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Week 5

Essential Question: How will data collection ‘look’ for me? What challenges am I anticipating?

 The purpose of my project is to conduct action research into the application of technology to continue learning during this unprecedented time of the COVID-19 global pandemic. I have decided to conduct research during this pandemic by gathering information from my colleagues and students about their use of technology, comfort level with technology, and where they obtain help from during this remote learning time.

This will be done through a survey of WPSD middle school and high school teachers and about 55 WHS students. My survey includes a variety of questions directed towards investigating the following questions:
  1. Which technology tools proved most effective for digital education at secondary level?
  2. Where teachers and students obtained technology support during the transitional time to remote teaching?
  3. If and how the comfort level of using technology changed from the beginning to the end of the experience for teachers and students?
With the looming possibility of school’s remaining closed in the Fall, it is important to gather information from the teacher and student perspective about what worked best, how their confidence changed over time, and where they found the most support while working through this very difficult time.

I anticipate having a some difficulty getting a large sample size for the teacher persepective since there are only 16 secondary staff members at WPSD, but when combined with data from Sam Bopp's middle school and Amanda Gray's elementary surveys I expect it will work out just fine.  My students will earn grades for completing the surveys, so I do not anticipate any issues with getting them to fill out my survey. 

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