ACTION RESEARCH PLAN

Heath McCabe August 2008

PREAMBLE
Technology is transforming the way we teach, or at least it should be. According to the
recently released ACMA national study into media and communication use in Australian
families, 98% of Australian homes have at least one computer and more than 90% are
connected to the Internet.(). Our students are using technology to access information,
communicate, build new knowledge, collaborate with their peers and present their
understanding in visually appealing and interactive media. This is before they even arrive
at school for the day! David Warner, in his book Schooling for the Knowledge Era is critical
of the slow pace at which governments and many schools appear to be responding to this
change. He speaks of the shift which has occurred in society, largely driven by the rapid
growth of the Internet, from an industrial era to a knowledge era, one in which people have
increased access to information, communicate globally and the ability to learn new skills
quickly dominates. ()
How do we achieve ‘digital take off’ () using new technologies: supporting students and
teachers in ICT integration. My action research aims to address this question at three levels:
self-learning, student learning and teacherlearning. Firstly, I aim to develop my own
understanding of emerging technologies which may benefit teaching and learning. This
means seeking out professional development in this area, keeping up to date with the
relevant literature, experimenting with new technologies and methods of integration and
reflecting on current practice using technology.
Secondly, I need to actively seek new ways to effectively integrate technology in the
curriculum. This involves following a process of thinking about the relative advantage of
using a new tool, deciding on the objectives and assessments, designing integration
strategies, ensuring that the environment for learning is right and evaluating the efficacy of
the integration.
Finally, in order to help colleagues further develop their own skills at integrating
technology, I can present at curriculum and staff meetings, model effective use in the
classroom, provide opportunities for one-one coaching for interested teachers, be
approachable and available for when staff wish to find out more and ensure there is a clear
structure for the teaching of fundamental technology related skills, including: research
technique, ICT skills, thinking curriculum and communications.

THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM

Technology changes rapidly – significant change is often a slow process in schools. Teachers
are busy – learning how to effectively use and integrate new applications takes practice and
experimentation. Access to information is easy – assessing its relevance and making sense
of the information requires a wide range of skills. Students need to learn the basics -
students are often more engaged by a media rich and hands on curriculum. These tensions
are at the core of my action research project. How do we achieve ‘digital take off’ () using
new technologies: supporting students and teachers in ICT integration.

ACTION/CHANGE PROPOSED
The aim of this project is to facilitate effective integration of new technologies, specifically
those embedded in the school portal, into the curriculum. The action will be implemented at
three levels: improving personal skills and understanding of the portal and associated web
2.0 applications, integrating portal use into curriculum with the aim of improving learning
outcomes for students and coaching colleagues as they aim to do the same.
WHO IS GOING TO DO WHAT AND BY WHEN?
Self Learning

• Participation in Learning Technologies Group (ongoing)

• Continuing to trial new features in the portal e.g. student collaboration sites
(ongoing)
• Attending professional learning seminars e.g. 21st century teaching and learning
(term 3)
• Exploring wiki and blog creation as a tool for self-reflection and collaboration
(ongoing)
• Reading news feeds, blogs and literature on the topic of effective integration
• Link CSU study to this action research project (completion in November)

Student Learning
• Create new blog, Virtual Maths Legends, for Year 6 set 3 maths class (term 3)
• Develop science virtual classroom(Citius, Altius, Fortius) to include wikipages for
students to develop project collaboratively (term 3)
• Monitor student engagement and results (ongoing)
• Survey students to ascertain impact 0f new technologies on learning (week 7)
• Participate in two national assessments of student ICT literacy - Learners’ and
educators’ views of learning with technologies in Australian education conducted by
Canberra University and National Assessment Program – ICT conducted by ACER on behalf
of MCEETYA (Sept 23rd and Oct 28th)

Teacher Learning
• Curriculum meetings to include examples of effective integration of technology, from
myself and other staff (fortnightly)
 • One-one coaching sessions on Monday and Friday afternoons – Tim and Mandy,
Martin, Wendy, Paul (ongoing)
• Introduce portal by integrating curriculum tasks which were previously completed
using shared drives, hard copies and email into the JS Curriculum site (mid-term 3
and term 4)
• Begin planning for 2009 with Information Literacy scope and sequence development
and survey to establish areas of need (start of term 4)

HOW WILL THE ACTION BE IMPLEMENTED?

1. The three levels of action take place concurrently although the general pattern of the
term is, in the first weeks -teacher (high enthusiasm and time), followed by student
through integration of new technologies in the curriculum and self-reflection – how
is it going?

2. Coaching of staff happens in two main contexts – through new curriculum

development strategies (e.g. documentation uploaded to the portal) and one-one
coaching

3. Integration into classroom via virtual classroom/blog construction is ongoing but has
greatest focus at the start of each term

4. Self-learning through reading, blog writing and continued study

5. Keep a journal of changes implemented, students responses, meeting notes and

teacher comments

HOW WILL THE CHANGES BE OBSERVED AND MONITORED?

The utilisation of the portal by staff is compulsory at the base level i.e. uploading curriculum
documentation, but the voluntary learning and integration into the classroom can be used
as an indicator that a combination of presentation and peer coaching is effective in helping
teachers to manage change brought about by new technologies. Further reading and
practice of coaching strategies may help to ensure that the change is sustained. ()
Student response to the use of the portal will be gauged by recording of anecdotal notes and
the use of a survey. If possible, the results from the two national surveys relating to ICT use
will be included in the final report for this action research.
Participation in the Learning Technologies group is a positive step towards making a
stronger link between personal reading and studying in this area and the effect that I can
have at the school level on effective integration of new technologies.

Works Cited
Australian Communication and Media Authority. (2007, December 17). Media and
Communications in Australian Families. Retrieved September 8, 2008, from Australian
Government - ACMA: http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_310893
Fleischman, H. S.-P. (2006, February). Technology to help Struggling Students.
Educational Leadership Vol63 No5 , pp. 84-85.
Lee, M. &. (2006). Interactive whiteboards and digital take off: Achieving total teacher
ICT usage. IWB Research Project , 8 pages.
McKenzie, J. (1999). How Teachers Learn Technology Best. In J. McKenzie, How Teachers
Learn Technology Best (p. Chapter 1). Washington: FNO Press.
Warner, D. (2006). Schooling for the knowledge era. Camberwell, Victoria: Australian
Council for Educational Research (ACER).