Test

Finalizing things

I refined my research question -

Are schools supporting and providing adequate and effective technology professional development for educators in Iowa?

I tried doing some searches on ERIC but decided that I would use the Professional Development Collection database for my project. It is smaller but more specific and I had much great success in finding articles. I need to put things together and finalize it tomorrow. Sounds like the weather is going to be nasty, hope we don't get a big ice storm and that my electricity doesn't go out!!! I will be glad to get this done and be able to concentrate on getting ready for Christmas. I have 7 family birthdays in December PLUS Christmas. I am going to be a busy old grandma for a few weeks--won't be much of a break for me.

Holidays and Homework

I know that this is supposed to be a break for the holiday, but there is no rest for the weary. This is when I plan to do most of my research and planning for my project as I have 5 days off. I have been looking more closely at which database I want to use and experimenting with a few different ones. ERIC, Professional Development Collection, TOPICsearch, and Academic Search Elite. ERIC is probably the largest database but some of the others may be easier to locate more specific information without looking through thousands of sources. Professional Development Collection is smaller, but maybe too small to get really good articles. I intend to spend some more quality time on this over the holiday when I time to really sink my teeth into it and work undisturbed. Hope everyone has a nice and safe holiday. I can’t believe it is almost Thanksgiving and 65 degrees!

Choosing a Database

This may be harder than I first thought. I have been experimenting with some of the databases provided in Ebsco. I do think it might be best to narrow it down to one, but which one is a big question. I am thinking that ERIC might be a broader source of information but it might be easier to find more specific articles related to my research question in one of the smaller more refined databases such as TOPICsearch or Professional Development Collection. I think I will experiment more with some different search techniques to see which ones offer the best results. I have done some preliminary generic searches in the databases I just mentioned, but have not had time to really get into the meat of the topic. I have some vacation and time off in week or so and I am planning to do some indepth work on the project then.

Project Update

I had a great vacation. I didn't wash a dish, cook, or touch a computer for 4 days! It was wonderful. This was the view out the front door of my freind's house where I stayed. Since I have gotten back, I have been working on ideas for my research question. I am thinking about researching if the schools are supporting and providing adequate and effective technology professional development for educators. I intend to use EBSCO as it is available to me at work, and contains many relative sources for this type of research. I am also most familiar with it as I have used it before.

IDT 516 Blog Project

This is my first attempt at a blog and I am not too sure what I am doing. I have decided to do the research question for my final project. I also like the lesson plan idea but I am in another class right now and we are writing a lot of lesson plans so I wanted to do something different. I also liked the idea that this might get me a start on the EIS 500 Research class I have to take to graduate. I have not decided on a specific question yet but am thinking along the lines of how budget cuts in Iowa are affecting technology training for teachers and support staff.

I am currently having trouble focusing on my classes because I am getting ready to leave on a trip to Missouri and Arkansas to visit a friend. We are staying in Branson the first night and then going on to Mt. Home to stay with my friend. We plan to spend the day on their pontoon boat on Lake Norfolk (see picture). I am hoping the fall colors will be at their best. I haven't had a vacation in over a year so I am excited.

I will come back and really get into the project next week.