Goals
My career goal is to promote the integration of technology into instructional settings for the purpose of improving how learning is assessed. This goal is focused on the profession of teaching in two ways: teacher assessment of students in K-12 settings and teacher educator assessment of teachers in professional development settings. My focus on assessment is based on three factors: (1) the role assessment has in both determining what instructional intervention is appropriate for a given learner; (2) the importance of assessment information, particularly formative assessment information, in promoting learning; and (3) assessment’s role in evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention. Technology can be leveraged to both improve assessment (e.g. computer adaptive tests or computer mediated peer assessment) and lower barriers to the effective use of assessment in educational contexts (e.g. automation of grading and distributing the assessment burden). I am focused on the profession of teaching because of the role teachers play in educating society.
The following will describe my career goals for scholarship, teaching, and service, as well as how these goals relate to my primary career goal.
Goals for Scholarship
My highest-level goal in scholarship is to make significant contributions to the field of Instructional Systems Technology (IST) through research on technology enhanced formative and summative assessment systems for use in the teaching profession. Major questions related to this goal include:
- How can learner knowledge be efficiently and accurately summatively assessed in educational contexts?
- What attributes of peer assessment systems have an impact on the quality and quantity of formative feedback generated?
- What are the barriers to the effective integration of technology enhanced assessment systems into educational contexts and how can these barriers be overcome?
- How do teachers learn to effectively use assessment to promote student learning?
- What are the advantages and limitations of various approaches to assessing educational technology knowledge?
Obtaining a tenure track position where I can pursue a research agenda focused on designing, developing, and evaluating technology enhanced assessment systems in the teaching profession is my primary goal related to scholarship. Evidence of my commitment and progress towards my goal of a tenure track position comes from the selection of my minor, the classes I have taken, and my research presentations and publications.
My decision to do my minor in the School of Public and Environmental affairs (SPEA) with a focus on nonprofit management has resulted in my building expertise about a type of organization that is important to the teaching profession in a number of ways. A key focus of the teaching profession is promoting learning. While teachers primarily promote student learning in K-12 settings, teacher professional development aimed at promoting teacher learning occurs in higher education institutions and through the professional development efforts of a variety of public, for-profit, and nonprofit organizations. Nonprofits play key roles in advancing the teaching profession by setting standards (e.g. the International Society for Technology in Education) and accreditation of the teacher education programs offered by educational institutions (e.g. Teacher Education Accreditation Council). In addition, organizations that support educational research (e.g. Association for Educational Communications and Technology) are themselves nonprofit organizations.
A second way I have worked towards my goals for scholarship is through the classes I have taken in the School of Education. I have completed all the course requirements for my PhD and have already taken additional courses focused on formative assessment and item response theory, not required to meet PhD course requirements, in order to strengthen my inquiry expertise and prepare for my dissertation based on recommendations from my advisors.
Finally, my presentation and publication track record also demonstrates commitment to my research focus and career goals. Two independent research projects I conducted in the spring of 2008, one in collaboration with a fellow IST PhD student, have led to presentations at national conferences and articles submitted to peer reviewed journals. Both research projects are focused on technology enhanced assessment systems used in the context of preservice teacher education. The following will briefly describe each of my research projects and associated presentations and publications.
My first independent research project concentrates on the development of a web-based summative assessment of teacher technological pedagogical knowledge. Results from this project have been presented at AECT in 2009 and will be presented as a paper at AERA in 2010. TechTrends has accepted with revisions a manuscript associated with this study and a revised manuscript will be submitted shortly. A manuscript for a more research oriented journal, ETR&D, will be submitted in early 2010.
My second independent research project, conducted with fellow PhD student Craig Howard, examines factors that impact a technology enabled formative peer assessment activity conducted in a preservice teacher course (EDUC W201). Results from this project have been presented at AERA and AECT in 2009 and will be presented at AERA in 2010. The Journal of Educational Computing Research has accepted with revisions a manuscript associated with this study for a special issue focused on Technology-Mediated Feedback for Teaching and Learning where I am second author. A revised manuscript has already been submitted. I will be first author on a manuscript focusing on the impact of product quality on the formative feedback generated during the peer feedback activity. I am currently targeting this manuscript for submission to the Journal of Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education in late 2009 or early 2010.
My goals for scholarship overlaps with my primary career goal. I intend to conduct research that both advances the field of IST and leads to practical improvements in educational contexts related to assessment that ultimately improve student learning. My proposed dissertation is an example of the integration between my goals for scholarship and my overall career goal. My dissertation aims both to address theoretical issues related to variable-length computer classification tests (VL-CCT) and practical barriers to the integration of VL-CCT into educational contexts. Furthermore, the use of VL-CCT methods in conducting educational research may help researchers make better classification decisions about what learners know more quickly as they examine the impact of specific learning interventions on what learners know.
Goals for Teaching
My primary goal related to teaching is to contribute to the effective use of assessment and technology in educational settings to promote student learning. Evidence of my progress related to this goal come from my experiences teaching. For the last six years I have taught preservice teachers how to use educational technology to promote student learning. In these courses I have taken the initiative to update existing assessments and create new assessments. Teaching has provided me with the opportunity to impact the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of future teachers towards technology and assessment directly. It has allowed me to experience the associated challenges at the student, faculty, and program level in preservice teacher education programs. In the future, I hope to teach in a teacher education program where not only can I continue to influence what teachers do in their future classrooms but also learn about the teacher professional development process through being part of it.
Encouraging more collaboration between schools and other organizations in society is another goal I am pursuing related to teaching. A common recommendation in many instruction theories is to anchor learning in authentic real-world problems. Authentic real-world problems typically exist outside of walls of traditional classrooms. My own experiences working on class service projects as a student or coordinating class service projects as an instructor that involve real-world “clients” (e.g. a local business in Carbondale, IL; a swim and gym team for youth with a disability in Canada; a local nursery school in Bloomington, IN) have exposed me to both the opportunities and challenges that service learning involves. My years of private industry experience, my understanding of the non-profit sector, and my pursuit of a PhD in education uniquely position me to progress towards my goal of encouraging increased collaboration between different types of organizations.
My goals for teaching are tightly integrated with my primary career goal and my associated goals for scholarship. The experiences I have gained through teaching preservice teachers anchors and motivates my scholarship. Teaching preservice teachers allows me to integrate technology into my classes for the purpose of improving how learning is assessed and directly influence how my students will use technology and assessment in their future classrooms. My proposed dissertation directly addresses my teaching goals. First, the purpose of the VL-CCT methods at the heart of my dissertation are to help educators efficiently make valid and reliable classification decisions based on what learners know and is an example of a technology enhanced summative assessment system. Second, certification based on what people know (one type of classification decision) is often an example of collaboration between traditional schools and other types of organizations in socieity (e.g. Google Certified Teachers; Apple Authorized Training Center for Education; ISTE/PBS TeacherLine NETS*T certification; etc.). VL-CCT methods, the focus of my proposed dissertation, are a practical, efficient, valid, and reliable way to make the type of certification decisions discussed above.
Goals for Service
My primary goal for service is to make significant contributions to organizations that have similar objectives to those I have described above. My secondary goal for service is to take part in activities that help me learn the skills and gain the experience I need to make progress on my scholarship and teaching goals. The following will detail specific service goals and my progress.
Playing a leadership role in an international organization that advances scholarship in instructional technology and promotes its application to the learning process represents a way for me to contribute to the instructional technology research community. At both the department of Instructional Design and Technology at Southern Illinois University and the department of Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University I served as the president of the graduate student associations. Both student associations sought to create a sense of community among graduate students and faculty in addition to providing resources for professional development. My experiences as president of these organizations helped to build skills that I can apply in leadership roles at larger organizations. I have served as a member, conference volunteer, and proposal reviewer for both small organizations (e.g. IST conference volunteer and reviewer since 2005) and large organizations (e.g. International Society for Performance Improvement conference volunteer in 2004; Canadian Society for the Study of Education 2010 conference proposal reviewer, volunteer for upcoming 2010 AERA conference). Recent evidence of my efforts to achieve my goal of playing a leadership role in a relevant international organization is my running for the secretary/treasurer position in the AECT Division for Systemic Change.
I want to help organizations in my community leverage technology to increase their positive impact. My role as the webmaster for the Brock Niagara Penguins, an organization that gives children with disabilities the opportunity to learn and participate in competitive athletic experiences, provides a strong example of my volunteer work. The Brock Niagara Penguins have been using the content management system I created to both communicate with members of the organization and reach out to the wider community. One project that took place during my time as president of the graduate student association for the department of instructional systems technology was the updating of the organization’s website.
Beyond my volunteer experiences, I have also held several paid positions that assisted me in working towards my service goals through building my technology skills and making contributions to high-stakes real-world projects. I worked for over five years in Information Technology consulting with a company called Sapient. The corporate experience I gained with Sapient as a programmer, team lead, and project manager complemented the more theory based education I received during my undergraduate studies in computer science and taught me lessons about working in teams and managing complex projects in addition to building my technology skills.
Additional examples where I worked in the area of technology and education in a professional capacity include positions with several for-profit and nonprofit organizations. I worked for a company called SchoolCenter developing instructional materials to help teachers use the learning management system product that SchoolCenter offers. Option Six, an instructional design company, employed me to develop several online courses for Microsoft. In the summer of 2007, I worked with a nonprofit organization associated with Brock University in the development of instructional materials that have been used in the organization’s efforts to promote Life Skills in various developing countries. Last summer, I was awarded one of the summer AVC Fellowship Awards to work on the design of EDUC W200. This experience helped me gain insights into the demands of creating a course from scratch and helped build my understanding of educational technology literature and course materials
Progress towards my service goals will aid me in building and marketing my expertise in my scholarship and teaching. Working towards becoming recognized in my areas of research would specifically help me achieve my goal of obtaining a faculty position where I can make significant contributions to both research and teaching. My proposed dissertation will contribute to building my expertise in an area that many professional organizations are responsible for: certification.
Description of my primary focus area and its selection
My primary IST research area is Analysis and Evaluation with a focus on the use of technology enhanced assessment in the profession of teaching. My secondary IST area of research is the Design and Development of the technology tools and learning experiences associated with technology enhanced assessment in the profession of teaching.
My research agenda is rooted in my Masters degree where assessment and evaluation were a central focus of my work with Dr. Shrock and Dr. Coscarelli, whose main area of research is Criterion Reference Testing. My interest in the integration of technology into educational contexts has been heavily influenced by two factors: my years of experience teaching technology integration to preservice teachers and the central role technology has always played in my career. I have an undergraduate degree in computer science and have been working in the technology sector for over a decade.
