Friday, September 27, 2013

Reflection - Assignment 2 Prep

Wow - the end of term and my brain feels a bit more free to delve back into all this new (and re-reading some old) material!

In my feedback for my first assignment, Wayne suggested that I tighten up my research question, as well as include sub-headings and define independent learning. I think this is great advice - I have found some new resources to include by searching around the following questions: can independent learning improve engagement in the classroom? what do teachers think of it? how do we implement it? etc.

I also was reminded in reading Niki's comments that I can sometimes get so passionate about an idea that I forget to look at both sides of the story. For example, I have been passionately exploring my research question, but through the lens of: isn't independent learning the best and we should all be doing it and it is the future and why isn't it happening more and.....you get the idea

So, in realising this about myself, I am making a concerted effort to find research on the limits or downsides of independent learning.

I would also like to say thanks to all of you for your blog posts these past couple of weeks. Even if I don't reply to all of them, when I read I always gain heaps of insight and ideas.


Monday, September 23, 2013

Reflecting and Brainstroming

As I prepare to start the bulk of my writing for my research paper, I am stuck on how to put my "problem" into words.

I would like to continue to explore the issue of teacher and student buy-in being connected - how a technology will be more likely adopted by a teacher if he/she can see that it will benefit students and also how teacher guidance and buy-in can then positively affect students use/adoption of a technology.

My research question has been: will using Moodle to cultivate independent learning increase teacher and student adoption of the LMS as a new technology.

I'm not sure how to translate that into a problem - any ideas? Help!

Thanks in advance for any replies :)