EDTECH Research

My reflection of this assignment is again of amazement.  I absolutely believe in best practices and making sure those are based upon updated research.  In my own classroom, I had specific goals that I wanted to do next year in the area of reading.  This assignment made me put them into objectives and will enable my principal to evaluate how I am doing in this area.  I would love to be evaluated on something that I want to show growth in and to be able to showcase the technology used to meet that objective.

I found myself not being able to stop reading these articles or papers, especially since they were so current.  Once I read Julie Coiro's article about "new literacies", I had to continue reading another one just to understand more.  Understanding that all children that are proficient readers aren't necessarily proficent online readers.  Knowing that all testing will be going online for evaluation of students and of teachers, these "new literacies" need to be in our basic instruction of reading comprehension.  

Doing this research, made me realize how important it is to evaluate our tools that we use, find the current research on it and move forward accordingly.  Sometimes in education, we will stay on a path that is "comfortable".  In this movement of technology, this is not a time to be comfortable.  It is a time of growth and learning for students and teachers.  

I know that many reading this are already the innovators in their classrooms and schools because of the nature of this program we are in.  However, it is our responsiblity to help others in our quest.  

EDTECH Research on improving reading through technology and blended learning for the individual student