Results

Results **Results and Recommendations** The data collected throughout this research project was done in three different ways: student interviews about technology based assignments, collection of homework turned in on time vs late, and student surveys about their thoughts and feelings towards technology.

After looking over the data the researcher has discovered that when technology is present in the assignment, students are more motivated to do their work. This is evident in the homework completion checklist and graph. (Appendix A and B)  The data shows the number of late assignments dropping when there is technology involved. More students were motivated to get their weekly reading letter turned in on time when they got to use a computer. The same thing happened with student book reviews. The book review done on an index card had more turned in late than the book review done in a blog format. When looking at the survey data, it shows similar results. The students were asked how they felt when they found out about having to do each assignment. In the results the researcher found students were more excited about working with assignments involving technology rather than paper and pencil assignments (Appendix D). The results show an increase of 26% of students showing interest in the book review. The assignments were identical, only one was done on an index card while the other was done on an internet blog. The same type of results were found by the researcher in the weekly reading letters (Appendix C). There was a 36% increase is excitement towards the weekly reading letters.   The surveys were given separately and after each assignment was given. The surveys also asked questions about students’ thoughts towards each assignment. The results of these surveys can be seen in appendix E. After reviewing the interview results the researcher noticed they matched the results of the surveys and homework completion checklist (Appendix F). The interview results also show students would rather use technology when completing assignments and shows students are more motivated when technology is involved in assignments.  As the study was being conducted the researcher found it hard for students to be able to complete their work at home. Not all of the students had access to the internet or a computer at home. The other problem the researcher ran into was during the middle of the data collection the researcher was sick for five days and it was difficult to get computers checked out for students to work on their assignments in class. Some of the other problems the researcher ran into were dealing with saving of student work. The study began saving student projects and work on flash drives. This became a problem when two students lost their flash drives, so the researcher had to change to an online program where the documents automatically save and students can work on their work from home by accessing the website. The programs used were called google docs and blogger. The information learned from this study will be used by the researcher himself and the school in which the study was conducted. However, before passing along and sharing the data and results the researcher wants to continue collecting data. Although the data suggests student motivation and homework completion increased the researcher would like to continue collecting data by doing other types of projects/homework and uses of technology. For example, the researcher would like to try collecting observational data to see if students’ focus also increases with the use of technology. Some of the observations made during the study may show, if collected, that not only does student motivation and homework completion increase so will their focus.  Students through out the study were very talkative when the instructor was teaching in a lecture format. When the students were taught how to use the technology, mainly computers, to aid their learning they seemed to be more attentive. This is why the researcher would like to continue the study but take a different approach.  Another source of data collection the researcher would like to explore is how well students do on assessments when technology is used to either present the material or students are interacting with technology to complete assignments. This information may be more valuable and get others to listen.