Day 3

Research problems and DBR

Engage with one of the readings and one of the narrated presentations by PhD students who used DBR. Write a blog post in which you discuss the following questions:

• What was the research problem Dorothy identified?

Why is there no link between the past and the present? Contemporary Ugandan History Education is becoming dangerously irrelevant as country runs risk of losing knowledge about its own past by students not finding history relevant. The traditional means of lecturing a subject like history has been deemed to be boring to the learners.

• What did using a DBR approach enable her to understand and do as a result?

From implementation 1, The DBR allowed Dorothy to understand she needed to evoke interest, participation and motivation to create successful wiki intervention, which also needed some face to face interaction. The participants need to engage with a variety of communication channels to afford interaction

Implementation 2, with the lessons learned about the wiki, PBwiki was used as an alternative to afford participative collaboration of doing history activity as it unfolds in 3 continuous workshops HERMWIKI.

Implementation 3: There was no link between the theory the students were presenting and practise. The was a change in design principles.

• How does DBR differ from other research approaches you have encountered?

It seems to be more fleixible as a model to refine and improve,Design-based research does not seem to replace the existing approaches (Wang & Hannafin, 2005, p. 6). Rather, it often incorporates other approaches for a different intention: theory generation and innovation to resolve educational problems.

The basic process of DBR involves developing interventions to contextual problems. Seems to be a systematic and flexible methodology aimed to improve educational practices through collaboration between stakeholders and development and implementation. From the reading and the lesson today, I understand that DBR is an important methodology for understanding how, when, and why educational innovations work in practice; DBR methods seem to aim to uncover the relationships between educational theory, designed artefact, and practice. Design-based research is focus on designing artefacts (not only digital) and exploring its impact, among others, on curricula and learning processes.

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Blog 3, My Research and Evaluation Problems

04 Sep 2018 11:54 AM

Think about at least three research and/or evaluation issues or problems involving educational technology in your context.

• When thinking about this question, there was a statement made in the the Kirkwood and Price reading that really stood out for me,"It is not uncommon in educational technology for greater attention to be given to the technology and its implementation than its impact upon student learning (Kirkwood & Price, 2013b)." Considering this, a prevalent issue with research and evaluation in my context is that there seems to be very little consideration for different social contexts. We cannot teach people the same way if they are from different contexts and social backgrounds, which even shapes the support needed to see success. From what I learned today, it seems we must connect with learner’s context as a starting point and we need to acknowledge context given the backgrounds of the all the learners in order to best match the learning practise (influenced by what you want the learners to learn = behaviour into result).
• An evaluation issue I have encountered in my context comes from the lack of defining clear goals for the technology integration. Evaluation requires clear goals to target the most desirable outcomes and I feel that there has not been enough consideration of implementable implicit goals when integrating technology in the learning spaces.
• "Examining the ‘effects’ of interventions is complicated by the differing ideological positions of researchers in terms of what they considered as evidence, and how that is characterised (Price & Kirkwood, 2014)." Positionality seems to be a very important concept to consider as probably most important use of evaluation is learning about what can improve the learning experience and I am under the impression that most e-learning investments in my context don't consider this enough. Safeguarding the value of a ed tech project ensures a better future for all stakeholders and I have seen the plug pulled to soon on many great projects as the evaluation wasn't properly considered. "Assumptions about the design of learning and teaching with technology are frequently not made explicit (Price & Kirkwood, 2014; Thorpe, 2008)"
• Another issue I have noticed is the lack of implementation milestones which is an evaluation issue and not a research issue. I understand this as the idea of research seems to seeks answers to question in order to generate new knowledge. Identifying important milestones for success ensures that stakeholders understand how to get to intended outcomes by specifying elements needed along the way and identifying indicators of short; medium and long term success.

Do any of the three issues or problems you’ve identified involve particular assumptions?

Drawing on the Kirkpatrick levels in my context, where most studies make use of self-report surveys to gauge students’ and teachers’ reactions to and satisfaction with technology-based interventions (REACTION), the findings reveal very little about any learning improvements achieved. Also, studies that focus predominantly on scores and grades achieved (LEARNING) reveal that learners have been able to acquire knowledge, however, may not have developed greater understanding. "More emphasis appears to be placed on experimentation with technology or opinion-based practice rather than drawing upon existing theories and evidence to inform new designs and to interpret the findings."

What questions you would need to ask in order to better understand the issues or problems that you’ve identified?

Has adequate attention been given to existing theories to best inform new designs, interpreted from evaluation data?

What is the importance of tracking milestones?

Why is it important to systematically learn what has been done before to strengthen and improve (Evaluation Development)