Identify Areas of Research
For this assignment, use the topic from my Week 4 assignment , along with the three associated resources I identified in Week 4. Add to this two new articles collected this week please use database EBSCOhost Education Research Complete , Sage Journals Online or ProQuest Education Journals and write a brief summary in APA format that responds to the following questions:
- Why do you want to study this topic?
- What do you already know or presume about this topic?
- Do you have personal experience with this topic in a way that will create obstacles for you or bias your inquiry?
- How will studying this topic benefit the field of education?
- Is this topic of sufficient interest to sustain a prolonged focus to complete the dissertation research process?
Length: 2-4 pages, not including title and reference pages
References: Include the three resources from Week 4 plus two new resources.
Your paper should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts that are presented in the course and provide new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Be sure to include citations for quotations and paraphrases with references in APA format and style where appropriate.
Attached is my Unit 4 assignment and topic
Article review: Use of Second Life in K-12 and Higher Education
Second life is a San Francisco-based firm online virtual world that was launched in June 2003, and its number of regular users has grown to over 1 million by 2013. This article analyzes how this online virtual world is being used in both higher education and k-12. The analysis incorporated 27 research studies. Due to the improvement of sophisticated technology and its capability, most schools have a role to play in seeking ways on how they can take the classroom online (Vogel, Guo, Zhou, Tian & Zhang, 2008). The virtual world has various characteristics like being in existence disregarding whether the user is online or not, it has an interactive chat function, many users populate it, it has avatars, and it represents the user in the real world.
It is evident from the study that virtual world has been in the field of education for the last 26 years, and over the past two decades there has been an increase in the use of the three-dimensional (3D) world. Educators are excited to venture into the virtual world so that they can foster experiential as well as constructive learning in K-12 and higher education. Educators also have the opportunity to enhance their research through studying their students learning outcomes, their social interactions, and the participant’s affective domain. Second life in the field of education enables the users to take the form of an avatar using the three-dimensional environment and be able to interact with other users (Sanchez, 2007b). The potential problems associated with second life are technical issues and distractions
I tend to agree with the writer’s recommendations on how second life should be adopted in both K-12 and higher education. A clear connection should be established between the educators and course objectives and activities so that the student can see the value of this relationship.
Distributed leadership is an analytical and conceptual approach of understanding how leadership is exercised among people and in the context of a complex organization. According to Davies, distributed leadership is primarily about expansion of responsibilities of leadership among all the organizational staff and being able to cope with work intensity (2005). This kind of leadership is distributed within an organization and everyone is empowered to certain duties. As noted by Arrowsmith, distributed leadership is a new form of power distribution in schools which distributes authority and influence to individuals in a different way with hierarchical arrangements. In relation to the study that has been described in the article, school accountabilities hinder the work of heroic leaders. This has led to the distribution of leadership among different individuals. As discussed by the author of the article, distributed leadership plays an integral role in the improvement and effectiveness of schools.
The article also presents a small scale case study which took place in an elementary school in Cyprus District. The researcher used combined methods in collecting, analyzing and presenting data. In the process of collecting valid data, he used questionnaires, interviews and observation. The results of the study indicated that leadership is distributed in schools and it is spread to 18 different roles. The articles explain the 18 roles and their primary responsibilities. Furthermore, the study pointed out the five major leadership capabilities for distributed leadership. Some of the impacts of distributed leadership as highlighted in the articles are; performance improvement of student’s outcomes in Mathematics and Greek language, an organization exercising distributed becomes very effective and it creates job satisfaction. The article also cast aspersions on the eligibility of distributed leadership and suggests that further investigation should be carried out to determine the effectiveness of the practice.
Topic and Importance
The article focuses on why field members conceptualize research in the field of educational leadership. This approach allows researchers to challenge what is being done to bring change to educational leadership. Conceptualization is a multi-level process that is technical, illuminative, critical, practical and positional. This process helps field members to not just suggest a change model but to describe, understand and explain change. This way, they are more vested in the process and will ensure that key stakeholders are on board too. The topic is important as it pays attention to a problem that has been plaguing the education system and despite numerous studies, the progress has been dismal. Therefore, there is need to expand the scope of research and make recommendations based on evidence found. For instance, how are learners organized and how are the resources distributed? Understanding these aspects will help formulate policies to improve educational leadership (Gunter, 2005).
Key Words and Usefulness
Keywords are words that occur multiple times within the text that they would normally occur. These words help websites become recognized by search engine and therefore, potential customers are able to find the website and read the content. The digital age has changed the way we do business and more companies are utilizing online channels to reach consumers. Competition is rife and this necessitates search engine optimization to direct traffic to a website. A keyword tool helps to find the most appropriate keywords and targeted keyword phrases that will guarantee website visits (SEOBook, n.d., PP. 10). In this article, the author uses a series of keywords to garner the attention of internet users finding content related to this piece, such as conceptualization, field members, change, research, resources, educational, and leadership.
Search Limiters and Usefulness
Search limiters are methods of narrowing down research to weed out irrelevant material. They are also called filters and are useful when retrieving documents from databases with numerous documents that could bear similar topics, authors, dates, or keywords. These databases provide a set of values in a drop-down menu that the user can select to focus their search. This is a more targeted search strategy and even though one does not get the exact document they were seeking, it is much easier to select from fewer choices. Some of the common limiters or filters include cover story, date of publishing, full text, number of pages, etc. Search limiters make finding documents less laborious and one can limit searchers to the most up-to-date articles which are generally more useful as opposed to reading outdated material (Mockler, 2005, PP. 2). Additionally, limiters and they also help find documents even without knowing the exact titles.
Peer Review and Importance
Peer review, also known as refereeing, is a process of scrutinizing another scholar’s work or ideas and this is done by experts in the same field before a paper or journal article is published. Peer reviews are an important part of academia given that published work forms the basis of additional research and it can be used for decades or centuries. Yi-Luen Do (2003) found that more than 50% of academic libraries’ budgets are dedicated to peer reviewing activities. The painstaking process of reviewing helps to verify the validity of content and suggest areas of improvements. Researchers must factor in all suggestions and make amendments wisely and the iteration process goes on until the paper is ready for publishing. Publications and research papers are meant to advance knowledge in a certain area and therefore, the information must be verified before making it available for public consumption (Do, 2003, PP. 254).
References
Sanchez, J. (2007b). A Sociotechnical Systems Analysis of Second Life in an Undergraduate English Course. In C. Montgomerie & J. Seale (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2007 (pp. 4254-4258). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
Vogel, D. Guo, M., Zhou, P., Tian, S., & Zhang, J. (2008). In search of Second Life nirvana. Issues in informing science and information technology 5(2008), 11-28.
Arrowsmith, T. (2007) “Distributed Leadership in Secondary Schools in England: The Impact on the role of the Head teacher and other Issues”, Management and Administration Society, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp 21-27.
Davies, B. (ed.) (2005) The Essential of School Leadership, Paul Chapman and Corwin Press, London.
Do, E.Y. (2003). Afterword Why Peer Review Journals? Georgia Institute of Technology, PP.
254. Retrieved from http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~ellendo/peerreview.pdf
Gunter, H.M. (2005). Conceptualizing Research in Educational Leadership. Sage Publications:
London, Thousand Oaks, and New Delhi. ISN 1741-1432 DOI: 10.1177/1741143205051051
Mockler, D. (2005). Databases and Search Strategies. Trinity College Dublin, the University of
Dublin, PP. 2. Retrieved from https://www.tcd.ie/library/support/subjects/nursin…
SEOBook (n.d.). Search Engine Optimization. Aaron Matthew Wall, PP. 10. Retrieved from