RSA #3: Content Focused Technology Inquiry Groups

"Content Focused Technology Inquiry Groups: Cases of Teacher Learning and Technology Integration"

This article focuses on a professional learning community that is formed for the sole purpose of advancing the participants's use of instructional technology. The group is purposely comprised of teachers who teach similar courses (within the humanities) so that all instructional technology will be learned within the context of content-specific learning. Basically, the university team who designed the PLC and wrote the article cite research indicating that technology discovered and utilized by instructors for the specific purpose of augmenting their core content will "sustain educational reform, structure professional learning and improve practice, and improve teachers' instruction and students' learning" (Hughes et al., 2005, p. 369). The PLC consisted of three members from the University of Minnesota (a professor, graduate student, and undergraduate student) and three teachers in a Minnesota middle school. Group members met monthly (with particpant attendance varying widely) for a total of sixteen months.

The article summarizes the experiences of the three teachers separately, with the summary and analyses broken into three parts: A chronological narrative, documentation of specific instances of technology learning and integration, and the identification of patterns of behavior. All three case studies are quite different in terms of how the teacher went about integration. The tie that binds them is the importance of communication and feedback among group members when planning and evaluating the lessons. From the quotes and examples, it becomes quite clear that several technology interventions would have been aborted if not for the encouragement, support, assistance, and knowledge of other group members. At various points, the teachers even adopted or borrowed activities first introduced by a different member and then reported on modifications that had worked (or not).

In conclusion, the PLC itself was an effective catalyst for experimentation. However, there were some problems raised. Specifically, two teachers relied solely on University expertise to deliver materials and lessons, and never demonstrated fluency with the technology applied. Also, one teacher chose a tool that clearly did not relate to the stated goals of the group. The lesson not only did not further goals, but since he only demonstrated to students without allowing them to use the technology (a GIS geography application) the lesson did not even positively affect the classroom. The researchers suggested more time, and the inclusion of a technology integration specialist as well as a content coordinator would have helped the participants develop greater facility with the technology and make wiser choices for instruction.

With our final papers in mind, this was an interesting resource to contrast against my next RSA ( "Effects of a Long-Duration Professional Development Academy on Technology Skills, Computer Self-Efficacy, and Technology Integration Beliefs") as I have been wondering when I design PD whether content-relevance or application-fluency will be more important. I wasn't overwhelmed by the content-specific implementation but will look for more research (Hughes et al. reference Snoeyink & Ertmer, 2001/2002) before I write it off.



Hughes, J. E., Kerr, S. P., & Ooms, A. (2005). Content focused technology inquiry groups: Cases of teacher learning and technology integration. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 32(4), 367-379. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.