My studies with Drs. Norton and Sprague in the IT Masters' Cohort were focused on a particular notion of teaching and learning and, while I still adhere to a constructivist philosophy of education, this course gave me an introduction into a wide range of viewpoints.

Kuhn's "Paradigm Shift" is still talked about by members of the cohort with which I started this program. In many instances, it is referred to in a humorous manner, yet I believe that I took from it a renewed wonder at how knowledge is perceived in a variety of domains and disciplines.

The discussions and interactions facilitated by Dr. Sturtevant were key to shifting my thinking to encompass a wider range of opinions. Indeed, I think that starting the program with such a diverse group gave me something of an ego-check!

Early in the semester we were asked to select a philosophy to research for a final paper. At that point, I selected constructivism. Had it been later in the year, I believe that I would have selected something else in order to get deeper insight into other ways of knowing, but I wanted to select something familiar. My goal for this paper, Constructivism, Pre-history to Post-Modern. was to give a history of the philosophy, discuss its impact on education, and to look into the future to try to see how this philosophy might manifest itself in an on-line world.

I began this class with a certain amount of cynicism towards leadership in general. I think that my tendency was to look upon "leaders" as those who manipulated and guided followers towards goals which were self-serving. It is unfortunate that I didn't come to this realization until well after the course had ended and I was able to discuss with classmates those things with which I had issue. I then saw in myself a person who prefers to follow closely behind a leader and complain about his methods. In my essay, Intellectual Growth and Motivation to Learn, I attempted to show how I viewed leadership in public schools and illustrate how the methods for selecting and recruiting leaders need to be changed. At a minimum, recognition needs to be given to the differences in leadership for schools vs. businesses.

If not for Dr. Melander's absence during the semester following this class, I would like to have talked with him more about this. I regret that I was not more open to leadership as a concept, but I think that this in itself was a great learning experience. I enjoyed Gardner's Leading Minds. Through the chapters I was able to see leadership (albeit Gardner's view of leadership) in a variety of people and in a variety of circumstances. I was particularly struck by the notion of direct and indirect leadership and how there are a number of people in leadership roles simply by virtue of their standing within their domain. I think it is indirect leadership - guidance through embodiment - that appeals to me. Since taking this class, I have looked for and found leadership in a number of people, most of whom are not in traditional leadership roles.

I'm afraid that I can't say the same about Kotter's book, What Leaders Really Do. I think that this book tended to reinforce some of my beliefs about the stereotypical 'leader' whose ends justify all means. This book provided a more mechanical description of leadership - defining traits and strategies of leadership. I also know that I have trouble with authors who put their pictures on the covers of their books!,In my final essay for this class, Five Traits of Exemplary Leaders I undertook to synthesize the messages in Gardner and Kotter, as well as the discussions in class, and apply them to the public school environment. I feel very strongly that the role of a leader in a K-12 school is quite different from a leader in business or government. To be sure, they must possess many of the same qualities found in other leaders, but the roles are quite different.

During the first half of the course, we were required to post our reactions to the speakers on BlackBoard. Additionally, we were to select three of the speakers and write reaction papers on their presentations. What I found particularly stimulating was reading the research papers of such a wide variety of professors. I may not always have shared their interest in the topics, but it was fascinating to read so many different articles.

The second semester of EDUC 805 brought a number of changes. No longer required to hand in reaction papers, we were divided into our Ways of Knowing cohorts and asked to react to the presentations more fully in BlackBoard. A quirk in scheduling required Dr. Goor to name my group the "No Ways of Knowing" group (as we were the only one of the three groups to have already completed Ways of Knowing). Something within the group gelled and we took off. I think that for various reasons we all became quite a bit closer and, through our online interactions, developed our ways of thinking and speaking to a much greater degree than was possible through individual papers. We posted all in French one week, wrote poems another week, and generally took our academic thought processes to a new level. I truly believe that we will look back on that semester as pivotal in our development as thinkers. I know that I personally found the experience to have stimulated my thinking and it is evident, I think, in my postings.

In methodical, step-by-step processes, Dr. Kitsantis introduced us to the world of educational research and, of necessity, the magic of APA style. I have to admit that I was at first reluctant, or hesitant about the research course. I was convinced that research was a by-product of teaching/working at the college/university level and not something that I really wanted to work with very much. However, in completing the final paper, Assessing the Impact of a Mentor Training Program, I discovered that I had a great deal more interest in the process of researching than I had anticipated having.

This introduction to research gave me the opportunity to see and begin to understand the importance of designing research projects in a number of different ways. I was fortunate to be able to conduct a project related to my position in teaching at Mason. We had been working on creating a course of study for Online Mentors.This course of study was innovative, we believed, in that it allowed the prospective mentors to participate in the course at a distance. Also innovative was the fact that the culmination of the course involved the students and mentors to participate in role-playing activities for mentoring. Our desire was to learn about the effect of such a course on the stages of concern of the prospective mentors.

The design and carrying out of the research project was much more interesting and informative than I expected. We were able to present this research project at the SITE Conference in New Mexico during the spring of 2003.

By taking this course relatively late, I think that I was better able to view this course and the knowledge gained in the context of my impending dissertation work. The quantitative study that I undertook as the culminating project helped me not only to view the facets of conducting research but also to look critically at the type of work in which I was involved and reflect on what my research interests might be in the near future.

This said, I have to say that it was very interesting each Tuesday evening to spend 2 1/2 hours immersed with Dr. Ware in statistics and quantifiable data and then to shift gears entirely to go downstairs for qualitative research with Dr. Maxwell. I had to smile at the contrast even in the clothes that they wore - from Dr. Ware with his white shirt and tie then Dr. Maxwell, dressed for hiking the Appalachian trail! At first glance, there could not have been two classes and styles more dissimilar.

Both of the courses provided me with the opportunity to explore a couple of projects that I had been thinking about. Fortunately, I was able to conduct research on the Web Based Learning class for both classes.

During this semester, as part of my Internship in Education (EDUC 994), I taught the Web Based Learning class for the ITS Cohort. The research courses gave me the opportunity to investigate facets of online learning that have interested me for some time. In particular, using synchronous chats.

Fortunately, I was able to combine my projects for the two courses and study online chatting both quantitatively and qualitatively. My impression was that the two methodologies were completely disparate and there would be little or no crossover.

I was very surprised as we progressed through the semester to find that there were many more similarities in the processes of quantitative and qualitative research. To be sure, the data gathered and used is quite different for both studies but there were a number of similar concerns with the development of the research. More than I had suspected. Mixed methods, then, seems an attractive methodology to use in the dissertation.

Each of the products of these courses, the quantitative oriented Perceptions of Learning in an Online Synchronous Chat and the qualitative, interview and observation based Experiences and Perceptions of Large Group, Synchronous Discussions represent the types of research methodologies learned about in the two classes.

EDIT 797
Online Mentoring of Teachers
Summer 2001

EDIT 797
Online Communities for Teachers
Fall 2001

EDIT 797
Online Mentoring - Special Topics
Spring 2002

We began work on the on-line version of the program in the spring of 2001. Initially, our discussions and work centered around the existing syllabi for the certificate program and how the activities might be translated into an online environment. Concurrently, we studied the problems we would face in providing coursework, evaluations, and feedback to students who we would never see face-to-face. Conceptually, we were able to make the modifications to the courses to allow for working off-site and submitting the products via e-mail attachments. An trial group of 'mentees' was formed in Fauquier County.

From the outset, it was determined that there would be a significant difference between this program and others that simply provided content from a distance. Those of us who would work with the participants were seen in the role of mentors, rather than instructors. Our function would be to act as guides to enhance the participants' understanding of the concepts in the courses, and to help bridge to classroom practice. Clearly, our interactions with mentees had to be robust and a relationship needed to be formed with those with whom we worked.

I have since described the process of creating the ITSOLC program as 'building a car while driving it down the highway'. Our first group of mentees began work soon after the program's inception and, more often than not, we found ourselves just barely a step ahead of them in creating the courses. This had its advantages in that we were able to monitor both the rate of completion of the activities as well as the type and substance of the asynchronous communication between mentor and mentee.

We also found it necessary to investigate the idea of self-regulation in completing the work in the courses. Obviously, since we did not meet in a face-to-face environment, the mentees were left to complete work on their own. This necessitated some guidance or framework in the course for pacing. A student check-sheet was created and put online for the mentees to print. This allowed them to monitor and record their progress. We also created a mentor check-sheet with cues and evaluation criteria for each activity.

I have always considered myself a good teacher. I find it easy and enjoyable to work with students of any age. Working with the mentees (in the pilot group for ITSOLC, I had only one mentee - others assigned to me dropped the program early on), however, presented me with a number of challenges to face. First and foremost, a working relationship must be formed via e-mail communication. I have found that creating the relationship is somewhat different that in a face-to-face environment. Body language, inflections, and the like are lost to you and I find that those types of non-verbal communication cues must either be translated into text for e-mail, or communicated in other ways. I have had to learn new ways of expressing thoughts and ideas about the work in the course. This, in turn, has made me much more reflective about the goals of the certificate program and the all-important bridge to practice. I think that I have become much more knowledgeable about the concepts in the class as a result of having to interact with students in this way.

I am not sure of the value of such a study right now, but after discussing things with a coworker, I think it would be interesting to investigate the perceptions, or mental images, one creates of another person online. It might be revealing to see how perceptions are formed, how to create valid impressions, etc.

I am not ready to say that on-line learning is comparable to face-to-face instruction. One of the areas that I would like to research further is the comparable methods of face-to-face vs. online instruction. I have learned a great deal about the best practices in mentoring online and continue to uncover knowledge about this area.

I came away from this course with a better understanding of reliability and validity than I had ever had before and it served me well in later research courses - that and correlation coefficients, which, oddly enough, showed up against and again in Quantitative research!

This course was extremely enjoyable from an intellectual and philosophical standpoint. I can't help but wish, though, that I had been able to take it during a regular semester and not packed into five weeks in the summer. This made internalizing the information and reflection very difficult indeed.

This course did give me the opportunity to do some reflecting on assessment in the programs that I teach. It happened that, at the time, we were devising a strategy for assessing the learning and growth of the participants in the ITSOLC (online technology certificate program). Since we had pretty much decided that we wanted a type of portfolio online for them, I took the opportunity to investigate Portfolio Assessment and use that for the them for my paper, Portfolio Assessment in the Graduate School of Education: Process, Validity, and Reliability. In it, I looked at the reliability and validity issues in Portfolio Assessment at George Mason University. This integrated a number of cognitive themes that I had been addressing - my PhD portfolio review, the Online Portfolio for the ITSOLC classes, as well as the assessment scheme for the ITS Cohort.

The best thing about the course, and I didn't expect it, was that for the first time since starting the PhD program, I wasn't called upon to write or speak or reflect on the history of Java, Java's importance to me, or the place of Java in the classroom! The programs worked, or they didn't work. A refreshing break from the philosophy.

While the course was interesting and I learned some 'behind the scenes' things, my feeling is that most high-end web editors will do the same things at the click of button.

The WBL Class gave me a platform from which to research synchronous chatting in the research classes.

EDCI 714
Methods of Integration

EDCI 716
Principles of Integration
1998 - 1999 
Dr. Priscilla Norton
Dr. Debra Sprague

I found the ITS program to be a very refreshing change from my experiences (and my expectations) of post-graduate work. Most of the work was done collaboratively with classmates. We not only explored the tools of technology, we did so in the context of creating meaningful lessons and products which were immediately applicable to our practice. Drs. Norton and Sprague modeled their vision of instruction based upon a constructivist philosophy of knowledge and we gained tremendous insight on the role that technology should play in the development of knowledge.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this experience was the notion of information acquisition and management. Today's students are faced with an extraordinary amounts and types of information which must be processed in order for them to make meaning of their environment. Developing lessons utilizing a variety of tools (telecommunications,, databases, spreadsheets, hypermedia, TV/Video) , was invaluable to me and helped me see the efficacy of our infusion of technology into our schools. This, more than anything has helped shape my view of technology in teaching and of curriculum in general. My thinking was further developed through a series of essays (telecommunication essay, database essay, graphics essay, written to justify the use of those tools in lessons. This forced me to rely on readings and class discussions and a great deal of reflection, in order to describe technology's place.

The culminating project for the ITS program involved the development of a unit of study and action research on the effects of that unit. Inasmuch as my position at that time was related to staff development, I utilized a plan that I had been working on for the creation of Technology Lead Teachers in Stafford County. My final research paper was on the effects of peer training in technology.

Overall, the ITS experience led to a reawakening in me in terms of curriculum (it had been 20 years since undergrad) and a reorienting in my thinking towards how students learn and the role technology should play.