MITE6025_Individual Assignment_Iris Wu

There are some errors in my slideshare a/c, I cannot successfully upload my powerpoint. The context of 3 pages of slides are as follow:
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Title: The effectiveness of the use of mind map in ICT teaching and learning of Hong Kong Secondary School: A case study

The main research question in this research plan is:
What is the effectiveness of the use of mind map in ICT teaching and learning of Hong Kong Secondary School?

The research question incorporates two supporting sub-questions.
(1)Do students get more understanding of a topic through the use of mind map In ICT teaching and learning in Hong Kong Secondary School?
(2) Does the use of mind mapping cultivate students’learning interest and motivation in ICT teaching and learning in Hong Kong Secondary School?

Who are the study participants?
In phase 1, 100 secondary school students.
In phase 2, 20 senior secondary school students who take ICT.

How are they selected?
In phase 1, students will be selected randomly in different forms and classes.
In phase 2, students will be selected in senior from S.4-S.7 who take ICT.
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Why is this important topic to study?
This study bears significance in three aspects.
First, it may inform researchers the effectiveness of the use of mind map in ICT teaching and learning in Hong Kong secondary school. Although similar research has been done in overseas schools, concerned information about Hong Kong secondary schools is still very limited.

Second, this study may reveal whether the use of mind map will have a better understanding of a topic in ICT teaching and learning. Despite the fact that some studies have proved positive use of mind mapping in teaching and learning in general, whether it is true of enhancing effectiveness still awaits researchers to find out.

Third, this study may serve as a reference for the other secondary schools in Hong Kong. The findings of the study may provide a basis for using mind map in ICT teaching and learning in Hong Kong secondary schools.
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How will data be collected and analysed?
Data collection is comprised of questionnaire, interviews, observations and field notes.

The data will be analysed in several different ways.

In Phase 1 of pilot test, responses of the questionnaire is analysed by Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) quantitatively.

In Phase 2, the pretest and posttest consist of structured questions. Paired t-test is conducted to examine whether using mind mapping in ICT teaching and learning can improve students' learning outcomes, and whether such improvement, if any, is of statistical significant.

Individual Assignment (Lee-Anne)

Lee-Anne - Indiv Researc

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At the moment I'm having trouble collecting my thoughts into something that is decent for this. I have been working extensively on students using an ePortfolio for the last 12 months and want to solidify this experience into some type of research project for the next 12 months. Not sure if it should be action research or case study. Comments and thoughts on this are warmly received.

Lee-Anne Catching up on missed work

Task 4 for Session 6 - Investigating Case Study Research Paper

Article: Wall, K, Higgins, S, Miller, J, & Packard, N (2006). Developing digital portfolios: Investigating how digital portfolios can facilitate pupil talk about learning. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 15, 261-273.

The Digital Portfolio Project was based out of Newcastle University in 2002/3 across 12 primary schools in the North-East of England - it had the stated aim of "to support teachers in producing, storing and accessing assessment portfolios of learner's work using ICT"

The project also drew on areas of research into Assessment for Learning and Thinking Skills. It had a strong emphasis on the reflections of the students that participated in the study.

Literature Review:
Clarke (1998) Targeting assessment in the primary classroom: strategies for planning, assessment, pupil feedback and target setting.
Clarke (2001) Unlocking formative assessment: practical strategies for enhancing pupils' learning in the primary classroom
Moseley et al (1999) Ways forward with ICT: effective pedagogy using information and communication technology in literacy and numeracy in primary schools.
Moreland (2001) Enhancing teachers' technical knowledge and assessment practices to enhance student learning in technology: a two year classroom study
Higgins (2003) Does ICT improve learning and teaching in schools?
Chang, C (2001) A study on the evaluation and effectiveness analysis of web-based learning portfolio

Methodology:
As part of the research new tools were developed for students to record their reflections and thoughts during the creation of the digital portfolio. This tool was used to mediate the discussions with students about their learning as the focus of the methodology was on the pupils' views which emerged from these discussions - students commented on the fact that the process of creating the digital portfolio was as important a learning objective as the final product.

Conclusions Reached:
"The combination of a digital portfolio and thinking skills has been revealed to be a powerful one" which much scope left for further research. The reflective nature of the digital portfolios and their ability to create independent learners has a positive impact on students and the way that they perceive themselves as learners.

Allen's Research Proposal

Programming Language

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Case Study example paper

Home-school technologies: considering the family

Link to article

This research is a case study on issues around ubiquitous computing and home-school computing transitions.

If you are not familiar with the exact meaning of "ubiquitous computing", read this first.

This research interviewed 3 families about their reactions to ubiquitous computing technologies designed to support home-school transitions.

It is found that families were willing to use such technologies to share information among themselves, but that mechanisms for filtering this information would be a challenge for designers. Further, families were reluctant to share information with outsiders, such as teachers. The paper ends with a discussion on the implications of these findings for both future technologies and further research into their design.

This research attempts to answer questions on the safety and ethical concerns about protection of data, like:

- how do we justify increasing links between home and school, when children are often active in resisting such information transfer?

- how do we tie this in with research suggesting that the home is a site of ludic activity?

Data are gathered from family interviews. Three selected British families were invited to research laboratory to view some ideas for technologies that might support their homework.

A summary of a experimental research paper

Source from http://breast-cancer-research.com/content/8/2/R14

Research article: Breast asymmetry and predisposition to breast cancer

Medical Research is common to use different case studies for comparison and analysis. After having the data collection, data will be analyzed, so to make a medical statistics and further studying. Testing for each individual case is needed, such as this research article. It is mainly focus on comparison of the diagnosed breast cancer with more breast volume asymmetry,as measured from mammograms,patients and age-matched healthy women.

Also, this was a retrospective study on women who had mammography during the period 1979 to 1986. The original study collected detailed breast cancer risk factor data form a total of 12942 women self-referred to the Liverpool Breast Screening Unit between 1979 and 1986, the aim being to establish whether mammographic parenchymal patterns were associated with hypothesised risk factors for breast cancer.

For this research study, a study group and a control group were formed to compare two streams of cases. The study group consisted of 252 asymptomatic women who had normal mammography, but went on to develop breast cancer. The control group consisted of 252 age-matched healthy controls whose mammograms were also normal and who remained free of cancer during the study period.

For each group, breast volume was calculated from the cranio-caudal mammograms. Thus the relationships between asymmetry will establish risk factors and the presence or absence of breast cancer were explored. If the breast asymmetry was greater in healthy women who later developed breast cancer than in women who did not.

After having the results, there will have some discussion for the findings, and a brief conclusion to sum up the findings.

Using portfolios for reflection slides

The slideshare.net has some error, which cannot be embedded in the blog at this time.

For the slides, please assess the following website:

http://www.slideshare.net/rhoffice_iris/using-portfolios-for-reflection#

Experimental Research Task

Experimental Task: Using Portfolios for Reflection

Hypothesis: that the format of a student's portfolio has an effect on their English writing improvement.

Ho: That there is no significant difference in the improvement in student writing between using a digital portfolio or a paper based traditional portfolio.

Ha: That there is a significant difference in the improvement in student writing and that the mean improvement for digital portfolios is higher than paper based portfolios.

Participants:

Population: an entire year level in a high school eg year 10 students at WIS

Sample: take 2 classes randomly selected (all classes are mixed ability - based on CATs data - at WIS). One class to be assigned to digital portfolio another paper portfolio.

Instruments:

Students are assigned to classes on the basis of CATs data so that they are of mixed ability. It can be assumed on this basis that the classes are of similar ability.

To determine the ability of the class use the National Standard rubrics to assess student level at the start and end of the year. The mean “value- added” for each class is to be calculated.

Research Plan:

Comparison of Two different Approaches – one class will use digital portfolio tools and the other class will use traditional paper based portfolio.

Execution of Plan:

Students will use the portfolios for the full academic year – this will enable students to get comfortable with the approach and give sufficient time for reflection and feedback in both treatments. Also students should be able to create several pieces of work for their portfolio during this period of time.

Analysis of Data:

For each student a value-added figure needs to be arrived at – the difference between the beginning of year and end of year results. The class mean of these figures needs to be calculated.

Using t-test and level of significance of 0.05

Updated Journal

Journal Renew

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Correlation Research Question

Correlation Question Research

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Correlation Research Question

1. Potential correlation research question (with 2 variables)

Is the secondary school student academic performance (Variable 1) correlated to their medium of instruction in school (Variable 2)?

Correlated Variable 1: Secondary school student academic performance

Correlated Variable 2: Medium of instruction in school

Testing Hypothesis

H0:

Null hypothesis means that secondary school student academic results are not related to their medium of instruction in school.

2. How could data for the correlated variables be collected?

First of all, assume the score of public examination can measure students’ academic performance in Chinese/English as a Medium of Instruction (CMI/EMI) school, by keeping all the other factors constantly.

Then, collect the samples from CMI and EMI school for pilot test, a graph can be plotted with score of students’ public examination, against the medium of instruction.

After the data collection, correlation coefficient “r” will be computed for that two correlated variables, if r = 0, it means there is no relationship between student academic result and their medium of instruction in school.

Likewise, if r ≠ 0, it means there is a direct relationship between student academic result and their medium of instruction in school.

Further analysis

If correlation coefficient is r ≠ 0, an alternative hypothesis will be set.

HA:

Students have a better academic performance if they study in a EMI school.

Further analysis will be conducted if necessary, such as rank the student academic performance in CMI and EMI school.

3. Provide argument how answer to that question can contribute to improvements in some aspect of education/ teaching and learning?

If the correlation coefficient is >0.5, it is a positive correlation. Then, the school can consider to enhance the students’ academic results / performance by using English as a medium of instruction in school.

Introduction of VoiceThread

Some pages has been added for VoiceThread presentation, amendments are welcome, contents are as follow:

What is VoiceThread?
It's a web-based communications network. Simple, powerful and safe,VoiceThread is a place for creating and collaborating on digital stories and documentaries, practicing and documenting language skills, exploring geography and culture, solving math problems, or simply finding and honing student voices.

Private, or Public

All VoiceThreads are private by default and creators can easily control who can view, edit and comment on content. Within this private state educators can collaborate with students, students with each other, and entire classes with other classes around the world. It's never necessary to make a VoiceThread publicly viewable, but we do believe students grow when they share and collaborate with others.

The act of publishing content, that can be seen by anyone anywhere, reinforces the message that student work is unique, valuable, and worthy of the world's attention.

Demostration of VoiceThread

Voicethread for Research

The voice thread above discusses some of the affordances a VoiceThread has for Academic Research.

Allen and Iris - please log into VoiceThread and add your comments to the thread.

What's a VoiceThread anyway?

This is a "voicethread" from VoiceThread that explains the tool, its functions etc. As with all Web2.0 tools this is just the beginning. Once you understand how the tool works you need to look at the affordances that the tool offers for your area i.e. how can we use this Web2.0 tool as a research tool. This is what our next posting will be explaining.

Session 3 Task

Identify and evaluate one computer tool that can be used to facilitate research
(e.g., data collection, analysis, report construction, literature management)

Session 2 Task

ACM Digital Library publishes 21 journals and transactions. Journal on Educational Resources in Computing (JERIC) is one journal that I feel suitable to research in.

One seemingly interesting article:
Reducing Abstraction in High School Computer Science Education: The Case of Definition, Implementation, and Use of Abstract Data Types
Victoria Sakhnini, Orit Hazzan
Volume 8, Issue 2, Journal on Educational Resources in Computing

Link to the article

Problem for the study:
What difficulties do students face when dealing with abstract data types

What procedure was used for the study:
Interview with 16 students to study their mental processes.
Also do observation in 3 CS classes.

What were the major conclusions for the study:
It is found that students tend to reduce the level of abstraction of the concept involved in different problem-solving situations. It is very similar to a previous study on mental process of reducing abstraction. The same framework is applied in the field of studying abstract computer science problems.

How to classify the study?
Qualitative approach

Session 2 Reading - Notes

Lim, C.P. , & Hung, D. (2003). An activity theory approach to research of ICT integration in Singapore schools. Computers & Education, 41(2003), 49-63

This reading focused on the question ‘How has ICT been integrated in Singapore schools such that students engage in higher order thinking?’ The conclusion reached is that "The effective integration of ICT in a learning environment depends on the way ICT is situated within that larger social cultural milieu" (Lim, 2003, p.62). i.e. that what happens in the classroom is not isolated from the social expectations of the school and the wider educational constructs of the country.

The focus of most of the paper is on explaining how the Activity Theory Framework aids in the analysis of an Activity System - and thus enables the researchers to understand the factors at work in the classrooms.

The development of the Activity Theory Framework was based on the work of the Russian psychologists Vygotsky, Rubinshtein, Leont'ev and others. In attempting to understand how the framework works it is important to know that "In Activity Theory the unit of analysis is an activity directed at an object which motivates activity, giving it a specific direction." In Lim's research the object of the research is the development of the higher order thinking skills by students. The tools used by students are ICT tools, software and hardware.

In another definition of Activity Theory Martin Ryder notes:
Activity Theory is not a "theory" in the strict interpretation of the term. It consists of a set of basic principles which constitute a general conceptual system which can be used as a foundation for more specific theories. These basic principles of Activity Theory include object-orientedness, the dual concepts of internalization/externalization, tool mediation, hierarchical structure of activity, and continuous development. The principle of object-orientedness states that human beings live in a reality which is objective in a broad sense; the things which constitute this reality have not only the properties which are considered objective according to natural sciences but socially/culturally defined properties as well.

In seeking to understand what is meant by an activity system the University of Helsinki - Centre for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research explains the triangular relationship between the factors.

Session 1 ~ Task 1

Develop research question and classify it in one of the research types

Who are we???

Members of our group: Lee-Anne, Iris and Allen
Lee-Anne - Learning Technologies Co-ordinator at West Island School
Allen - Programmer - especially web-based ones - at HKU
Iris - Visual Arts teacher at True Light Girls' College

Lee-Anne

Allen

Iris(3rd from left)