Action Research Project • Proposal • Research (Working Draft) • Plan of Action • Cycle 1 Report • Cycle 2 Report • Action Research Project Report

ARP Purpose

The original plan is outlined in the ARP Plan of Action with a status summary in the ARP Cycle 1 Report.

Accomplishments since Cycle 1

The primary accomplishment in Cycle 2, and change from my original plan, was to get Tapped In accounts http://www.tappedin.org/ for my sixth grade math students so they could communicate synchronously as well as asynchronously. This turned into a very popular activity, with some kids learning the more arcane commands, as well as how to dig in TI. Seven of the 16 students were sufficiently interested in TI to learn how to dig.

I have assigned homework where students had to discuss mathematics, then had them add edited transcripts to their CoWebs as a way of making their learning public to others in the class.

I also spontaneously created a CoWeb for Keyboarding students to write stories in as part of their warm-up. The activity was very popular with one class and allowed them to practice their skills in a more authentic situation. About half of the students in that class are also my math students. The Math students like to "play" in TI while most of the rest like to "play" in the Coweb with their stories. A few students just like to do the keyboarding program because it give their brain a rest. Using these tools in keyboarding have helped the students transfer their skills learned in the artificial environment of keyboarding to an authentic experience.

Data Collection/Evidence

Evidence and data since Cycle 1:

1. Captured several snapshots of the Math 6 CoWeb, Exploring Programming CoWeb, and Keyboarding CoWeb by rendering the pages.
2. Videotaped a TI session.
3. Have numerous TI transcripts from students showing both their spontaneous interactions as well as their required interactions.
4. Number of artifacts created by each student in TI and the number of rooms for the students.
5. Results of brainstorming among students when I asked them to think about what role the teacher has in on-line discussions.
6. Results of a survey of students asking them how they thought I should use these tools (TI, CoWeb, Discussion group) next year.

What This Tells Me

TI seems to be the most popular of the activities and discussion groups rank at the bottom in students' opinions. CoWeb is also high on their list as a way for them to interact. Furthermore, they find learning using these tools is valuable. In short, supplementing the standard interactions in class with those provided by TI and the CoWeb are very empowering for students.

Next Steps/Thoughts/Revisions

For the short term, as the school year winds down, I'll focus my efforts on actively publicizing the positive results from this project so that others in the school may make use of them. For the longer term, I intend to rework the reflection website so that I can start with it as soon as school starts next year and plan for how to introduce the CoWeb and discussion groups to the students. I'll also ask the folks at TI about the feasibility of getting year-long accounts for the students.  Before the school year ends, I'll get more feedback from students about their perceptions of our progress and the usefulness of these tools.

• Action Research Project • Proposal • Research (Working Draft) • Plan of Action • Cycle 1 Report • Cycle 2 Report • Action Research Project Report •

Created 05/25/2002

Last maintained 08/23/2003