Many researchers fail to distinguish between research goals and methods.

1. Many researchers fail to distinguish between research goals and methods.

2. Ed. Tech research goals: • Theoretical • Predictive • Interpretivist • Postmodern • Development • Action

3. Theoretical Goals • Focus on explaining phenomena through logical analysis and synthesis of principles and results from other studies • EXAMPLE: Gagne’s theory of the conditions of learning

4. Predictive Goals • Focus on determining how education works by testing hypotheses related to theories of learning, teaching, performance, etc. • EXAMPLE: cooperative learning and control studies by Hooper, Temiyakarn, and Williams Simon Hooper

5. Interpretivist Goals • Focus on determining how education works by describing and interpreting phenomena related to learning, teaching, performance, etc. • EXAMPLE: Delia Neuman’s observations of disabled children using commercial software Delia Neuman

6. Postmodern Goals • Focus on examining the assumptions underlying educational programs with the goal of revealing hidden agendas and empowering disenfranchised minorities • EXAMPLE: Ann DeVaney’s analysis of IT in relation to race, gender, and power

7. Development Goals • Focus on dual objectives of developing creative approaches to solving problems and constructing reusable design principles • EXAMPLE: Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt’s (John Bransford et al.) work with Jasper Woodbury problem-solving series

8. Action Goals • Focus on describing, improving, or estimating the effectiveness and worth of a particular program • EXAMPLE: Reeves and Laffey study of a problem-based learning engineering course at US Air Force Academy

9. Methods should not be selected until goals & research questions are clear: • Quantitative • Qualitative • Critical Theory • Historical • Literature Review • Mixed-methods

10. What is the rationale for development research in the application of technology in teacher education?

11. Good Development ResearchDesign-Based Research Collective • Goals of designing learning environments and theories are intertwined • Development and research occur in continuous cycles • Research on designs leads to sharable theories relevant to practitioners • Research must account for how designs function in authentic settings • Development of accounts relies on methods that connect actions to outcomes

12. Development Research Strategies • Define a pedagogical outcome and create learning environments that address it. • Emphasize content and pedagogy rather than technology. • Give special attention to supporting human interactions. • Modify learning environments until outcome is reached.

13. Design Research Example • “Authentic Learning in Interactive Multimedia Environments.” • Ph.D. dissertation by Jan Herrington at Edith Cowan University in Australia. • Supervised by Professor Ron Oliver. • Winner of AECT Young Researcherof the Year in 1999.

14. Outcome Practitioners Desired New teachers will use a wider variety of assessment methods in their student teaching experience and eventual practice.

15. Learning Environment Design • Identified the critical characteristics of a situated learning model. • Developed an interactive multimedia learning environment based on those characteristics.

16. Situated Learning Model Herrington 1997 • Provide an authentic context reflecting the way the knowledge will be used in real-life • Provide authentic activities • Provide access to expert performances and the modeling of processes • Provide multiple roles and perspectives • Support collaborative construction of knowledge

17. Situated Learning Model Herrington 1997 • Promote reflection to enable abstractions to be formed • Promote articulation to enable tacit knowledge to be made explicit • Provide coaching and scaffolding at critical times • Provide for integrated assessment of learning within the tasks.

19. Research Methodology • Mixed methods • Videotaped preservice teachers using program • Interviewed teachers and their supervisors in schools during student teaching practicum

20. Findings • Problem Solved: • Novice teachers acquired advanced knowledge while engaging in higher order thinking • New knowledge and skills applied in practicum • Design Principles: • Situated learning model is a successful design model for eLearning

21. What other challenges do we face in improving the impact of technology in teacher education?

22. The biggest challenge may be the mistaken belief that corporate America can fix education.

23. 3 big lies business tells about technology and learning: • Technology lets you replace the teacher with the machine. • Technology makes learning easy and automatic. • Changing the medium alone enhances learning.

24. Corporate America’s View of the Future of Education

25. Are teacher holograms in our future? “Understandably, professors appearing as holograms is a discomforting idea. I can understand why these entrenched opinions exist, but I urge their proponents to rethink them.”

26. How will we ever enable teachers to use technology effectively?

29. Actual film of two instructors’first exposure to computers.

31. How can we judge the quality of development research?

32. “The status of research deemed educational would have to be judged, first in terms of its disciplined quality and secondly in terms of its impact. Poor discipline is no discipline. And excellent research without impact is not educational.” - Charles W. Desforges (2000)

33. Quality is controversial because judging it is often so subjective.

34. Quality is controversial because judging it is often so subjective.

35. Flyer

36. Spencer

38. Thank You! Professor Tom Reeves The University of Georgia Instructional Technology 604 Aderhold Hall Athens, GA 30602-7144 USA treeves@coe.uga.edu http://it.coe.uga.edu/ http://www.evaluateitnow.com

39. Did you know that 63% of all statistics are made up on the spot?

40. Design-Based Research Collective We suggest that the value of design-based research should be measured by its ability to improve educational practice.

41. Because we are a design profession (not a discipline), educational technologists should pursue development research that integrates the desire to solve problems with the search for knowledge.

42. John DeweyLogic: The Theory of Inquiry Design knowledge is “warranted assertibility.” It “designates a potentiality rather than an actuality” and “involves recognition that all special conclusions of special inquiries are parts of an enterprise that is continually renewed, or is a going concern.”