I have learned that action research is more than just your traditional educational research. Action research allows you to actually ask meaningful questions and find the solutions to issues that will actually have an impact to whatever topic you are addressing.
The great thing about action research is that you can apply it to any topic and use it anywhere. However, I think the area I will use it first will be in the area of technology integration. I think one of the first questions that needs to be asked is “why do our teachers not integrate technology already?” This question alone could bring up several paths of inquiry in itself. Do our teachers have the proper training? Do the teachers have an understanding of how to apply the technology? Do our teachers know what technology is out there? Is there a connection to technology and the core subjects? Do our students understand how to use this technology? There are numerous paths we can go down with this line of thinking, however all of these questions need to be answered before we can hope to move forward with technology integration.
Once we have looked at these questions, we can then find the current research on these topics, and then we can modify this research to fit the needs of our district. We can then add to the research that is out there to better fit our needs.
I think educational leaders should use blogs. There are numerous blogs out there already, but a great number of teachers have no clue to the amount of information that is floating around in blogs. Teachers can get support for lessons, they can see what ideas have been used in the classroom, and more importantly they can create connections with other teachers who are teaching their subject. Blogs can be very useful for teachers.
