Inquiry Plan My inquiry plan was created as a cumulative project in Science. The students work collaboratively to create a wiki page about a specific biome. |
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Inquiry Plan Rubric This is the rubric I would use to assessment my students work. They would all receive this rubric prior to beginning as a way to organize and guide their work. |
Final Reflective Essay
When reflecting on my experiences this semester I can say that I have learned a lot! I was very nervous about doing research and coming up with a formal inquiry plan or research paper. I was not very familiar with the writing process from a masters level. It really wasn’t that bad after I started working through it. I’m sure my paper is not exactly APA style, but I did the best that I could following the guidelines as I worked. With more practice, I would become very comfortable with it.
I enjoyed researching educational technology topics, as it is something that I am actually interested in. I can remember many times where I was doing research about something that I was not really connected with because it was something a professor told you to research. After going to the ISTE conference in Denver, I spent some time looking for articles about using cell phones in education. I also got approval from my principal to pilot a program using a cell phone in education. We’ll see how it goes!
I was also amazed at how much research has actually been done in the area of educational technology. When I went into the CCSU library search tools and put in the work “wiki” there were over 2500 hits! I really did not think that there had been so much done in terms of research! I would think with all of the positive research that is out there, my school system would require stronger uses of technology within the curriculum!
I enjoyed how we took the time to try out some of the ways technology is used in education within our class. It was very interesting to hold class in second life. I like how we used a wiki as a class website so we could easily post and respond to discussion questions. This allows me to see how these forms of technology are used and weather or not I think it is something I could do myself. When talking with teachers at the ISTE conference I was amazed at what some schools have for technology and how they use it!
