Preparing for The Study

What began as a casual comment and connection made as an graduate class assignment has become a full-blown study examining the use of digital technology in the classroom. Initially, I was considering how my research classes would react to the use of the free web-based research tools. However, the concept grew to include a remote teaching tool for a student taking her Spanish class through my research class, and for differentiation tool for two US History students (to take my research class, they have to be rescheduled into a class of 6 learning disabled students -- a move not usually considered for gifted thinkers).

The goal is to see how learning and differentiation is affected with the use of digital tools.

To date:

Surveys have been built to assess pre-course digital literacy, composition/typing skills, and research skills. A fourth survey will be completed when the students have built their blogs (which become their learning process journals and collaborative tools). The first three assessments will be given again at the end of the semester for comparison, along with a opinion poll about the overall experience.

The group of students spread between two middle schools. All students will have access to each other's blogs, and will be able to collaborative with each other between schools. There are 18 students: 5 eight graders, 13 seventh graders; 12 boys, 6 girls; 8 have taken this research elective previously, 10 are new students (4 have taken this research elective twice before); this will involve working with two teachers who have not worked with free web-based products before.

The course's Google site was built (see below) to include updated versions of the handouts usually provided, plus the first day surveys. YouTube tutorial videos have been included throughout the pages to illustrate the concepts, along with links to direct students attention as needed for special information about the researching process. Quizzes will be available as the students move through the packet/pages of information.

This is the home page of the class Google Site -- it shows the navigation plan to access information.