Purpose and Significance - Discussion

I am having a hard time thinking about another research idea than the one I posted last week. The more I read and talk about it, the more I am convinced of working on the idea of researching the effectiveness of the transfer -from paper based to digital- of student-created graphic organizers.

I got some time this past week to work on the software Kidspiration myself. I liked it for the most part, but there are still issues with it that I foresee as a problem for the students.

While reading Dana (2009) I find myself "wondering" about how kids would react to this new software once we introduce it. I have established as the purpose of my inquiry to look at the academic progress of students in our campus after the introduction of this particular program. I am struggling to decide whether to compare two classes (or sets of students), one still using paper based graphic organizers and the other exposed to the digital version. Would that be unethical? To restrict the use of the program by a certain number of students? Would other teachers in my campus agree to participate in such an "experiment"?  Would non-linguistic representations (Marzano, 2004) be more effective once presented on a format friendly to digital natives?

Dana (2009) writes that "Charting new territory can be exciting but also quite frightening when beginning a journey in which you are unfamiliar with both the terrain and your final destination. It becomes less daunting after you do some initial preparation and take your first steps, however. "

This couldn't be more truthful to the way I feel about this research!

Would students be more benefited by this? Or teachers?

The significance of this inquiry is still vague. I would like to have enough accurate results of the effectiveness of this program to be able to recommend to teachers its implementation  in their weekly lesson plans. Mostly to benefit student's performance across subject areas, but by default benefiting educators in their teaching and planning.

 

References:

Dana, N. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: the principal as action researcher. Corwin Press. Kindle Version. Loc 766-68

Marzano, R.J., Pickering, D., & , . (2004). Classroom instruction that works: research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Prentice Hall.