5315 Recognizing the Misperceptions

Mertler (2020a) states the 4 stages of action research to be planning, acting, developing, and reflecting. In this class, we will move through all stages to research and improve our methods. As Kiley (2020) stated, action research is something most of us are doing every day by making improvements to our practices in the best interest of our learners. Being intentional about it and digging deeper will create more improvement and promote a heightened level of engagement when implementing our innovation plans. In reviewing my innovation plan, for 5315 and 5317, I am noticing that I have gaps in finding a balance between digital and traditional approaches. My innovation plan is for the creation of ePortfolios for educators in a 100% virtual environment. While this will make creating ePortfolios easier and reduces the need for incorporating digital, it makes me question if educators would benefit even more if there were a way to create a blended environment and almost work backward to incorporate more traditional learning. I want to ensure that the educators can access the benefits of blended learning and have face-to-face support also. Since our educators are in a global virtual setting, finding a way to provide blended learning will be a little more difficult. All the other courses we have taken have helped tremendously with understanding and applying effective research. Going through the process of 4DX, the Influencer model, literature reviews, etc. have all improved my skills in finding quality information and using it to create a deeper understanding of my innovation plan. I am happy to be taking this class after the others to use the skills I developed in them. In my research process now, I am currently in the planning stage moving toward the acting stage. I have a lot of questions that I am thinking of using for research and trying to narrow it down to the best one to make the most significant improvements for educators. My plan is not to make it too complicated but look at the obvious. In the 1.1 video, we heard how all instructors and educators can improve performance dramatically by investigating things that they regularly do as part of their jobs (Mertler, 2020a). I agree and believe it will be most beneficial to look at those areas.

References Craig, M. (2020a). Video Resources | Online Resources. Edge.sagepub.com. https://edge.sagepub.com/mertler6e1/student-resources/chapter-1/video-resources Craig, M. (2020b). Video Resources | Online Resources. Edge.sagepub.com. https://edge.sagepub.com/mertler6e1/student-resources/chapter-2/video-resources Kiley, T. (2020). Video Resources | Online Resources. Edge.sagepub.com. https://edge.sagepub.com/mertler6e1/student-resources/chapter-1/video-resources