Inquiry and Technology

Where do you want to go today? Inquiry-based learning and technology integration is a theoretical article exploring the benefits and drawbacks of inquiry-based learning and technology integration. The article found and described positive results of inquiry-based learning and technology integration in two different programs. The programs included over 100 7-15 year old urban students. The Extra Edge was a five week summer reading program for students struggling in English language arts. The second program was an after school inquiry program. It was a collaboration between a university and local social services agency. The conclusion of this article offers advice for the implementation of the programs described. Owens, Hester, and Teale (2002) explained that in inquiry-based learning, students select a topic of interest to research, they produce questions about the topic, gather and synthesize research findings, and at the very end they do something with their findings. Technology is used in all parts of inquiry-based learning.

Technology supports students in inquiry based learning environments not only to help them gather resources and in research but also in their final product. It was found that, “different forms of technology created a ‘polished finish’ to the projects that, for the students, generated an unexpected sense of pride in their work and impressed the audience” (Owens et al., 2002, p. 622). The projects found that struggling and unmotivated students were successful and motivated when allowed to choose their own topic, within a theme, and use technology to explore it.

Some of the important advice that Owens et al. (2002) provided for teachers interested in incorporating inquiry-based learning with technology was to model enthusiasm for inquiry, be careful about students getting off track while surfing the web, and to read all online articles with a critical eye. They also recommended keeping a close eye on websites that students are visiting, promote mulitmodal research with text, images and videos, and lastly to not be intimidated by the project.

This article connects very closely to my own action research question because I am researching inquiry-based learning within a theme, as well. I have been researching how inquiry-based learning can motivate and increase engagement in science and math. The findings of this article reveal more evidence that inquiry-based learning is an effective pedagogy to increase engagement.

I am excited to incorporate technology into my action research project. My students will be conducting research for our class garden. Since my students have one-to-one Chromebooks, they can utilize technology throughout their research to collect resources, track data on their plants, and present their findings. I also plan to use technology from a researcher's perspective to conduct surveys with my students for qualitative data. Digital surveys using Google Forms will allow me to organize the findings efficiently and allow students to remain anonymous.

References

Owens, R. F., Hester, J. L., & Teale, W. H. (2002). Where do you want to go today?

Inquiry-based learning and technology integration. The Reading Teacher, 55(7), 616-625