Tech Trends

Cloud Computing

Image: Some rights reserved byBruce Clay, Inc.

Over the past two weeks we read the 2013 Horizon Report and talked about current educational technology trends that interested us in a VoiceThread discussion forum.  (Here is my script.)

We selected an emerging trend to study in depth, and wrote an analysis paper that included information not only about about how it has been recently used in education but how we might also incorporate it into our own teaching.  [Assignment instructions]

Please click here for my analysis paper.

For this assignment, I chose to delve into the realm of cloud computing in K-12 setting.  I was engrossed in the variety of case studies featured in the Horizon Report and was highly motivated to include more cloud-computing components in my classroom.  The benefits are tremendous.  In addition, I was interested in the connections between many of the emerging trends discussed in the Horizon Report.  Mobile learning, online learning, open content, virtual labs, and personalized learning all have ties to cloud computing. Its significance is inarguable. Through my research and in writing my paper I have concluded that cloud computing increases collaboration, organization, innovation, problem-solving, digital literacy, and environmental stewardship among and between students and teachers.  I believe living in remote Bermuda, students would benefit from cloud-based education to connect them with other cultures, educational institutions, and curricular resources. Although there are still many obstacles to a school going entirely "in the cloud", such as infrastructure, set-up costs, privacy, and security, hopefully in time more schools will jump on the bandwagon.

EDTECH Research

These past two weeks we have been exploring the use of APA-styled research as we've scoured Google Scholar and the Alberton's online library for scholarly articles that support using educational technology to meet our instructional objectives. [Click here for assignment checklist]

I have chosen to focus my attention on gender disparity in our technology course participation beginning in middle school. Females are not as inclined to elect STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) courses in general, and I wanted to see what kinds of studies have been conducted to find out why.  I would like to motivate girls in my school to take part during class and in after school enrichment programs.  Through this research, I learned about the topics, teaching methods, and classroom management styles that were most appealing to females. I learned some of the reasons for girls historically shying away from this field and how teachers are working to eradicate some of those hindrances.

There is a large amount of research related to this topic, and entire theses could be written about the hows and whys of gender bias in STEM.  There were many articles to choose from with publication dates stretching as far back as the early 1990's.  Using research tools such as Google Scholar as very helpful and efficient in narrowing down my choices and ensuring my articles were trustworthy and peer-reviewed.  I found it frustrating at times to have to go on search engine and online library hunts to find the full text of articles, however.  It was also a bit of a mission to ensure I had as much information as possible to complete the APA formatting for my citations. Nonetheless I was very appreciative for the citation feature of Google Scholar as well as the tutorials and examples from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/.  It was a big time-saver and helped me make sure I was on the right track.

One of my biggest challenges was writing a brief synopsis of each article.  I believe I got too detailed at times, and felt overwhelmed with trying to tie together a summary with my reflection on how I would apply the knowledge to my teaching practice in a short paragraph. Perhaps I should have saved my reflections for a Post-Research Discussion section.  At any rate, I erred on the side of "verbose"!

There are many other directions this topic could have taken me, such as global perspectives of gender and technology, girls' use of technology in their out-of-school lives, and general theories about gender differences in learning styles.  I believe the articles I read offered sound advice about a meaningful and troublesome issue that most schools face.  Many of the suggestions and "take home messages" seem easy to implement.  I'm curious to find about more information about more programs and initiatives specifically focused on adolescent girl populations, and aim to incorporate them as soon as possible.

[Click here to read my research overview with annotated bibliography.]