Putting My Research Hat On...

The last part of my stay in Melbourne has focused on evidence-based practice and theory and hanging out with people 'who know a lot more stuff than me' about education research. One of the main reasons that I applied for this scholarship was because of the lack of information that I was able to find about technology and Aboriginal Education, and I've been curious as to why this is... With iPad technology being around for over 5 years now and lots of research being conducted to give recommendation for iPad use with other student populations (for example students with ESL backgrounds or students with additional learning needs), why is it so hard to find information and recommendations for Aboriginal students? I've heard that there are some factors that might be deterring professional researchers from engaging in Aboriginal education studies, such as difficulty passing proposals with ethics committees, but regardless of the why, I really want to know MORE! I am a firm believer that anything I do in my classroom needs to have some sort of EVIDENCE to demonstrate that it has been a proven beneficial teaching and learning strategy that is appropriate to the learning needs of my students.

My first stop on the quest to find more knowledge was at DEECD (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development) where I met with the Senior Project Officer for the Digital Learning Branch, Brooke. Brooke was able to steer me in the direction of lots of great journal articles about iPads (at least a dozen!) that cover many different aspects of their use within classrooms, unfortunately none specifically address Aboriginal Education, but they have been beneficial resources nonetheless.

With Dr Eva Dakich, State Library of Victoria

The second stop was a meet-up with Dr Eva Dakich from La Trobe University. Dr Dakich created a document called 'Learning in Motion: Connecting Schools and Knowledge for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children: Investigating iPads for Learning and Literacy' along with fellow researchers Neil Hooley and Tony Watt. Thus far this is one of the very few formal documents I have been able to find about iPads to improve literacy outcomes and engagement for indigenous students. Although the focus group for this research was junior high school, it was great to hear first-hand from Dr Eva the opportunities and challenges faced when she engaged with this research project.

My final port of call was with Caja Gilbert - the Research Assistant to Professor Nicola Yelland (the head Director of Research in the College of Education at Victoria University). I have read a lot of Yelland's work because I find her articles enjoyable to read (and without too many over-complicated words that I need to look up in the dictionary). Caja and Nicola are about to embark on a research project specifically looking at improving literacy learning outcomes for Aboriginal students in Pre-School settings - using iPads!!! It was great to talk about the project and learn how the researchers go about getting their work published from idea conception to the end product. The estimated time for this article to be published is this time next year... I can't wait to read it!

From these meetings and discussions, I've become inspired to further my capabilities as a researcher... I am currently half way through a Masters degree and thus far I have managed to avoid all the research-based subjects. I've always been a lover of consuming other people's research - not a creator! But now with the support of these professionals, I've been given some wonderful opportunities to network with their research and offers of guidance for any future projects I wish to embark upon. Dr Dakich asked me if I would perhaps consider doing a PhD after completing my masters... my theory is you can never be over-dressed or over-educated, so why not?