becker_2007-2008 final activity report narrative_052608

8/8/2019 BECKER_2007-2008 Final Activity Report Narrative_052608

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survey, proved to be an ideal integrated learning experience for students headingtowards the dissertation process.

I carried five dissertation advisees over from Hofstra. I worked with theseadvisees extensively via e-mail, Skype, phone, etc. Two of my adviseesgraduated in December 2007 and two more graduated in May 2008. I made it a

point to attend those graduation ceremonies so that I could participate in theirhooding ceremony; I find that small event a meaningful one and enjoy doing it. Ihave one more dissertation advisee at Hofstra who should graduate in December2008. I also recently agreed to chair the dissertation committees of seven VCUdoctoral students. I look forward to working with them and to one day placing ahood over their heads as well. Though it is more work than many would think, Ido enjoy working with doctoral students as a dissertation advisor. I often learn asmuch as I teach/advise, making the experience (hopefully) mutually beneficial.

If theres one area of the professoriate where I think I have the most roomfor growth, it is in the teaching realm. Thus, moving forward, I am seriouslylooking for ways to expand my teaching repertoire. In particular, as one who

writes, speaks and learns about technology in education, I expect to incorporateand model lots of new forms of technology into my teaching. For example, forthe EDUS 710 course Ill be teaching in the fall, Im considering having thestudents jointly develop a research design wiki that they can look to for helpduring the comprehensive exams, during their dissertation process and beyond.

Research and Scholarly Activity

Though I feel I ultimately accomplished many of my goals this year withrespect to research and scholarly activity, time spent getting settled into the newhome and the new job certainly detracted from my efforts. My major goals for the

year were to concentrate on four journal articles and a major publication projectfor the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP). Each ofthe articles was first presented at one of two major national conferences. I usedthose presentations as opportunities to get feedback for revision before sendingthe manuscripts off for potential publication. I did get very good feedback and Imglad I used this process. I write about each of these scholarly endeavors in turnbelow.

The first manuscript I worked on was actually presented at the annualconference of the American Educational Research Association in Chicago inApril 2007. The time spent transitioning from Hofstra to VCU constrained myability to work on that manuscript in the immediate wake of that conference, but I

did ultimately get that manuscript revised slightly and sent off for publication.Entitled Beyond Self-Report: Using Technology to Evaluate the Use ofTechnology in Schools the manuscript is a critical review of novel methods usedto collect data in a statewide evaluation of a technology integration supportprogram in West Virginia. I submitted the manuscript to Practical Assessment,Research and Evaluation, an electronic peer-reviewed journal accessed athttp://pareonline.net. The editor of the journal was enthusiastic about themanuscript and suggested only that I re-work the introduction a bit before he


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sends it off to the reviewers. I will complete that process by the first week inJune.

The second manuscript I completed this year was produced from a paper Ipresented at both UCEA (November 2007) and AERA (April 2008). I presentedthe paper twice, looking for feedback from two very different audiences, because

I have struggled with this manuscript. Entitled Facilitating TechnologyIntegration: Results from an Evaluation of West Virginia's Enhancing EducationThrough Technology (EETT) Model School Project, the manuscript is an attemptto summarize the findings of a three year statewide evaluation in West Virginia.Ultimately, I concluded that this manuscript was too enterprising; I tried toaccomplish too much for a single journal article. Thus, I have decided to split themanuscript into two separate articles. One article will be a purely positivist lookat the evaluation results with an emphasis on the findings from a quasi-experimental perspective. The second will take a more naturalistic perspectiveon the issue of facilitating technology integration. During the week of May 27,2008, I will be spending four days in 15 schools collecting qualitative data as part

of a second evaluation of the same statewide initiative in West Virginia. My visitswill be the fourth set of visits by a member of an evaluation team. Combined withqualitative data collected during earlier visits to schools in West Virginia, I expectto be able to develop a manuscript that delves more deeply into the work oftechnology support personnel. In fact, I have a plan to write a part of thismanuscript in the evening after each day of site visits while in West Virginia andwhile the newest data are fresh in my mind. I fully expect to send off both ofthese manuscripts for potential publication by the end of the summer of 2008.

At AERA 2008 in New York, NY, I presented a paper I had been workingon for almost two years. The Digital Horserace: An Analysis Of Differences inStudent Computer Use Across the States and Across the Years uses the NAEPData Explorer (NDE), a wonderful Web-based data analysis tool, to documentdifferences in student computer use across the states and the years. The NDEcan be used to run descriptive and inferential statistics on NAEP data, includingnumerous statistical tests of difference on any of the instructional experience orschool environment factor items. Those tests of difference can be run acrossyears or, for example, within years and between demographic subgroups or anynumber of participating jurisdictions. For the manuscript, I did an analysis of thevarious items on student computer use across the years; specifically, I tested fordifferences in student computer use by states at different points in time. Inaddition to the tests of difference, the NDE produces incredible graphics that Iveincorporated into the manuscript. I submitted this manuscript to the Journal ofEducational Computing Research on April 23, 2008.

In January 2008, I sent a manuscript to the Journal of Law and Education.This manuscript, FOIA, FERPA and Other Acronyms Not Necessarily Beginningwith F: A Review of Information Privacy Issues in Public Education in theInformation Age, co-authored with Dr. Scott McLeod of Iowa State University,was rejected by the BYU Journal of Educational Law without comment or review.I have not heard anything from JLE since submitting the manuscript so I willfollow up with the editors soon.


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The most exciting scholarly endeavor for me this year has been the onlineschool law guide I am jointly developing with Dr. Scott McLeod of Iowa StateUniversity exclusively for the National Association of Secondary SchoolPrincipals (NASSP). Taking advantage of exciting technologies and theinteractive nature of the Internet, Dr. McLeod and I are taking the school law

textbooks out of the print realm and into the digital age. Organized aroundmodules that allow the learner to read and/or download the material and that alsoinclude audio-visual flash movies for the learner to watch and hear, the onlineschool law guide will be made available to all NASSP members. The modulesalso include links to published opinions of major cases, links to relevant onlineresources and a test yourself interactive quiz. The FAQ sections of eachmodule will grow organically as inquiries arrive from principals/learners. Dr.McLeod and I have an agreement to maintain the online school law guide inperpetuity and we have plans to incorporate ideas such as archived webinarswith experts in school law. This exciting project is in the final stages and shouldbe released in beta form some time during the summer of 2008.

Service

My service to the School of Education was primarily through mymembership on one school-wide committee and one advisory board. As amember of the ad hoc Research and Professional Development committee, Ihelped to organize the faculty research colloquium that took place in the Spring.This well-attended event involved a keynote speaker (Dr. Joseph Maxwell fromGeorge Mason University) and presentations by VCU SoE faculty members. Iagreed to present twice and was pleased to do so. As a committee, we areplanning on organizing another research colloquium next year and we areexploring the possibility of running other professional development opportunities

such as brown bag lunches and/or technologically-facilitated researchdiscussions.

In February 2008, I was asked by Dean Warren to serve on an advisoryboard for the conduct of research and external funding. The advisory board wasgiven a number of related commissions all around how the School might supportfaculty research structurally, financially and otherwise. The advisory board metweekly between March and May to craft a comprehensive set ofrecommendations to Dean Warren. Serving on this advisory board was an honorand a great learning experience for me. I was able to learn many of the details ofthe flow of funds from research and training grants while simultaneously offeringmy input on organizational issues to be addressed. I believe the

recommendations ultimately submitted to the Dean are excellent and will stronglyincentivize faculty members to pursue external funds for research.

I continue to serve as the co-chair of the Technology and Leadershipspecial interest group (SIG) of the University Council on EducationalAdministration (UCEA). For the last two years, this SIG has held a businessmeeting at the annual meeting of UCEA. Attendance has been terribly low, partlydue to the 7:00 a.m. time slot reserved for UCEA SIG business meetings.However, the lack of attendance is mostly due to the fact that, as far as my


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colleagues and I can tell, there are literally a handful of professors of educationalleadership in UCEA institutions (and probably elsewhere) who are concernedwith technology leadership. Thus, the major goal of the SIG is to increaseawareness among educational leadership faculty of the importance of leadershipfor 21

stCentury, technology-infused schooling. To that end, my co-chair (Dr.

David Quinn, U. of Florida) and I have created an online network throughNING.(see http://edtechleader.ning.com). This space will be used as astorehouse of technology-related resources for school leaders and will hostseveral electronic forums and conversations. Those are the initial goals for thenetworking site, but, truthfully, the limits are seemingly boundless for what wecan do with the Ning space.

Professional Development

This year, as in past years, I attended the two major national conferencesmost relevant to my work. The annual meeting of the University Council onEducational Administration met in November 2007 in Alexandria, Virginia. Inaddition to presenting a paper there, I attended a number of sessions related tomy teaching and research interests. I also attended the annual meeting of theAmerican Educational Research Association (AERA) in March 2008, where Ipresented two papers and attended many sessions also related to myprofessional interests. AERA, in my opinion, has become too big and thelearning opportunities are varied and inconsistent. However, I do continue tolearn and advance myself professionally there.

In addition to AERA and UCEA, I attended two other conferences. First,thanks to extra funding from Dr. Warren, I attended the annual conference of theVirginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE). This organization is the

largest and leading organization devoted to educational technology issues acrossthe Commonwealth of Virginia. I attended many sessions at this conference andnetworked extensively, recognizing that the key stakeholders in ed. tech. in thestate were all at the VSTE conference. I also confirmed my hypothesis thatschool leaders are not in the professional development loop with respect to ed.tech. I didnt meet or see any building level administrators there, and I was toldthat they dont typically attend VSTEs conference (or any other tech. conferencefor that matter).

Second, I attended the Commonwealth School Law Conference organizedby CEPI. When I interviewed with VCU, I was told all about the CEPI school lawconference. I was excited to be part of an organization that provides and

supports such a learning opportunity. And, having attended the conference inApril, I was even more excited. I found the conference to be well organized anda true learning event for all that attended. The conference was not too big andincluded a regional and national audience. I look forward to attending thisconference in future years.


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Blurring the Lines Between Teaching, Scholarship, Service andPD

The previous five pages notwithstanding, I believe we are at a point in ourhistory where the lines between teaching, scholarship, service and professionaldevelopment are more blurred than ever. Amazing advances in technology

change the ways in which we can communicate with colleagues and studentsand the access we have to ideas and information. One result of these advancesis the growing concept of Personal or Professional Learning Networks orEnvironments. I have been using PLN to denote a personal/professionallearning network.

I spent a great deal of time this year developing and working within mydynamic and organic PLN. A graphic conceptualizing my PLN is attached to thisnarrative. How does the PLN work and how does it blur lines? Well, considerthe following:

MY BLOG: At http://edinsanity.com, Ive been blogging since January 2008. Iwrite based on my professional expertise in educational technology, policy,leadership and law. In other words, I am publishing to the Web and serving myrole as a public intellectual. As the number of readers and subscribers to myblog increases, the level and quality of the (peer) review improves. In otherwords, should I write something wrong or inappropriate, the commenting functionof the blog allows for my peers to indicate that and for readers to learn that way.Ive had well over 2,000 views of my website, and one post generated 50+comments and over 1,000 views.

I also blog regularly at http://leadertalk.org (a blog for school leaders byschool leaders) and The Schoolhouse Gate (http://www.schoolhousegate.org) a

school law blog.

RSS Feed Aggregator: Through Bloglines (or, now Google Reader, to whichIve switched), I receive notice and links to blog posts of interest. By subscribingto blogs that are related to my own personal and professional interests, theinformation and ideas come to me. When I see a post or a story that is ofparticular interest, or when where Id like to comment, I can go to the blog postand comment. That is a form of review and also a very interesting learningencounter.

Twitter: Twitter is a social messaging application. I follow nearly 40 twitterersand I now have 96 followers. Messages (tweets) on Twitter are limited to 140characters. Any time I send out a tweet, all of my followers see it. Similarly,anytime anyone I follow sends out a tweet, to me or anyone else, I see it. Thisapplication allows me to announce new blog posts and for me to raise questionsof others with similar personal and professional interests. For example, recently,I was looking for a free software application that I had read about but could notfind. I sent out a tweet and received multiple responses in minutes. There is a


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great deal of collective wisdom and skills within my Twitter network and I tap intothat network for all sorts of learning experiences.

Ning: is a social networking space that allows for community organizing. Ibelong to multiple Ning networks, including a VSTE network, the Technology

Leaders network that Im working on developing for the UCEA SIG, and a NINGnetwork called Classroom 2.0 where there are regular discussions and links tolive, online learning experiences.

I can go on, but the point is that I am now constantly learning and facilitating thelearning of others through various Web-based applications. Through my blog, Ireach more readers in one month than I EVER will with, for example, one peer-reviewed journal article. I expect to write more about the changing nature ofteaching and scholarship in the future.


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becker_2007-2008 final activity report narrative_052608

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