Masters Thesis!

The Thesis
One of the concepts that is often missed when looking at incorporation of technology into education deals with how to measure its impact.  Students might say "I like it," but that might not mean anything with respect to actual usage.  One of the main ways that technology acceptance is measured is by using something like the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) postulated by Davis (1989).  From the research I have done, this (or one of it's newer iterations) is one of the most popular measuring tools used in researching technology acceptance.  However, it has historically been used with adults or, at the very least, college and university students.

So what did I do?  I made a version of it (changing only wording) that could be used at the high school level.  My findings were very interesting, and I will share a quick overview of it here. The original TAMs found that there were at least four different factors that influence technology usage: perceived usefulness (this is the most important), perceived ease of use, social influence, and facilitating conditions.  In essence, then, if someone thinks that a technology is useful, will be easy to use, feel that other people think it will be a good idea, and feel that there will be support, then people will tend to want to use the technology in question.  Makes sense.

In my study, I used the same instrument, but there were two differences.  1) the technology I used was a WIKI page, something that I knew no student had every created; 2) WIKI pages allowed me to look at actual usage, not simply a questionnaire that dealt with a users intent to use. My findings were as follows: 1) I found that, with high school level students, the only factor that significantly influenced their actual WIKI usage was perceived ease of use; 2) boys felt more comfortable with the technology in question but 3) girls used the WIKI way more than boys (so gender played a role). 

This finding suggests that the ease of use is the most important factor, something I feel is a change in attitude towards technology acceptance - technology must be easy now (IPOD or Facebook-like) and more intuitive perhaps. How does this play out in education? That will be the discussion of my next blog posting!  Stay tuned!

The Beginning...

Background

Well, I thought I should start this blog by answering the question of why I am now blogging.  The best way to answer this is to give a little background about me: I have recently graduated from Thompson Rivers University with my Masters in Education (B. Ed., B.A. (English Major), TCOM Technician, and Comptia A+ Certification are my other credentials).  These things all add up to what I am now doing, which is teaching at a high school and acting as the school computer specialist (Network Administrator). 

 My focus has become quite specific: yes, I teach numerous subjects (it seems that, when you are in as a teacher at a high school, whatever they need you to teach is what you will be assigned to do regardless of personal knowledge or specialty), but I also have a passion to successfully incorporate technology into my courses.  This is not done for the sole purpose of sprinkling it on top of my curriculum like icing sugar, but instead I want it to be the tool that students use correctly to fulfill objectives; and not only because it’s there, but because it is the best thing to use to fulfill that specific objective.

 Thus this blog: my travels into the incorporation of technology into my classes (the good, the bad, the incomprehensibly ugly). 

What I Teach

I teach at an Independent school in a city in the interior of BC.  My clientele are mostly lower to middle class family students, predominantly white.  In fact, I have discussed with colleagues at the school that our school, though private, does not get the “crème of the crop” students like many larger private schools at the coast (St. George’s  comes to mind), but instead is a fairly standard representation of any public school with students coming from all areas of the city.  Our school is not a University prep school, nor is it a school for gifted, exceptionally bright, problematic, learning disabled, or troubled students – it boasts nothing but a standard student body whose family choose our school for various reasons, the largest by far being that they are looking for something different than they have or believe they will find in public schools in the area. In fact, I might argue that, because our numbers are small, there are times where the classroom dynamic is quite skewed one way or the other (a few very bright students or a few challenged students in a small class, can change the overall feel of the class on a whole quite easily). 

The courses I teach have nothing to do with my specialty anymore (English and Computers), but I teach a trades class (Electronics 8 and 9), musical classes, and now Science 8.  However, I have taught Yearbook, ITECH 11 and 12, and English 8, 9, and 10, in previous years.

What this Blog Will Do for You

I will be using this blog mostly as my own educational diary of sorts. Glean what you will or what you can from it. I do hope to deal with realistic educational ideas, thoughts, and concepts that I have actually tried. Who knows? It may be useful one day... to someone. As well, as a lover of language and writing itself, I hope that keeping a blog will help me to hone my writing itself. Comments, thoughts, and ideas will always be welcome!

Here we go.