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 a time

Julie Loland Field Study, Fall 2010, Page 2

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 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.),

Julie Loland Field Study, Fall 2010, Page 3

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.

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,

Julie Loland Field Study, Fall 2010, Page 4

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:

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.

Julie Loland Field Study, Fall 2010, Page 5

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.

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

Julie Loland Field Study, Fall 2010, Page 6

 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.

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

Julie Loland Field Study, Fall 2010, Page 7

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