Jessica Horton

Visionary Leadership in Instructional Technology

FRIT 7232

Spring 2019
Sullivan, R., Neu, V., & Yang, F. (2018). Faculty Development to Promote Effective

Instructional

Technology Integration: A Qualitative Examination of Reflections in an Online

Community. ​Online Learning,22​(4), 341-359. Retrieved April 22, 2019, from

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1202386.pdf​.

The authors describe a project developed at the State University of New York called the

Tools of Engagement Project, or TOEP. TOEP is an online professional development platform

for educators, teaching them to utilize new and evolving technology and put these tools into

practice into their classrooms. The goals of the project include encouraging lifelong learning and

hand-on use of technology.

The article addresses the reasons that educators need to be adept at adopting new

technologies, including the fact that their students need to be creators of content. They also

discuss that students need adults to model technology use.

An extensive description of TOEP is also provided. The platform provides interactive

support and a community of educator learners who share their experiences, successes, and

challenges. Participants benefit from collaboration with others who are learning and

implementing the same tools.The authors conducted a qualitative study evaluating the

experiences of the educators utilizing the TOEP professional development platform.They

concluded that the educators benefited greatly from the collaborative aspect of the project,

including the closed discussion boards that were accessible only to program participants. Further,

they learned that most of the participants were implementing the new technologies in their own
classrooms as they learned about them, or, they planned to implement them shortly thereafter.

Finally, most participants expressed a desire to continue learning about new and emerging

technologies independently, after the professional development through TOEP was finished.

There were strengths in the composition of the article. One strength I noticed was a solid

rationale for the study and the article. The authors provided rich detail about why it’s important

for educators to stay current on the latest technology available in education. For example, the

article states, “technology integration allows course material to become more interactive and

engaging” (Sullivan, Neu, & Yang, 2018). Another strength is that the article appeared to free

from bias. The authors seemed to be neutral on the subject they were evaluating.

There were also weaknesses noted in the article. Between Year 1 and Year 2 of TOEP,

the communication methods between participants were replaced, “changing the way people

participated and communicated” (Sullivan, Neu, & Yang, 2018). The article does not address

how this change may have affected the data and experiences the educators had. In addition, the

study was initiated after the second year of TOEP was completed, and consent was retroactively

obtained from willing participants. Therefore, no demographic data was obtained, and the

researchers could not look for trends among various subgroups of educators. The article seems

slightly incomplete due to the lack of thorough data analysis.

Overall however, the article was beneficial to explain the importance of

collaboration when learning a new tool, and how critical it is for students to view educators as

lifelong learners. The personal implication I took away from the article include the need to

introduce my students to technology as I’m learning it, so that we can learn together and from
one another. Additionally, the article has inspired me to collaborate more frequently with my

colleagues on new technology.