Reflecting on my Literature Review

As I worked on my Literature Review, I realized I had to adjust my research question a little bit. Originally, I wanted to research how or why iPads were so beneficial, educationally, to students in grades k-12. However, iPad technology is so new to education, that it became evident that studies exploring the benefits of iPads in classrooms were not as prevalent as I had hoped. Perhaps that is one of those gaps in research someone can tackle. Anyway, after hours of research, I became more focused on what factors about using iPads in the classroom were fostering the best learning experiences for students. So my new research question changed accordingly:

What are the Factors that Contribute to Positive Outcomes and the Most Benefits to Students?

I used the phrase “positive outcomes” to describe increased student motivation; increased confidence; increased academic achievement; and positive attitudes toward technology, education, and collaborative work. These are positive outcomes that influence the students’ success in school, and I feel iPads contribute to all of them.

Still, because iPads are so new and using them in classrooms is so new, I felt it necessary to expand my research to include all mobile technology such as laptop computers, mobile or cellular phones, smart phones, PDA’s, and iPods. I did that because these are all the tools that lead up to the iPads, and they are tools used frequently in schools. If there are successes with these tools, then it is easy to generalize these successes to that of the iPads.

There is so much more to research, though. For example, what about when students in a school don’t all have access to iPads all the time? What if their school has a minimal number of iPads? How do teachers deal with classroom management? How do teachers successfully implement the technology into the curriculum? How can iPads impact the new curriculum changes coming with Common Core?

The research studies I found seemed to mostly be studies done with mixed methods strategies. For example, I was drawn to those studies, which included not only quantitative research strategies resulting in concrete numbers showing gains in student achievement, but also qualitative strategies which included observations and interviews. I think the mixed methods strategies really painted a good picture of student achievement in a way that cold numbers of quantitative research cannot. Ha! That is my problem with the current method of assessing student achievement with STAR tests and API scores.