Evidence of research competencies

As noted in my candidacy statement, design education and technology integration are the core areas of my research agenda. My overall professional goal is to equip future and current teachers with the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively design instruction and integrate technology within K-12 environments, with a particular focus on design-related domains. Within my larger research agenda, I seek to understand the role that design education plays within K-12 classrooms and how teachers can be prepared to effectively integrate technology into various design-related curricula.

Research Approach/Philosophy of Research

Though my research agenda may seem relatively straight-forward, my approach to research is rooted in social responsibility. I aim to do research that is not only holistic and grounded in scholarship and theory, but ultimately provides good for people, policy, the community, and society at large. I primarily want to examine what works with respect to design education and technology integration within classroom settings for teachers and students and why it works. The research questions that I seek answer are derived from my analysis of the literature in design education and technology integration. The literature informs my theoretical perspective that ultimately determines my research methodology and methods. I do not define myself as a qualitative or quantitative researcher, as my research methods are contingent upon the research question(s) I am investigating.

Research Influences

My research is influenced by learning and instructional theories in the context of design education. Design education is a unique area of study in that design is complex and not procedural (Schön, 1983). The highly situated nature of design tasks makes it very difficult to generalize from one project to another (Mitchell, 1993). Teaching students to think like designers requires that students are able to understand that design is context specific, constraints affect decisions, decisions need to be defended and biases should be articulated (Jonassen, 2008). Teaching a complex topic, such as design, requires a robust understanding of instructional design (Bichelmeyer, personal communication, October 15, 2008). Instructional design theories can lend particular insight as to how design thinking can be taught to various populations.

Present Research Competencies (Needed and Acquired)

Ability to review and synthesize literature

Status: Acquired. I have engaged in scholarly writing through the creation of literature reviews and critiques, many of which I created specifically for research proposals. I also subscribe to several journals in the field, including American Educational Research Journal, TechTrends, and Educational Researcher.

Knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods

Status: Acquired. As an inquiry minor, I have taken a variety of research courses in both qualitative and quantitative methods, including: Application of Research Methods to Instructional Systems Technology (R690), Intermediate Inferential Statistics (Y502), Methodological Approaches to Educational Inquiry (Y521), Survey Research Methodology (Y521), Qualitative Inquiry in Education (Y611), Applied Multivariate Statistics (Y604), Narrative Theory and Inquiry (Y630), Content Analysis for the World Wide Web (S642), and Discourse Theory and Analysis (Y631). In the fall of 2014, I audited a course on Covariance Structure Analysis (Y624).

Knowledge of theories related to IST

Status: Acquired. Given that one's theoretical framework should inform and guide one's research in IST, I have completed coursework to expand my knowledge of theories that relate to IST. In addition to Readings in Instructional Technology (711), I have completed coursework in Human Computer Interaction Design Theory (I604), Philosophy and Theory of Design (I690), and Theory and Method in Learning Science (P572).

Experience in designing research studies

Status: Acquired. As part of Y611 (Qualitative Inquiry in Education), P572 (Theory and Method in Learning Science), and my independent work as part of my research groups, I have constructed research study proposals that relate to my research interests of design education and technology integration.

Ability to design data collection strategies and instruments

Status: Acquired. Through my experience working on the Leveraging Technology to Keep America Competitive project, I designed a variety of data collection instruments. Additionally, as part of my coursework, I created semi-structured interview questions for a pilot study in Y611 (Qualitative Inquiry in Education) and Y630 (Narrative Inquiry). In Y525 (Survey Research Methodology), I developed a survey instrument that involved both multiple iterations, pilot testing, and subject-matter expert review.

Ability to collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data

Status: Acquired. In addition to my coursework, as part of my involvement on the TeachTech research project and Prof. Boling's research group, I have participated in many aspects of data collection and analysis. Examples of my ability to collect and analyze data include screening of initial respondents to surveys, analyzing quantitative responses from surveys, coding of open-ended questions, conducting multiple phone interviews, transcribing interviews, coding interview data, and conducting document analysis. Due to the sensitive nature of the documents, some documents have been posted to a secure server and require an IU network ID and a password to access.

Experience in sharing research at conferences and through publications

Status: Achieved. Since I started in the IST program in 2007, I have steadily increased the number of research conference submissions I have made. At this point in time, I have gained experience presenting at national and international conferences, including AECT, SITE, and AERA. In addition to my conference presentations and papers, I recently published an article in the Spring of 2014 in Learning and Leading with Technology. Most recently, I presented an emerging technology session and a paper presentation at the AECT conference in November 2015.

Ability to apply for and receive research funding

Status: Achieved. In January 2016, I submitted a grant proposal to the Small Business Innovation and Research program through the Department of Education. Funding for the SBIR grant it worth $150,000 and awards will be announced in April 2016. If Phase I is successful, I will apply for Phase II funding which will be work $850,000. Typically 60% to 70% of individuals who receive Phase I funding go on to receive Phase II funding. During my doctoral coursework, I applied for and received a grant through the University of Notre Dame to support Catholic education within the city of Indianapolis. I also had the ability to work as a research assistant on the Leveraging Technology to Keep America Competitive contract with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology. I also worked on a grant to establish an Educational Technology Center (ETC) within the Center for Evaluation and Educational Policy (CEEP). I received research funding as a recipient of the IST Kemp award in 2011 and 2014.

Future Research Competencies (Goals)

The goals that I set at my second dossier review are goals that I will commit to during my career as a scholar. For instance, I stated at my second review that I wanted to obtain grant proposals for future research endeavors. Since that time, I received the internal IST Kemp Award for my research in 2011 ($4300) and in 2014 ($3000).

Another goal that I set for myself at my second dossier review was to continue to publish in peer-reviewed journals. Since my second review, I have been a collaborating authors on three peer-reviewed research publications, first author on a teaching publication, and have a first-authored research publication that was published in Dec. 2015 in the Journal of Digital Teaching and Learning. Looking ahead, in the Spring of 2015, I intend to submit a first-authored publication (currently a working manuscript) to the International Journal of Designs for Learning.

References

Jonassen, D. H. (2008). Design as iterative constraint satisfaction: A cognitivist perspective. Paper presented at the annual conference of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), Orlando, FL.

Mitchell, C. T. (1993). Redefining designing: From form to experience. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner. New York, NY: Basic Books.