beginning of
the year staff meeting. I wanted to give the teachers a new tool to begin using at

Julie Loland Field Study, Fall 2010, Page 2

a time when most were open and had the energy to try new things. I presented
the site by sharing a Xtranormal video I created to introduce my goals. I also
asked the staff at the meeting to complete a survey I created in Google Forms. I
continued developing the site by creating a new post each week. Currently there
are 24 posts on the site.

Reading and Responding to Literature

The educational research influenced and informed my Field Study by helped me
develop my PLN.  I found tips and tricks for sorting through and organizing the
information, feeds, tweets, nings, blogs, and forums that I discovered.  I also
found the research beneficial in encouraging me to pursue this Field Study as a
solid, research based way toward helping colleagues improve practice.

 Ferren, A., & Geller, W. (1983). Classroom consultants: Colleagues helping

colleagues. Improving College and University Teaching, 31(2), 82.

This article was a case study completed with a voluntary group of faculty at the
University of Maine at Farmington (UMF), who formed two-person teams and
after training, became each others consultants. The college had "limited formal
opportunities to share ideas, discuss concerns, pursue new areas of research, or
receive stimulation from colleagues" and this was the reason for the study (p.
82). This purpose is what interested me most and encouraged me to further read
the results of the study, as I felt Terry Fox Elementary had a similar story.
Essentially, the teachers at both schools share a common goal, the desire to be a
more effective teacher.

In the case study, colleagues as consultants had very positive results at UFM
including developing a faculty that was more aware of and concerned about their
teaching, creating an environment where colleagues talked and helped each
other, and improving teachers attitudes toward teaching, which they believe, lead
to better teaching. I was inspired by this and wanted to see the same thing
happen at Terry Fox Elementary.

Warlick, D. (2009). Grow your personal learning network: New technologies can
keep you connected and help you manage information overload. Learning &
Leading with Technology, 36(6), 12.

This article helped me expand my PLN, while at the same time keeping it
manageable. Warlick provides his readers with an overview of what a PLN is and
how technology has enabled us to move from PLNs of personally maintained

Julie Loland Field Study, Fall 2010, Page 3

synchronous connections to include dynamically maintained asynchronous
connections. He also suggests ways educators can create, cultivate and prune
PLNs with 10 tips for his readers that include a list of PLN tools (Twitter, Skype,
Google Reader, Diigo, Delicious, Ning, etc.), suggestions for organizing the
information subscribed to, and advice about limiting the time invested to grow a
PLN.

I found the tips and tools presented in this article incredibly helpful as I was
looking to expand my PLN in my search for new ideas and sites to share with my
colleagues. I particularly appreciate the suggestion he made to use Google Blog
Search to subscribe to topic specific information. This proved very helpful as I
gathered information on specific topics.

Luehmann, A. (2008). Using blogging in support of teacher professional identity

development: A case study. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 17(1),
287-337.

This article was a case study of a middle school teacher using blogging to support
her professional identity development. I appreciated the review of the literature
the study began with and found the benefits of blogging presented in the article to
be encouraging as I began posting my thoughts, ideas and knowledge on the Fox
Teaches Tech site and in my LTT blog. The benefits that I particularly connected
with were the opportunity blogs provided for reflection (p. 289), the opportunity
to further ones thinking because of the interaction with an audience (p. 332),
and that blogs allow for identity brokering by allowing and encouraging bloggers
to connect their own work and thoughts to others (p .333). Essentially, blogging
provided the teacher in the case study with a valuable opportunity to wrestle
with important issues central to her practice.

Analyzing the Data

The data I've collected has come in the form of the sites statistics of page views;
pre and post surveys of colleagues sharing their experiences; reviewing the
comments posted, emails received, and discussions I've been involved in with
colleagues; and my personal reflections.

Julie Loland Field Study, Fall 2010, Page 4

Statistics of page views on the site
I was disappointed with the response I received to the site. I know, that teaching
is a very busy job, but I thought that my colleagues would be more excited about
the site and check it out
on a more regular
bases. The stats were
disappointing to me
and proved to be
somewhat
discouraging. I
considered sending out
an email every time I
posted something new,
and in hindsight I think
that I should have, but I
also didn't want to be
pushy, if the interest
wasn't there.

Surveys (pre and post)

The Google Forms survey I created was an exciting way to collect data. This was
the first time that I had used Google Forms and it proved to be a simple, but
professional way to collect the information I was looking for both for me and
those I surveyed. I was hoping that the surveys would show evidence of
increased or improved technology usage by my colleagues to help improve
student learning. Unfortunately, this was not the case. I didn't notice any
increased usage, in fact statistically usage went down slightly over the course of
the term.

Pre-survey results: Post-survey results:

Julie Loland Field Study, Fall 2010, Page 5

I was encouraged by some of the post-survey responses to questions regarding
users opinions of the site and information presented. For example, 86% of users
completing the survey, claimed to have learned at least one or two new things
from the site this term.

And, 64% of those surveyed have tried at least one or two of the ideas presented
with their students.

Comments and reflection

The comments received both on the site and through email were encouraging and
exiting to see. I had hoped there would me more interaction through
commenting, but was pleased to have some. I had only one commenter on the site
actually share an idea that they had tried in their own classroom with others. It
was an exiting comment to read, but I had hoped for more commenting like this
and was slightly discouraged by this.

Julie Loland Field Study, Fall 2010, Page 6

In response to the Voice Memos post, Anonymous said...

I was given a lot of encouragement through comments, both on the site and
through email, but my goal was to get people thinking and "chatting" about
technology. While I was disappointed with this aspect of my Field Study, though
my reflections I realized that this was an area that I needed to work on too.

Exert from a personal reflection, on October 21:

"I want to encourage people to start commenting and interacting with others in a different
way, begin to feel comfortable posting their thoughts online and help them develop their
PLN.  But other than asking, I am not sure how to encourage commenting.  The reality is, I
rarely comment on the posts I read, so why would I expect others to comment on my posts.
 Wow... maybe that is what I am supposed to learn through all of this...the words, "practice
what you preach" are currently reverberating around in my head..."

Reflecting on the Discoveries

My Field Study focused on the professional development of myself and my
colleagues. I have learned a lot of really amazing things over the past year, as the
requirements of my graduate studies have demanded I dive in to the digital
world, hook, line and sinker. This in and of itself is sensational, but even more
outstanding is that through this process, my view of technology has shifted. I
used to see technology as a laborious subject area or discipline. I remember a
time when viewing the words "Computers" on my agenda evoked feelings of
inconvenience as I wondered what I would do with my students that day - teach
them a program, a computer skill or just let them work on Success Maker or
Accelerated Reader as most of my colleagues did (and still do, btw). Now,
however my computer block is a precious commodity that supports my classroom
learning. For me, technology has become a way to share information with
students; a way to enable students to represent their learning and share it; a way
to connect, interact and build relationships with classmates, and others; and a
way to research and generate new knowledge.

Julie Loland Field Study, Fall 2010, Page 7

I love the place I'm at with technology - don't get me wrong, there is and always
will be a lot more to learn, but I now feel equipped to find the answers to any
future inquiries virtually or by tapping into the various expertise my LTT PLN
offers. And now, feeling connected and supported, I wanted, through my Field
Study, to connect and support others and help them to develop their own level of
confidence with technology. My goal, this term was really to develop a PLN of
sorts with the staff at my school. In addition, I believed my Field Study would
help me develop my capacity to participate in and help develop learning
communities to support my teaching practice (Capacity 1), and access, evaluate,
use and participate in mew media interactions in education (Capacity 5).

In reflecting on my inquiry , I believe that I only began to scratch the surface of

my goal. I had visions of myself presenting ideas to the staff through the site and
the staff engaging in them, using them with their students, and being so excited
about them and the possibilities they presented, that they would come back to
the site and share their successes through commenting on posts. In hindsight,
this is a lot to ask and especially in the short term (the site has only been online
since September).

I am exited that new learning did happened, that ideas were tried, and that some
commenting did take place. I think the learning that I am most impacted by
however, is the development of my own PLN in my attempt to seek out valuable
information to share with others. In following the advice presented by Warlick in
his article "Grow your PLN...", I have further expanded my own PLN through
Twitter, RSS feeds, nings, forums, and connecting with my LTT class. I also have
a new understanding of the importance of getting involved with posts and ideas
online though commenting and sharing responses to ideas presented. I was so
encouraged and inspired by comments readers made in response to my posts and
I want others bloggers to be encouraged by my comments too. A simple comment
helps bloggers know that their efforts matter and it helps me as a reader engage
deeper in the content presented, as well.

Ultimately, my inquiry helped me develop my leadership skills as I encouraged

and helped others develop their technology skill sets. I received emails
throughout this term, requesting help or additional information about a variety
of technology related topics. I believe the sharing of this site helped others feel
comfortable asking me for assistance on technology related topics and while I
didn't always have all of the information that my colleagues were looking for, I
always made efforts to encourage them and help find more information for them.

Julie Loland Field Study, Fall 2010, Page 8