Summaries of original research conducted by the 2019 graduates of the CSUN Educational Technology Masters Program.
Ariana Gomez
Jose/Alfredo Gonzalez
Benjamin Plotkin
Bertha Martinez
Christie Johnson
Erica Angelo
Nathan Macy
Jayson Quintanilla
Hane Joo
Angie Charky
Eleanor Mak
Azin Barkhordar
Shelly Mark (Mason)
Bryant Cooper
Chloe Park
Johara Twaijri
Jessica Munguia (Herrera)
Dan Riedinger
Heather (Hyun Jung) Yoo
Richard Frank
Bertha Cristina Martinez
Teaching with Technology Vs. Teaching Traditionally.
This project studies the difference between two high school Spanish classes that will compare the effectiveness of technology usage in the classroom, specifically multimedia. The level of the classes will be 9th grade students. Kahoot is the interactive program that one class will be using once a week for 9 consecutive weeks. It will focus on comparing the failure rate and students’ motivation to do work between the class that will be using Kahoot and the class that will not be using the program. This means that the comparison will be made between a class that is going to use technology, which is the experimental class, and a class that will not be using technology, which the control class. The control class will be working as I have usually taught. According to some educational research, the usage of technology in the classroom is a positive practice that could help motivate students. At the end of this project, the expectation is that students using technology will have a positive result. It’s expected, for the students, to improve their grade and to have the failure rate reduced.
Nathan Macy
Using Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Lessons to Improve Student Engagement in Chemistry Classes
In an effort to improve science teaching, students will be given access to experimental data generated by other students in the class through the use of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, (CSCL). The additional data sampling should have the effect of giving students a broader view of the topic and a better understanding of it. Two classes will be studied, each class completing both CSCL lessons, and control lessons. Students were then surveyed on their opinions of the various lessons. According to the collected data, students did not seem to have a clear preference between lesson types.
Eleanor Mak
Promoting Positive Behavior and Parent-Teacher Communication with ClassDojo
Explores the use of the communication app, ClassDojo, and its effectiveness in building positive parent-teacher-student communication. Utilizing ClassDojo encourages better home-school connection, improved classroom management and provides solid opportunities for classroom success in academics and social/emotional skills. In comparison to ClassDojo, the teacher had reported student behavior to students and families through a feedback sheet sent home at the end of the week for each student. In Fall 2018, 20 kindergarten students participated in the study as well as their family members totaling 44 participants in the 14-week study. Through surveys/questionnaires, quantitative data, qualitative data and other information had been collected. The ClassDojo app provided quantitative data, information about positive and negative student behaviors, as well as messages from or to parents.
Ariana Gomez
The Effectiveness of Math Online Tutoring Systems in the Classroom
This study observes the use of the differentiation platform and online tutoring system “Freckle Education” in an elementary setting. Freckle includes differentiation and independent practice for various subjects; for the purpose of this study, the focus is on the math portion. The following paper documents the effectiveness of differentiation with this program. It analyzes academic growth students had in a semester of using this program and compares their growth to that of a classroom that did not use the Freckle program. Students’ attitudes toward math and the Freckle program, at the beginning and end of the study are documented with the use of two different surveys.
Chloe Park
Using desmos.com to explore mathematical concepts in Algebra 2
The research explored how the use of the dynamic mathematics software website called “desmos.com” contributes to participants’ learning and understanding of mathematics. The study focused on students’ experiences as they used the program to independently explored new mathematical concepts that they never learned before. I expected that the role of Desmos would be highlighted in supporting the student-centered exploration of function transformation in particular and mathematical concepts in general. The focus of the experiment was on how students utilized the given set-task of Desmos to address their observations and understanding of function transformations. I tried to examine Desmos program if it can provide the students with clear visualization that shows how function transformations apply on various graphs so that the learners can make conjectures by observing regularity to build logical progression.
Jayson Quintanilla
Writing until your hand almost withers away in fatigue: A look at the effects of providing significant feedback on writing assignments.
Examines the question of whether significant, dovetailed feedback given to students on long-term writing projects makes a favorable impact on student writing scores as measured by a 4-point rubric. Defines key terminology germane to the topic of teachers providing effective commentary for student writers.
Johara Twaijri
Effectiveness of the Flipped Classroom
Flipped classrooms are a recent innovation in educational learning. For this study there were two distinct classrooms studied. The performance between a direct instruction classroom and a flipped classroom were the focus of the study. In the flipped classroom students watch videos created by the teacher using EdPuzzle or Khan Academy to learn topics about Algebra. Within the videos, they were prompted to answer math questions about the lessons they were watching. The second class did not use the videos, they were given traditional teacher directed classroom instruction. Both groups were given the same pre-assessment and post-assessment to assess their learning. The expectation was that the flipped classroom students would perform better because they had access to video lessons made specifically for the material they were learning, when they wanted it and they could rewatch them if needed. The traditional classroom group had to depend on their notes and textbook and did not have the ability to rewatch lessons. The results of the study showed significant improvement when comparing the same classes to their own pre-test and post-test. However, when comparing the post-test results from the control group to the experimental group, the results showed no significant improvement between the two methods of teaching.
Annie Gharabagi
Multimedia Outlets during Math vs. Traditional Teaching
Examines and evaluates the effectiveness of different multimedia outlets in correlation to student engagement, comprehension, and performance on exams versus traditional teaching in order to determine if students were able to outperform in the math standard of operations and algebraic thinking due to multimedia exposure. Students in the first grade (N=25) were taught using the traditional method, but also taught with interactive games on tablets, math computer games, as well as interactive and engaging videos throughout the lesson. Quantitative data on the mastery of the operations and algebraic thinking standard was analyzed along with qualitative analysis of instructor observations and student surveys, which provided additional context. The data suggested the effectiveness of the exposure to multimedia with results implying that there was a significance between the gains of the pre and post test of the traditional topic versus that of the control topic and it was expected based on existing research found in reference to students using technology.
Bryant Cooper
Disposition Towards Mathematics
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the utilization of collaborative project-based lessons to investigate an improvement of a student disposition towards mathematics. Throughout school, students often develop a stigma towards mathematics and evaluate their skills as either good or bad with a lack of a middle ground. Students are introduced to the effects that mathematics can have on the real world and how it applies to their everyday lives. Students explore mathematics in their everyday life through technology-infused CSCL (Computer Supported Collaborative Learning) lessons. The project-based lessons are student-led, requiring students to work collaboratively. Students have the opportunity to build skills utilizing relevant 21st century technology, and will develop the skills to create interesting and innovative explanations of traditional mathematical concepts, embedding interactive simulations into student-created websites. Students’ dispositions towards mathematics are gauged weekly throughout the course. Upon the completion of the experiment the there was a positive significant increase in students disposition towards mathematics. By utilizing technology infused, meaningful, project based learning the students showed an increase in their levels of confidence, enjoyment, and pride in mathematics, ultimately demonstrating an increase in their disposition towards mathematics.
Christie Johnson
Teaching Using Technology vs. Teaching Traditional Lessons
This paper examines the effect of using online technological tools as a way to teach math lessons in the classroom. Students were broken up into a control and an experiment group. The control group was taught math lessons in sixth grade using traditional teaching methods and tools such as taking notes, solving problems using a think, pair, share strategies, and completing worksheets. The experiment group was taught using EdPuzzle, Quizlet, Desmos, Quizizz, Google products, and their online ebook and book portal tools. This research addressed how students learn in two different class environments. All students were given the same concepts to learn, assessments (both formative and summative), and homework assignments. However, the form in which these items were given differed. Students were given both assessments and surveys as a form of data to show how the students felt about each lesson. This also measured what they felt they had learned. The results suggested that the experiment group (which used the CSCL lessons) had higher posttest scores than the control group as well as a higher gain from their pre to post tests. In conclusion, the data suggests that using technology tools as opposed to traditional lectures improves student learning.
Daniel Riedinger
Edpuzzle Versus YouTube
Will students perform better, understand the material more completely, complete assignments quicker, and be better prepared to participate in the Flipped classroom environment if they receive video instruction with the EdPuzzle video application as opposed to using YouTube to view videos. These videos may be produced by the teacher or the teacher may use one of the vast library of videos available on YouTube and other sites covering the desired subject. The problem is did the student actually watch the video, did they pay attention to the video and did they comprehend and will be able to apply the information from that video? Edpuzzle tries to solve these problems by tracking the progress of the student and checking on whether they watched the video. The teacher can pose questions during the videos and Edpuzzle pauses the video and they have to answer those questions. This study is going to try to find out if incorporating EdPuzzle benefits the students with conquering the standards and improving their performance in class? An Engineering class will take pre-unit tests as well as post unit tests covering two different units of material, one unit at a time. The class will receive instruction on Unit 1 through YouTube, and then answer questions on the schools LMS, Learning Management System, Schoology afterwards. For the next unit the class will watch videos using Edpuzzle and will answer the review questions, but the questions will be embedded into the video using the Edpuzzle application. The data suggests that their was not a significant difference in the pre to posttest growth of the students scores when comparing the use of Edpuzzle with the use of YouTube.
Last modified: Wednesday, 8 May 2019, 3:04 PM