EDTECH Research

This assignment brought back memories of grad school.  Sifting through article after article, day after day, was my life.  I wish I had known about Google Scholar and linking it to the university library.  I also wish that I had known about Google Docs and the citing feature.  Though it did not give me a spot on, error free APA citation each time, it would still have made my life much easier, especially when I was compiling a reference list of the 40+ sources that I used for an independent study.  I think that I had convinced myself that I enjoyed the intricacies of writing APA style citations up until the second that I first clicked on the "cite" button in Google Docs.  

Reading the primary literature at the intersection of the fields of Educational Technology, Teaching English as a Second Language, and Applied Linguistics was eye opening.  I had, for so long, ignored and was completely disinterested in the field of computer assisted language learning.  After taking in the lit reviews, data, and results, I realized that many tools, or should I say many effective tools are available for teachers in the field of ESL.  I was amazed at two specific findings: (1) that the use of blogs and wikis does actually have quantitative and qualitative data to support use in the classroom and (2) that researchers have already developed field-specific, web-based tools to support ESL writing classrooms.  Although these findings did show me the promise of using these technologies in the classroom, I thought about one foreseeable problem: Most of these studies were conducted in classes composed  of linguistically and culturally homogeneous students.  My classes are usually linguistically and culturally diverse.  I have not yet found any research addressing this issue.

Overall, I found this exercise useful.  It reawakened my interest in research in general and started my interest in educational technology as it applies to ESL.  

Here is my paper: Annotated Bibliography