Course Research Project

Students will write a 2-3 page research paper, according to the following standards:

• Format of paper: The paper will consist of a title page, 2-3 pages in the body, and a reference section.
• Organization of paper: The paper should be divided into sections, using the APA heading. Sections should be as follows:
  
  • Introduction: In this section, introduce the topic of the paper, and describe the general outline to be used in the paper (i.e., list the topics that will be covered).
  • Research: What did you find about the topic? Give an overview of the technology or issue in this section. Be sure to cite all sources and information you have gathered during your research.
  • Discussion: In the discussion section, discuss the information you have researched. In this section, feel free to introduce your own ideas, thoughts, insights, and opinions.
  • Conclusion: Briefly summarize the entire paper. Review the purpose of the paper, and its main points. Draw a conclusion. You may want to suggest areas/ideas for future research.
• Publication standards: The paper will be written according to APA Guidelines.
• Topic: The topic of the paper will deal with technology as applied in education. You could research any topic covered in class, or any other technology. Ideally, choose a topic that we covered (or will cover) in class that you would like to explore more in-depth, OR choose a technology that you would like to know more about, especially how the technology is employed or might be employed to support or address the problems/needs of the teaching/learning enterprise. If you plan well, you might use the paper to serve as background research for your hands-on course project.
• Research: You are expected to utilize a minimum of three (3) sources to write this paper. Remember that this is a research paper, and is expected to report on research that you will collect. The sources should be professionally-respected material. This means that when possible you should gather material from online or print journals or books, or reputable Web sites. Web sites with unknown authors are not respected by the research community.
• Further Assistance:
  • You are encouraged to run ideas past me as needed.
  • You may choose to use the APA template as the shell for your APA-style course paper.  
• Submit an outline of the paper. E-mail the topic, proposed outline, and the names of 3 articles to me by OCT 18th. 

  Note: Students must submit a proposed topic, outline, and 3 sources in advance of submitting the paper. If you fail to submit this information in a timely fashion (Nov 1) to show progress on researching and writing the paper, the instructor reserves the right to either 1) lower the paper grade, or 2) refuse to accept the paper, due to the possibilities of online plagiarism.

• Due date: This research paper and the coinciding presentation will be due the last week of class. Late submissions will be subject to downward point adjustment.

 

---

Seed Ideas for the Course Paper

• Hot topic in technology or in the use of technology in education.
  Report on a current hot topic and what it means for education. 
• Application of a particular technology in education to support teaching/learning.
  Report on how certain technologies are being used innovatively in education, or how the use of particular technologies are impacting teaching/learning. You may want to speculate as to how the technology might further be used in the future to support teaching/learning.
• Further investigation or latest developments on a particular technology.
  Research an unfamiliar or newer technology that interests you. Report on what it is and how it is being used or how it might be used to support teaching/learning.
• Anything we have covered in class.                                                                                              You are more then welcome to further research anything we have learned or will learn in class this semester. EX:, If learning or cognitive styles interest you that is fine you can research that. Just make sure there is some tie-in to educational technology. In other words, is there software that makes these tests easier to administer or take.