Responses to Day 1

Today was really a valuable day in understanding the aims of the project and the strategies for implementation. I feel positive about the success of the particular project that Year 3 will be undertaking and I am confident in the collaboration that will occur to see this to fruition.
I do have some misgivings/confusion over the expectations of the study as a whole, as I perhaps am a little unsure about how this study fits into ‘Action Research’( as stated in the Value Proposition), whereby my basic understandings of this type of research indicate a need to measure change over time. For this to occur (that is in relation to the levels of engagement within students accessing learning experiences involving ICT), then surely they would need to have a distinct absence of ICT in pedagogy to begin with, where in fact at TAS it is already largely engrained in the culture and practice of teaching and learning.
In reflecting on our collaborative discussions surrounding terminology and appropriateness of Behavioural, Emotional and Cognitively framed questions/indicators, I think it would perhaps be more suitable to have a Junior and Senior style of descriptors. The styles of and presentations of engagement in learning do, in my opinion, have distinct and disparate differences across age groups.

Thanks to all for an informative and ‘engaging’ day!

Friday was particularly valuable for me as I saw how involved everyone was in planning for next term. I was impressed with the negotiation that allowed conflicting time schedules (May to July) to be resolved. The different perspectives and ideas that everyone brought to the table were encouraging. For me, in particular, it was useful to be presented with a number of implementation issues that I need to think through. My one regret was that we could not have had a little more time to discuss the engagement measures at the end of the day.

Friday helped me understand the finer details of the project which I was unsure of. It was exciting to meet the team and to discuss the program for year five. I am interested to discover the effect that IT incorporation will have on the student's engagement in the topic. It is a great opportunity to help lead the students and witness first- hand the process and eventual results this study may produce.

Friday left me with many questions and uncertainties about the project. Going on LSL next term has many ramifications for my group - my replacement has no ownership of the unit (as he did not write it) and may not have the same passion in delivery (consequently engagement levels may be different than anticipated); the unit, whilst involving ICT, is not centred around ICT (it is designed for the students, not the technology); unit tasks are not all group-based, due to the nature of some of the students in the class. I couldn't help but feel that the data collection is dictating the learning experiences for the students, instead of the other way around. As a teacher, student learning is my primary focus and I left, on Friday, feeling that we had lost that focus. Like others, I believe that ICT at TAS is not a separate entity - a laptop is just another tool (like a school book) and its use is seamlessly integrated into many lessons. In this instance, I agree with Alex that it will be difficult to "measure" the level of engagement as opposed to "what"? There appear to be many variables throughout the data collection - no one student's behaviour is the same as another's. Is there avenue to take into account students with learning or behavioural difficulties? Will observers who don't know these children be able to identify their level of engagement accurately? Whilst there are many questions, I am looking forward to following the project in my absence, and am certainly excited that the pre-service teachers will get some invaluable insight into, and experience in, the workings of a diverse classroom.

The friday left me with several concerns:

1. Differentiating behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement factors - One of the things that became clear as we worked through the different suggestions made was that identifiers for the different engagements were not isolated. One example would be that of 'asking questions', it was both behavioural and cognitive. Not only does it raise the question of what ways we have to isolate those particular levels of engagement, but it also makes me wonder whether they should be taken as stand alone concepts. They seem to be too interdependent to seperate them easily.

2. Hawthorne Effect - I think it was Linley that raised it first, whether our presence there will affect the data. While I think that having a persistent presence there may reduce the effect, as opposed to just turning up on data collection days, a clear outline on our protocols for data collection would help allay those uncertainties.

3. Measuring ICT effectiveness in engagement - Zake's point about not having parallel classes without ICT resources to compare our ICT classes with was a good one I believe. If we're targetting the ICT's effect on engagement specifically, as opposed to just evaluating the general engagement of the classes, what is the material being compared to? Different surveys? In which case, are they covering similar material?

Friday was a very valuable day for me as I learnt to share opinions, and ideas about issues that were raised concerning the year 6 ICT project.
This is a very exciting opportunity and I am looking forward to beginning the project and gaining valuable knowledge and experience from teaching.

Thank you for the opportunity to try to get my head around the components of this project. Whilst I had my reservations prior to today, I am now thrilled that I will be involved.

The enthusiasm and knowledge of the people in our team was reassuring and I look forward to the opportunity to work more closely with them. To be able to discuss the decisions in a collaborative sense with pre-service teachers is particularly exciting.

I found it interesting to hear throughout the day the assumptions that people make about the students at TAS and look forward to revisiting these with them as the project progresses. They are a group of normal teenage boys...

Having read Alex's response to the day, I too am interested in discussing the impact of completing this project at TAS given that the "look at my new machine" has now warn off and that the technology is integrated in our everyday curriculum. The positive aspect of this, in my view, is that the data we collect on engagement using IT will not be influenced solely by students having access to "new and flashy machines", rather that the technology use should impact on the students ability to engage with more authentic tasks.

I'm particularly pleased that this has happened prior to the holidays, so that I now have the time to reflect on the day and to incorporate the specific needs of this project into my unit plan. Essentially, I need to consider whether the way I normally run a unit of work in my classroomwill enable the data collection required for this project ..... perhaps some modifications will need to be made.

Hi, everyone.

I was really interested to tease out what it means to be engaged. The term gets used quite a lot, but it seems that, while there is a sense of what it means, this sense is very broad. It is a great exercise to try to pin it down, and think about what it 'looks like' in the classroom.

I look forward to continuing on this journey with you all.