"We must become the change in the world we wish to see." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Most of you are well through a number of cycles. We like to see you use refection to rethink your efforts at least twice which is why we suggest 3 cycles. Depending on the nature of your action research you may be working in a different way. There is no one way that fits all.
Now is the time to review your initial question(s). They may have changed which is fine. Your project might have shifted and sometimes this will mean a reorganization of the literature review and some new reading. The shifts and the reasons for them should be the starting points of your reflections.
We will begin this session with your best "elevator pitch" about your action research. What is an elevator pitch? It comes from efforts to lobby politicians or corporate leaders in the few minutes that you have in a chance encounter. Imagine that the person who can most help you enters the elevator of a high rise at the same time as you. You have this person trapped and you start to talk. What will you say that will be most pervasive, generate the most interest, in your action research. What you are trying to do is get the person to invite you to tell them more when that door opens. So what would you say. So start working on your pitch and be ready to share it as soon as possible, but no later than the first week of class. Now there is one catch. You are not to look at or use anything you have written before. This is from your mind. What would you say? After you write it you can look back at other things for editing. But try to write it fresh--this is a quick write experience. Here is link with some direction for writing an elevator pitch. Also you can listen to This American Life to hear some advice on elevator pitches (starts at about 10 minutes in after a prologue). Don't get hung up with the one minute version.... it can be a slow elevator. But don't make it into a play... really we just want a short but powerful description of your action research.
I would like to see you each send a message to your new learning circle with your elevator pitch about your action research. This is an example of how I might describe my action research on using learning circles in my teaching. You can see that I am working on the report for cycle 3 right now.
Using Learning Circles to Increase the Quality of Student Learning
"elevator pitch"
You may think that online learning online is a lonely experience where students are trapped behind computers, reading, writing and taking tests. But it doesn't have to be this way. I have been experimenting with different social structures and opportunities for collaborative knowledge building and to develop professional networking and leadership skills.
I experimented with different ways of grouping students into learning circles. Each member of the circle has they own action research project but everyone in the circle has shared responsibility for the quality of the projects in their circle. I have been reflecting on what I can do to increase the sense of shared responsibility.
For the first circle, I experimented with my role in the circles. I decreased the number of times that I met with the learning circles. I decided not tocheck on students meeting when I am not there-- I left it to their responsibility. I used a survey at the end of the sessions to see if this increased or decreased the likelihood that students will help each other.
In the next cycle, I looked at the level and type of comments students shared with each other. I gave lots of feedback with the hope that I would be modeling the form of feedback that students would present to one another. I watched how many students develop their leadership skills in giving deeper comments to one another as the year progresses. I looked at four kinds of feedback--1) affirmations, positive comments, 2)corrections (grammar, spelling, or technical fixes), 3) extensions --more ideas in the same direction and 3) critique --suggestion of new directions.
For my third cycle,I wanted to see if students reflections indicate the value of learning circles. I am examining the final reflections of students over the past six years and looking to see how they talk about their experiences in learning circles.
The action research format stimulates the way I teach as I am always thinking about new problems. Once I solve a problem, I find that reflecting on why it worked often gives me ideas for what to try next. And of course, some of the things I try don't come close to working. But they often lead to new more successful ideas. This process is what makes online teaching so much more engaging and rewarding for me.
Look for a talk or essay on the web by George Lakoff. Our language is metaphorical in ways that we don't notice. Start listening for metaphors. And start looking in your own writing for metaphors. During our first learning circle meetings we will search for metaphors that we are already using and brainstorm the words that go with that metaphor. Using a metaphor is a delicate art. We don't want you get carried away with your metaphor. If audience remembers your metaphor but forgets your point, you have failed. So we will begin by thinking about our language use. Please have your elevator pitch ready on May 1 and posted before the May 7th class meeting times.
Your second task in learning circles will be to ask for an examples of data that people have collected that they are unsure of how to use or analyze. As a group will review the data looking for issues of validity and reliability. Did you find a valid way to collect data that is related to your topics and do you have a way of analyzing it that would be the same if someone else did it (reliable). Now these two issues do apply a bit different to action research as you are changing things as you go, but it is worth talking about both. This will be the second activity in your learning circles. It will follow the elevator pitch. Each week for four weeks you should be looking at data together--asking each other what you learned and if there are other ideas of how you might learn more.
During the third trimester, you will be carrying out your third cycle plan using your reflections to guide you change. You will be reflecting on the process and organizing all of your notes and works into plans for your report of your research. Through out this program you have been refining your personal theory of learning and teaching. Your Action Research journal is a good place to reflect on this process and collect the things that you learn in other classes that you will want to use in your final report. The more regularly you write in your journal, the more written work you will have to pull from when you are ready to write your final report. You should be in the practice of making weekly entries. While your action research entries will end in June, you might want to continue with some reflections on the other activities and the end of the program.
The purpose of the final report is to share your ideas with others. Now who are the others? Of course your cadres and the Pepperdine faculty are eager to hear what you have done and learned. That goes without saying. But there are others in your community of practice that would value the knowledge you gained. How are you going to share it with them? This is the question for the this last semester. The topic this final trimester is about leadership--your work in leveraging technology to create change. One of the strongest acts of leadership can be the quiet act of writing--of sharing with those who chose to read your words. You will reach people that you will never see. It is a very powerful act.
For more advice on writing the report see CCAR INTERACT- Report . You will need to have the report and your website ready by June 10 for the reviews.
You will need to decide what to write and to whom to write. You will fulfill the requirements of the program when you present your work to the Pepperdine community but you will fulfill the intent of the program when you share your work within your community of practice. You can invite people to come and listen to you present at Pepperdine. There will be a schedule of times for people who want to drop in for your talk on the web. I will be inviting the Action Resarch SIG to drop in.
In your learning circles, you will be sharing a job prospectus for the position you want to apply for. This could be a better version of your present job, one that you have seen posted, or a completely new one. You should be working on this from the start of the semester. While you can be creative, the more realistic you make this the better it will serve you. Once you share your job posting with your circles, they will develop interview questions. In the learning circles during the first week of July, you will help each other think about how to prepare for interviews. Two people will volunteer to be interviewed or do the interview duing a learning circle meeting and the rest of us will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the interactions.
We will be reading Your Leadership Legacy as group and using the forums in Sakai to discuss what you are learning about leadership. We hope that looking toward the future will help make you a better leader today. The second book will also help you think about how to involve others as you work on how you want to be when you are grown up. We will start the discussion
You will be refining you portfolio of your work, business cards (if you don't already have them). The portfolio will arrange the best of your work for sharing with others. It will include your action research but also other activities you are proud of. A great example of a digital portfolio comes from a student in Cadre 7, Chris Bigenho. His professional portfolio which can be found at http://www.dlp4success.com/portfolios/chris/index.htm . You can also see his final action research site. This was also revised in the time after graduation, and it provides a great example for you to work towards.
RESUME or CV
And you should be thinking about writing or revising your CV or resume. There is a slight difference in format between the two. You can prepare either but you have to have one. And if you don't have business cards, you will need to make these. We will introduce you to your lifetime access to the career center at Pepperdine.