I'm back from my first conference,"writing across the curriculum." It was interesting to notice how many of the presenters were technology adept and how many were not, but aside from that it was a meaningful experience. After attending this writing conference (as an artist/educator and technology user) and reading Dr Chris Bigenho's writings about his "journey" I was inspired and thought that I would also reflect on where I have been these past few years and through the process of writing, I hope to discover new things about the fields of educational technology and where I (as a computer artist/educator) am going.
First of all, I noticed that because I have been educated in the fine arts, I have not developed the knowledge of how to research and present my results in writing. As a visual artist, one researches but the outcomes are always in visual form. Academic artists usually write an artist's statement about the art (product) and also give gallery talks or even write about their work on a web site or Blog. The process is similar in that we show the end results of a project and write about the product for others to read.
There is one similarity that I noticed: both the artist and the academic researcher have been inspired to create something based on a "problem" or should I say, a challenge.
This is why I was fascinated when I read about "Action Research" on Dr Bigenho's portfolio site. Yes, I admit that I had to look up what this was exactly. When I did the lights came on and I realized that I have been doing this in my head since I began to teach. I do it in my head when teacher evaluations are published and when we have to post data on Trac Dat for SACS. I do it in my head when I receive a batch of papers or projects that are not what I wanted or at least what I thought I wanted.
So with this new spark of inspiration from learning about "Action Research" I can now try and formally figure out why some things work and others do not. I'm also looking forward to reading the text when I get back to Missouri on Monday evening so I can learn more terms for what I have been doing in my head for years. It's like the person who does math in their head but must learn how to show their work.
Great post Pam! I was introduced to action research by Dr. Margaret Riel from Pepperdine as I was going through my MA program. Don't worry, I had to look it up the first time as well. The great thing about action research, as you pointed out, it is something that we are already doing in some way. This is the process of formalizing the work and doing it in a systematic way that we we improve in our craft in a calculated fashion. There are some great books out there to get you started with the AR process but this site is free and was developed by Dr. Riel who is one of the chairs of the Action Research SIG at AERA. http://cadres.pepperdine.edu/ccar/.
ReplyDeleteAs for books, check out http://www.amazon.com/You-Your-Action-Research-Project/dp/0415487080
and
http://books.google.com/books/about/Doing_Action_Research_In_Your_Own_Organi.html?id=CvcQBj0U86wC
I love the connection you made to your art and the analogy to a person doing math in their head who must now show their work is fantastic. There was a study on this very topic when some researchers observed children doing complex mathematics in their head on the streets in Brazil. They brought them inside, sat them at desks and gave them a paper with the same problems and they did very poorly. This has a lot of implications for what we do in the classroom each day as well as what we do as designers.
Thank you for these great resources! If you run across the Brazilian study I'd love to see it. I'm in the Math dept and it would be great to share it with my colleagues. I also ran across several videos on Action Research.
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ReplyDeleteThank you, Pam, for researching Chris' work and through that, introducing me to the concept of Action Research.
ReplyDeleteI've read and used many of the same literature references Chris uses in his Review of Literature.
(http://www.dlp4success.com/portfolios/chris/ARP/chapter%202.htm)
The concept of Digital Natives and the need to move away from passive teaching with lectures and tests towards interactive project/problem based learning forms the basis of several of my papers on flipping the classroom or inverted teaching.
Chris asks,"How will the development of a formal professional development program addressing specific technology needs of employees of the school affect change in the use of technology in classrooms, offices, and the exchange of dialogue related to pedagogy or technology integration?"
This is the challenge that drives me. As you said, "both the artist and the academic researcher have been inspired to create something based on a "problem" or should I say, a challenge. "