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Research Questions


Research Questions and Responses:

1. What is the ideal role of technology in an academic setting? (Does this change at different levels of education?

Respondent #1: The ideal role of technology in schools is to assist learning and make things easier for students and teachers. Yes, it does change at different ages because older students are more responsible and can handle more freedom to use computers and technology.
Respondent #2: Technology should help make learning easier and as kids get older they should use technology more because they are smarter and more responsible.
Respondent #3: It should be incorporated to the degree that it enhances the learning experience of students. Introducing it at the elementary level of education can help make it more natural to use technology in the classroom. It could also help teach children discipline and help them learn the boundaries between technology use for fun and technology use for learning.

2. Do public schools have a responsibility to teach their students how to best utilize technology in the learning process? Why or why not?
Respondent #1: Schools only need to teach students enough to do the base level of work. It isn't necessary to teach every student in depth computer skills because they aren't relevant or interesting to everybody.
Respondent #2: It should be optional for students because not everyone cares about computer skills, for example it is pretty irrelevant to have someone who is interested in art take computer skills classes. But if the students want to learn these types of skills then it would be great if schools offered classes.
Respondent #3: Yes. Technology is currently a major part of the education process, especially at higher levels like college and graduate school and relying on parents (who often don't know how to effectively use the technology themselves) to teach students is insufficient.

3. Were computer/technology skills taught in your middle/high school?
Respondent #1: No
Respondent #2: No
Respondent #3: Yes

Reflection: 

 I created a google form and sent it out to several other students to get their responses. I had 3 respondents and I think their answers provided good insight into which questions would be effective to continue exploring for my Unit 2 project. I experimented with different phrasing between my questions in order to get a sense would be most effective going forward In order to be able to effectively compare between questions types I allowed for paragraph style answers on all three. My first question was actually two questions combined, the second part building off the first. The responses to this question were rather substantive but the first of the two questions definitely got adressed more directly in the responses. My second question also had multiple layers, but in this case the follow up was a simple "why or why not?" I think this was the most effective question format in terms of getting direct engagement with the content of the question while still getting a substantive answer. My third question was not nearly as open ended as my first two and although the responses were very direct and relevant, they lacked substance.
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