Capstone Log EDRS 8000 & EDRS 8900

Instructional Technology Department

Candidate:

Mentor/Title:

School/District:

Shanna Irving

Melissa (Lisa) Wheeler /

Media Specialist

North Cobb High School /

Cobb County School District

Research Project Title:

Fumbling Toward Improving Student Desire to Attend Public School:
A Quantitative Study on the Impact of Technological Difficulties on Students Attitudes and
Performance in Two Ninth Grade English Classes
You are not required to reflect after each entry. Reflections can address one or more entries in the log.
Just delete the reflection row if you do not use it.

Date
8/28/2014
9/6/2014

Activity/Amount of Time

PSC/ISTE Standards

(Please total the time after the last entry.)

Read textbook chapter 1,2 and took notes (4 hours)

Discussed hot topics on discussion board (1.5 hours)
Read textbook chapter 3 and took notes (1.5 hours)
Discussed role of systemic research and literature review
on discussion board (3 hours)

PSC 6.1/ISTE 6a, 6b

PSC 6.3

= 10 hours
Reflection:
These readings and discussions helped me to understand the difference between qualitative and quantitative
research and the importance of the literature review section to each, preparing me for strategic composition of
my literature review.
8/29/2014
8/31/2014
9/11/2014

Researched hot topics through KSU Library database,

collected articles (1.5 hours)
Selected research topic and collected articles through
KSU Library database (2.5 hours)
Created outline and working References page (1 hour)
Collected articles through KSU Library database (2
hours)
= 7 hours

PSC 1.3/ISTE 1c
PSC 1.4/ISTE 1d
PSC 6.1/ISTE 6a, 6b
PSC 6.2/ISTE 6c
PSC 6.3

Reflection:
I keep finding conflicting research about different school choice options and will focus my research on reengaging students with public school by incorporating collaborative technology. I have found a few articles
that support collaborative technology, but I have not found any quantitative research focused on
constructivism-based implementation in K-12.

9/5/2014
9/8/2014
9/13/2014
9/14/2014

Composed article summaries (2 hours)

Composed and categorized article summaries (2.5 hours)
Composed and categorized article summaries (1.5 hours)
Created literature review map (1.5 hours)
= 7.5 hours

PSC 1.3/ISTE 1c
PSC 1.4/ISTE 1d
PSC 5.2/ISTE 4b
PSC 6.1/ISTE 6a, 6b
PSC 6.2/ISTE 6c
PSC 6.3

Reflection:
The literature review is starting to come together. As I arranged and rearranged article summaries, I realized
that the conflicting evidence in itself is an interesting phenomenon and that working through the conflicting
evidence would support my argument well. The summaries will need significant work to weave together into a
smooth literature review.

9/12/2014
9/19/2014
10/11/2014

Read textbook chapters 10, 11, 12 and took notes (5

hours)
Discussed understanding on discussion board (1.5 hours)
Read textbook chapters 13,14,15 and took notes (5 hours)
Discussed understanding on discussion board (1.5 hours)
Read textbook chapters 16,17 and took notes (3 hours)
Discussed understanding on discussion board (1.5 hours)
= 17.5 hours

Reflection:
These readings helped me understand research designs and begin to identify the best designs for my research
topic. I will certainly go with a quantitative design and would like to explore both attitude data and
performance data, perhaps through a quasi-experimental or true experimental longitudinal survey design
mixed with disaggregated performance data.

9/28/2014
10/12/2014

Composed literature review (6 hours)

Composed and submitted literature review (4 hours)

= 10 hours

PSC 1.3/ISTE 1c
PSC 1.4/ISTE 1d
PSC 5.2/ISTE 4b
PSC 6.1/ISTE 6a, 6b
PSC 6.2/ISTE 6c
PSC 6.3

Reflection:
Weaving the research together and ensuring that content in each paragraph does not read like a direct article
summary was quite a job, but it has helped me finalize the decision to seek both attitude and performance data
over time when I implement the research. Both are necessary to fully answer whether collaborative technology
will increase student desire to attend school and whether that will impact their learning.

10/15/2014
10/17/2014
10/24/2014
10/29/2014
11/3/2014
11/12/2014
11/14/2014

Reviewed quantitative research notes and explored

models online (2 hours)
Organized and bulleted ideas in introduction and
methodology sections (2.5 hours)
Interviewed and confirmed teacher participants (3 hours)
Drafted introduction and methodology (7 hours)
Revised introduction and methodology (2 hours)
Created digital augmentation plan (3 hours)
Researched validity and reliability (1 hour)
Found survey to modify (2 hours)
Revised and submitted proposal for feedback (6.5 hours)
= 29 hours

PSC 1.3/ISTE 1c
PSC 1.4/ISTE 1d
PSC 6.1/ISTE 6a, 6b
PSC 6.2/ISTE 6c
PSC 6.3

Reflection:
Now that I have established teacher participants, composed the methodology section, crafted the digital
augmentation plan, and woven everything together into a polished draft, I am excited to implement the
research design next semester. Creating the necessary documents and tutorials then training the teachers will
take significant time, so I will get started on that immediately.
11/10/2014

Completed CITI course (3 hours)

PSC 6.1/ISTE 6a, 6b

PSC 6.3
= 3 hours

Reflection:
It is important to understand and attend to the protection of human subjects when conducting academic
research. This course helped me attend to the privacy of my teacher and student participants. My next step
will be to prepare the proposal elements, including permission forms, required by my school district.
12/3/2014
12/8/2014

Edited proposal (2 hours)

Finalized proposal (2.5 hours)

PSC 6.1/ISTE 6a, 6b

PSC 6.3
= 4.5 hours

Reflection:
The draft feedback from my professor was incredibly positive, and after some tweaks, I feel confident that my
research design is implementation-worthy. I still have a lot of prep work to do and will work on that over the
winter break, then submit my proposal for district approval as soon as I receive feedback on my final version.

EDRS 8000 Total = 87.5 hours

12/18/2014
1/6/2015
1/9/2015
1/11/2015

Created digital collaboration Google Docs, Memrise

tutorials, wiki (8.5 hours)
Finalized and submitted research proposal to school
district (2 hours)
Met with teachers to discuss implementation timeframe
and review collaborative technology tools (2 hours)
Created and submitted timeline to professor and teacher
participants (3 hours)

= 15.5 hours

PSC 1.4/ISTE 1d
PSC 2.1/ISTE 2a
PSC 2.2/ISTE 2b
PSC 2.3/ISTE 2c
PSC 2.4/ISTE 2d
PSC 2.5/ISTE 2e
PSC 2.6/ISTE 2f
PSC 3.7/ISTE 3g
PSC 4.2/ISTE 5b
PSC 6.1/ISTE 6a, 6b
PSC 6.2/ISTE 6c
PSC 6.3

Reflection:
After submitting my proposal and meeting with the teachers, Im concerned. The county liaison warned me
that approval could take up to four weeks. I created the timeline for implementation based on the four week
approval process. I suspect that the teachers are less motivated to implement the technology as they will need
to be. Accordingly, the timeline includes frequent visits to the teachers to monitor and facilitate
implementation.
2/15/2015
2/18/2015
2/22/2015

Practiced analyzing data in Excel (2 hours)

Practiced analyzing data in Excel (1 hour)
Practiced analyzing data in Excel (1 hour)

PSC 6.1/ISTE 6a, 6b

= 4 hours

Reflection:
The district was out of work for a week due to snow, and I havent received approval to implement my
research yet. The teachers have agreed to delay the unit until early to mid-March, but that will make data
collection and analysis difficult in the required time frame. Once I get the data, though, I am now confident
that I will know what to do with them!
3/3/2015
3/8/2015
3/10/2015
3/15/2015
3/22/2015
4/3/2015

Met with teachers to deliver permission forms and review

technology tools (3 hours)
Met with teachers to collect permission forms and
finalize implementation plan (3 hours)
Met with teachers to collect pre-survey data (1 hour)
Met with teachers to discuss problems/concerns and
collaborate on solutions (3 hours)
Met with teachers to discuss problems/concerns and
collaborate on solutions (3 hours)
Collected post-survey data and performance data (2
hours)
= 15 hours

PSC
PSC
PSC
PSC

1.1/ISTE
1.2/ISTE
1.4/ISTE
3.7/ISTE

1a
1b
1d
3g

Reflection:
After several reported attempts to integrate the technology design and lost instructional time, the teachers have
decided to teach the remainder of the unit as they wrote it originally. They blame the schools technology
infrastructure and do not enforce homework. I will need to rethink my research design and determine a new
approach to the data that can still help reach an answer related to my original question. This is incredibly
frustrating.

3/29/2015
4/3/2015

Established new research focus: problems with

implementation affecting attitudes and learning (1 hour)
Collected articles through KSU Library database (2.5
hours)
Revised literature review and methodology sections (4
hours)
= 7.5 hours

PSC 1.4/ISTE 1d
PSC 6.1/ISTE 6a, 6b
PSC 6.2/ISTE 6c

Reflection:
My frustration at the implementation problems gave way to a new research question that will be important to
answer: Do problems implementing technology impact student learning and desire to attend public school?
The pre-/post-survey data and the performance data will still be important to the new research question.
Taking the time to revise the literature review and methodology was a hardship, but I came through it.
4/7/2015
4/8/2015

PSC 2.7/ISTE 2g
PSC 2.8/ISTE 2h

Created and populated data tables (6 hours)

Researched statistical analysis (3 hours)
Ran t-tests on data (4 hours)
= 13 hours

Reflection:
It took me much longer than expected to figure out how to set up the data charts to run the t-tests correctly.
Once I figured it out and ran the tests, I was perplexed by the results and had to research data analysis in more
depth. (The course tutorials do not explain the why of each statistical analysis tool type in any depth, and the
different symbolism was confusing.) The results revealed no statistical significance, a finding that perplexed
me further.
4/9/2015
4/11/2015
4/27/2015
4/29/2015

Wrote Data presentation and Findings/Conclusion

sections (6 hours)
Edited research report and submitted draft (4 hours)
Created research presentation (6.5 hours)
Used peer commentary to make final edits and submitted
report (2 hours)
= 18.5 hours

PSC 2.8/ISTE 2h
PSC 2.8/ISTE 2h
PSC 3.7/ISTE 3g
PSC 4.2/ISTE 5b
PSC 5.3/ISTE 4c
PSC 6.1/ISTE 6a, 6b
PSC 6.2/ISTE 6c

Reflection:
I knew the research process would be difficult, but I am overwhelmed with relief that it came together after so
many hurdles. Despite an inability to answer my initial research question, my findings have important
implications about the efficacy of instructional time. I plan to implement the unit and associated data
collection again in my own classroom in order to better oversee the process in the upcoming school year.

EDRS 8900 Total = 73.5 hours

CAPSTONE Total = 161 hours

DIVERSITY
(Place an X in the box representing the race/ethnicity and subgroups involved in this capstone.)

Ethnicity

P-12 Faculty/Staff
P-2

Race/Ethnicity:
Asian
Black
Hispanic

3-5

6-8

P-12 Students
9-12

P-2

3-5

6-8

9-12

X
X

X
X
X

X
X

X
X

Native American/Alaskan Native

White
Multiracial
Subgroups:
Students with Disabilities
Limited English Proficiency
Eligible for Free/Reduced
Meals

X
X