A Reprieve

Just as the pulse of my project seemed weakest, a reprieve in the form of an extension. The difficult part of the process of crafting an action plan is the meeting of deadlines. Any number of twists and turns can cause your plan to spiral out of control and before you know it your down the rabbit hole chasing some literature that you have discovered, and must now add, or mired down in the statistical vortex that is your data.  For sure, you want to get it right. You want to make sure your plan doesn't become the ramblings of a babbling fool but instead the musings of a beautiful mind. You want the conveyance to be as crystalline as the day you first dreamt of it. This however, would never happen without the occasional extension to regroup and rethink. So for this week I would like to thank our professor who took pity on our poor souls and new that the product is as important as the process.  

Methodology and Analyzing the Data

Once I changed my topic I feel much better as I approach analyzing the data.  There are studies done throughout the country examining online learning.  I will use comparison of control group and non control groups to analyze my data.

Backwards Planning and Analyzing the Data

Completing the Analyzing the Data section in my Action Research Project made me realizing how much backwards planning is actually involved. When I began to hone in on how I want to analyze the data, the big picture began to appear. It helped me to refocus the methodology and what literature would be good to analyze.

Moving forward with this research, I can see how much data that i will be collecting. And thats a good thing. This will allow me to analyze students grades but bring the students into the fold by asking their own opinions. A Likert Scale using survey monkey is an easy way to do this. In addition, I have begun to think about what my final presentation for the project will look like.  Here is an example of one, Poster of a Flipped Classroom.

Revising Methodology

During the last week, I took some time to revise my methodology to include more specificity about the variables that will be included in my research plan. Originally, I had not provided enough detail so that those reading my plan would clearly understand the intervention being used. I also revised the survey I intend to use to include more options used in the intervention so that responses are more targeted and so that my research question can be answered. Now I feel more confident in developing a plan to collect, organize, analyze, and interpret data.

Technology and the 21st Century

I found something relevant and we can all agree something said by our Secretary of Education.


      "The factory model of  education is the wrong model for the 21st century.  Today our schools must prepare all students for college and careers and do far more to personalize instruction and employ the smart use of technology. "




                                            - Arne Duncan , U.S. Secretary of Education

Online School

Will online schooling eventually replace the traditional classroom?   As an educator if I don't keep up with technology will I be replaced.  Advanced Path programs are being used for credit recovery.   Do these programs give students the  incentive to pass classes the first time if they have the opportunity to complete classes online?

Sign Test

A well-known example of a sign test is the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. I was reading about it on Wikipedia and it's used for repeated measures, which is what my ARPP uses as the design.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilcoxon_signed-rank_test