ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY CECS 5610.020

MIDTERM EXAM BONUS QUESTION
    Discuss the most interesting issue you heard in class regarding technology and education or training.  Describe in one or two
    sentences an experiment you would like to see carried out in the area.

ANSWERS
As part of the exploration of personality types I have found very interesting information on technology and multiple intelligences. I am curious as to the effect of adapting to multiple intelligences and attitudes / stages of use plus adoption. I would do a pretest of attitude and classification of multiple intelligences. I would then adapt instruction for the various multiple intelligences then post test.
 

I am most interested in the effects of distance learning has on the quality of the instruction and when its appropriate (i.e. cost effective, practical). This way decision-makers have a sense of they are doing. I would compare attitudes and test scores between classes taught the same subjects in both environments and look at costs in time and money.
 

The most interesting issue to me is the idea of distance education via the web. The experiment that comes to mind in a pre-test/post-test controls group design. The control group would be taught by the same teacher but in a traditional classroom, while the experimental group would be instructed completely via the web – they would never physically meet. I would be interested to find out if one group spent more time studying
for class than the other, and if one group had greater collaboration/participation than the other.
 

I would like to see if there is a correlation between youth plus adults in a love of computers as a tool plus being a problem solver  (creative problem solving people).This could be done with the instrument used off the website (Leander Survey). This could become skewed if only H.S. teachers are used. (I don’t think they are as creative problem solvers as elementary teachers.)
 

Today when my collaborative group was working on the 1st survey completed by teachers touched on a subject I’ve been hearing through other technology training courses I’ve attended to my district. The area of interest is whether or not technology makes a teacher better. In the survey, teachers labeled their level of technology know-how. I am curious to see how these teachers who thought they have much technology know how they felt about teaching. Maybe another survey which asked teachers to identify both technology knowledge and teacher accomplishment may prove helpful. I will also like to have these teachers’ students respond (survey?) to how good a teacher they felt the instructor was.
 

I enjoy hearing about other places in the world and what they are doing with their education and technology. I would like to see an experiment that indicates whether or not the more “vocal” graduate students receive higher grades.
 

The possibility that our school system teaches boys to become less empathetic is very intriguing. Internal validity would be difficult to design – a control group would suggest that a group of boys would not be developing within our schools – state laws would likely prohibit this control.
 

The issue on the effect of computers is the classroom at an early age was interesting. But I would like to see an experiment on how computer use is impacting older people in learning.
 

The most interesting issue I’ve heard in class is regarding the intercontinental collaboration on projects that Dr. Knezek has discussed. I am looking forward to our work to Netherlands students in the coming weeks. I’d like to see an experiment using the Internet to connect elementary students intercontinentally – especially for Math and Science.  I am curious to see if something like that could help improve our student’s desire to learn this information and if it would improve US students overall performance in these subjects.
 

I think the cross-cultural correspondence will be very enlightening with regard to what is happening in the Netherlands. I would like to see collaboration between the UNT students plus the other class do a project together using Net meeting.
 

The most interesting issue is whether at a later age boys catch up with girl in their ability to learn using computers. Do a series of study that compares results for the same students in elementary school, then high school.
 

I would like to see an experiment on whether there is a difference between using a course taught solely with CBT US. Using CBT as an additional tool in the classroom.
 

The most interesting issue I’ve heard in class is the idea that education kills creativity and no amount of technology will help improve that. I have thought this for a long time. I would like to follow the same group of students from Pre-K through 12th grade and assess creativity levels each year, determining annually what is occurring with them.
 

That empathy is met in Boys starting in elementary school and this proceeds through adulthood. Those Boys are less empathic than women. I would do a longitudinal study to see if there is a difference of the empathy levels comparing the same boys as they reach different age levels. This would take year’s decades. So, you might want to do a cross-sectional version, where you compare empathy levels of males using different groups – boys at elementary school, high school, 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s. Compare the male groups with the female equivalent groups.
 

The problem I always was interested is how students change their attitude toward PC with age. In our days, I would like to expand “time live” up to 85 y.o. I would develop a questionnaire with appropriate set of questions. I would choose several universities wide age range of students (16085 y.o.). I would find out the tendencies of high-low / positive-negative attitude toward using PCs in school and personal studies.
 

More gender related studies. Compare the differences (if any) between genders when students use older “text” based/ command line technology compared to newer GUI type interfaces. Does intuitiveness (of GUI) equalize the genders?
 

The most interesting issue I have heard in class is the integration of technology and its relationship to the stages of embracing technology. I would like to see more studies/experiments done on the effects of training on stages of technology use and the correlation to integration of technology by those teachers participating in the training. As a participant in the Technology Specialist Institute through Region 10, I would be interested to see at what stage the participants are at upon beginning in year one and how that changes as they attend year 2 and 3. In addition, the integration of technology by these participants as they are trained would also be looked at to see if there is correlation AND is the training having an impact on technology interaction.