Anthony Young

EDTL 6380 Final Seminar

MCT eMagazine submission
Final Project Research Summary

I am currently a high school art instructor at Olentangy Liberty in Powell,

Ohio. I teach entry level Art 1 courses, Sculpture, and Entry level photography. My
final research project to complete my masters in classroom technology was titled:
Assessing the Impact of Digital Tools: Specifically Focusing on the Use of Audio
Podcasts and Video Tutorial. It was An Action Research Study of Students Attitudes
and Performances in an Entry Level High School Photography Course.
In the state of Ohio, as educators, we are required to show student growth
over the course of a semester or year. In order to show growth we are always
searching for creative solutions to add value in our classrooms. For my final
research project I wanted to fulfill the criteria set in front of me, but I also wanted to
create something that would be of value to my students. It was important to me
that the direction I went with this research became something I could implement
into my classroom to use in the future. I looked at the courses I teach and decided
technology wise, it made the most sense to create audio podcasts and video
tutorials for my photography course. Most weeks in photography we upload and
edit on Monday and Tuesdays. We critique every students work on Wednesdays and
Thursdays. Then on Friday, I deliver new content through power point and physical
demonstrations. We talk about and plan our concepts and students shoot over the
weekend. One problem I have ran into during my time teaching photography this
way is that students tend to be absent on Fridays, quite often!

What I created for my final project was 50+ audio podcasts and video
tutorials that students can listen to or watch and either get the instruction they
missed or refresh their memories if it didnt sink in the first time around. I created
one podcast for every element and principle of design, what type of camera to get,
how to use your camera, what makes a good photo, multiple Adobe Photoshop
tutorials, and one for every project going into detail about the settings students
should be using and what they should be thinking about for that project. My goal
was to literally recreate the course online and then some. I know students go online
and find many tutorials and informational sites on their own. I wanted one place
where they could go to that gave information that I personally created or already
previewed for them. It would solve many issues with me repeating project
assignments to students who missed class, and it would be an all in one source for
those who wanted a refresher. It also created a location I could point to if a parent
were to ever email me and say My child didnt know what to do this weekend.
Students will now know they have all of this information from Day 1, as well as the
option to contact me through our LMS, or email, anytime.
On the research end I wanted to answer these two questions: Is there a
difference in student attitudes when they have access to audio podcasts and video
tutorials compared to just receiving typical in class instruction? Is there a difference
in performance between students when they have access to audio podcasts, video
tutorials, and regular class instruction vs. students who only receive regular class
instruction? I had two photography classes in the spring of 2016. Both classes
received normal classroom instruction. I assigned one of them as the class that
would receive treatment and have access to the audio podcasts and video tutorials,
and the other class would be the control group and only receive the normal

classroom instruction. I was not surprised to see that when comparing the two
classs final exams that they both did very well averaging 93% in the treatment
class and 90% in the control group. The course is designed very well and normal
class room instruction has always seen students score strong final exam grades if
the students study. My other research question dealt with students attitudes
looking at their confidence in photography from either having access to the digital
tools or not having access. I wasnt surprised when students answered that the
digital tools gave them more confidence in photography, that coming from the
experiment group. The majority of the class said they were either Confident or Very
Confident because of the access to the digital tools. In the control group I asked
how confident they felt with normal classroom instruction and how do you think
having digital tools like audio podcasts and video tutorials would affect your
confidence? I was not surprised when 92% of the 24 students surveyed
overwhelmingly said they would feel Confident to Very Confident if they would have
had the digital tools. I was somewhat surprised that a majority still felt Confident to
Very Confident in their photography from normal classroom instruction and no
digital tools access. It was interesting seeing that the students, before even
knowing what the content of the digital tools really were, stated they felt it would
make them that much more confident. Even if it doesnt actually boost student
scores just the idea of having help is a positive to the students confidence.
Overall, the study needs to be extended to cover a larger population. I was
only able to survey the 47 students I had in class this past semester. It would be
interesting to see what the statistic show over time as I add more audio podcasts
and video tutorials to my list of what is already available. I am also one of three
teachers that teach entry level photography at my high school. I already plan on

making my digital tools available to my colleagues. It will be interesting to see how

this evolves within our department in the future. I feel like my research has added
value to my room and boosted confidence in my students from the results. That
alone made it worthwhile to me in creating all these digital files and fulfilled a goal
of mine to add value to my course.