Cycle One: Listening to Teacher Technology Needs
The purpose of this first cycle was to gather evidence to determine the current attitudes, skill level and confidence of teachers concerning their use of technology in and out of the classroom. From this information, a starting point was determined for each participant in their personalized professional development, a plan for future topics, and a schedule and structure for our meetings was developed.
Research Question:
How can I personalize instructional technology professional development to support teachers in their creation and attainment of technology integration goals?
Cycle One Question:
How will understanding the technology competencies and interests of teachers help me develop a personalized technology professional development approach that better serves their needs?
Action Taken:
To effectively work with teachers in a one-to-one configuration, it was necessary for me to recruit a small sample of teachers from the lower school to work with me on this project.
To recruit participants, I sent out the above email to eight members of our lower school staff. This group consisted of a Spanish teacher, a kindergarten teacher and her associate, a first grade associate teacher, a second grade teacher, a third grade teacher, a fourth grade teacher and a fifth grade teacher. My goal was to generate a group of three to four teachers, from different grade levels or specialties, and with varying comfort levels with technology. Of these eight individuals, three responded to my request to meet and all three agreed to participate. I met with each teacher individually to discuss my action research and to see if they would be willing to participate. The group was finalized before we left for the holiday break in December, and work began when we returned to school in January. I would be working with DH, a lead kindergarten teacher, AP, an associate teacher to two first grade classes, and DG, a lead second grade teacher.
To gain knowledge of how these three teachers currently use technology in the classroom, as well as to find out the needs and interests of these staff members, I conducted a needs assessment distributed as a Google form. This was a crucial component of the first cycle since in the past teacher input has not been solicited in the determination or creation of professional development opportunities at the school. The results can be found here.
Once the survey was completed, I looked at a few specific areas: how these teachers assessed their own skill level with technology, what devices they currently used, their attitudes toward technology use in education, and what they saw as their immediate technology needs. The survey was followed by an interview which focused on the areas of technology, both in and out of the classroom, that each teacher would be interested in learning.
Evidence Collected:
I collected the following evidence during this cycle: a needs assessment with follow-up interview, email correspondence, and a reflection journal (blog). The survey and interview were conducted to help determine how these teachers perceived technology and its use, devices or tools of interest to each participant, and the preferred format for the deli. Journal reflections were posted to my action research blog noting my assumptions before administering the survey and meeting with teachers individually.
Analysis:
In the initial assessment, two participants defined their skill with technology to be "basic" while the third participant chose "below basic" as her response. This was in keeping with my assumptions of the perceived skill level of these teachers. All teachers in our school are issued a school laptop, and each of these teachers also have at least one iPad, access to an Apple TV and other devices in their classroom. The survey showed that one teacher is incorporating all of these devices, while the other two participants use the teacher laptop and iPad in their current curriculum. My participants in this action research project are lead teachers in kindergarten and second grade, and an associate teacher who works with two first grade classrooms.
Skill with Technology
Devices
In the survey portion pertaining to teacher attitudes toward technology use in education, and in my interviews, two participants indicated the belief that "technology has left many teachers behind", and that "schools expect us to learn new technologies without formal training." Two teachers expressed comfort with utilizing technology to find resources to create lessons, but they felt unprepared to integrate technology into their classroom instruction. This was of greatest concern when asked about creating lessons that required student use of technology.
Attitudes Toward Technology Use in Education
Included in the survey, was an open-ended question that inquired, "When you hear the word technology, what comes to mind?" My intention behind this question was to determine what their understanding of technology was from a device perspective. The question was misunderstood, and the responses I received were different than I expected.. DH answered with the words "incompetent, frustrating, and lacks emotion." The response from DG was "so much to learn and not enough time." A more positive response came from AP who stated "new ways to use technology in the classroom when we have enough computers or iPads in each room."
In the portion of the survey focused on perceived skill in the use of certain web-based tools, the first six (Edublogs, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, internet for personal research and internet for developing lesson plans/ideas) are tools that teachers in our school are expected to use and use often. The remaining selections were tools that teachers have inquired about in the past and ones I believed would be helpful to these teachers in the future. Of the three teachers participating, all felt proficient with the use of Gmail, internet for personal research, and internet for developing lesson plans/ideas. None of these teachers indicated that they felt proficient with the use of blogging, specifically the Edublogs platform that our school began using in October of last year.
Web-Based Tools
A section of the survey targeted the technology needs of these teachers. All three participants indicated "more time to use software" and "more training in the use of technology" as immediate needs. No one selected "more support from administration when it comes to my technology needs," "access to more student computers/devices," or "more equipment to integrate technology in my classroom" as needs that would benefit them most if available immediately.
Technology Needs
Reflections:
The Actions:
Opportunities for technology training have been limited for the teachers in the lower school. Last year, the school paid for a series of ten webinars which focused on the benefit of integrating technology into their teaching practice, but did not give any explicit instruction on potential tools and their use in the classroom. The format of this , in webinar form, further alienated teachers who already felt uncertain about their skill with technology. Many teachers were unable to find a way to connect with the material because of how it was being delivered, and many did not complete the ten webinar series. Teachers, with whom I spoke, needed a more personalized approach to technology instruction that allowed for a more hands-on, guided instruction in the use of technology tools. At the same time, I was attempting to hold weekly workshops on technology tools that were of interest to teachers. With the pressure from administration to participate in the webinars, teachers felt overwhelmed and most were not open to spending more time on technology. This disconnect between what training is offered and what is needed by teachers has contributed to the limited use of technology resources in many lower school classrooms. It was this disconnect that led to my focus on personalizing technology professional development for teachers.
There were a number of surprises that I encountered when collecting and analyzing the evidence for the first cycle. My assumptions, while correct on some points, were quite wrong on others. My first surprise was the number of teachers who responded to my initial email. After sending the correspondence to eight teachers, only three responded. At the time, I was relieved, since I had wanted a group of three or four, and this meant I did not have to turn anyone away who had expressed interest. Looking back, it would have been beneficial to determine why these other teachers did not respond to the invitation. Learning why they did not offer to meet would be helpful in creating a more comprehensive picture of the school environment and overall teacher attitudes toward technology and professional development opportunities.
The responses to another question came as a surprise simply because I had not intended the question to be interpreted in the way it was. On the survey, I asked the question, "When you hear the word technology, what comes to mind?" I had meant the question to elicit a list of devices that these teachers consider when the word technology is used. Instead, their answers, in just a few words, effectively summarized their attitudes toward technology and their perceived skills and confidence with devices. Their responses, though not what I had anticipated for that question, were in line with my assumptions regarding each individual's attitudes toward technology and their general comfort level with it. As I began analyzing and reflecting on these responses, I realized I should have placed more emphasis on determining the attitudes of these teachers toward technology. What I hope to accomplish with this project is a change in their perceptions toward technology and their overall confidence in its use. Having a more thorough assessment of these elements at the beginning would have been beneficial to my ability to determine any change in these areas over the course of the cycles.
Before administering the survey, I would have assumed that the teachers would see the lack of student devices as an immediate need, but I was incorrect. None of these teachers indicated that "access to more student computers/devices" or "more equipment to integrate technology in my classroom" was technology needs that would be of immediate benefit. As I reflected on these results, I came to a realization. If you don't feel confident using and integrating technology into your instruction, having more technology is not a benefit. Having those devices, but not knowing how to utilize them effectively would actually compound the issues of their lack of confidence and perceived skill with technology. Add to that the perceived pressure from administration and parents to use these devices, and I can see where this would not be a position in which these teachers could see any positive outcomes. In the past, when I spoke with teachers about technology in the lower school, I often mentioned how I am working to get more devices into their classrooms; something I see as a benefit. Maybe this assertion has had the opposite impact on teachers who might see more devices as a negative since they are unsure of how to use them with students.
The survey and interview were designed to demonstrate how each participant measured their own skill and confidence in the use of different technologies. They also were constructed to help determine a model for instruction with which each teacher would be comfortable and to develop a schedule for meetings that worked best with each individual. Based on this information, an appropriate place was determined to begin working with each teacher. Our current use of the Edublogs platform as both a classroom site for the posting of newsletters and information, and as the basis for student-centered blogs and digital portfolios, was an area of concern for all three participants. This was indicated by each participant on their survey and was mentioned by each during the interview. Some training on the use of Edublogs was conducted last year as a one and done training opportunity, but these teachers did not feel it had been sufficient, and they were not currently using their classroom blogs with regularity. Since this was an area of concern for all participants, we decided to begin our work together focusing on the use of the Edublogs platform and the process of posting newsletters and images.
The Researcher:
Looking back over the actions of this first cycle, I have come to realize that I began this process still unsure of the action research process and how my work fit into this method. In my mind, action research was synonymous with scientific research which requires concrete data and a clear scientific process consisting of set steps and anticipated results. Data in scientific research is objective, while I quickly came to realize, my evidence would often be subjective. There is no clear way to measure attitudes, and certainly no set formula to calculate someone's confidence. This ambiguity was very troubling to me. In my mind, I was trying to prove something to be true or false, but this is not the desired outcome in this process. As I created the survey and interview to better understand the technology needs and interests of these teachers, I expected these tools would also give me a measurable baseline for their skills and confidence. It did not take long to realize this would not be the case. These instruments allowed me a glimpse into these aspects of their view of technology and its use, but it was not a measurable outcome that I could easily track to conclusively validate my findings. My evidence would need to be subjective, and my analysis and reflections on this material would be the critical findings.
At the beginning of this cycle, my intention was to create a structured technology professional development plan for each of my participants to follow. In addition to face-to-face meetings, I had also envisioned creating a website that housed technology tutorials and resources for them to access independently. While I expected this would be an opportunity to create an element of blended learning in a professional development context, I quickly came to realize this would not be beneficial to my participants. As I reflected on these plans, I came to a realization that, despite priding myself in my ability to empathize with the struggles and concerns of classroom teachers, I do not always use these insights to inform my actions. My ideas and motivation to innovate classroom instruction and teacher professional development clouded my judgment, and I forgot to focus on my learner when determining a course of action. I've come to the realization that keeping the learner in mind, focusing on meeting their needs, and working at their pace is a formula to insure that they build confidence as well as skills.
Going Forward:
For my second cycle, I had originally planned to follow a written plan that I developed from the teacher survey and interview. From my conversations with these teachers, and their responses on the survey, I came to understand that a less formal structure for a professional development plan would be a more effective approach. This would also allow for flexibility of topics depending upon the immediate needs of the teachers. By involving them in the decisions of what topics to cover and how long to work on a given topic, I hope to empower and engage them in this process.
I have created a weekly schedule to work one-on-one with each teacher for at least thirty minutes each week. Our first focus will be on the use of the Edublogs platform for parent communication and digital student portfolios. The instruction will be targeted to the specific questions, needs and interests of each of my three participating teachers. Once they feel comfortable using this platform, we will target tools and devices of their choosing.