CDIE Research

Digital Innovation Faculty Research Grant - 2024

• Project Title: A Digital Play Framework for Early Learners

  

  Principal Investigator: Dr. Brenda Jacobs, Assistant Teaching Professor, Mitch & Leslie Fraser Faculty of Education, Ontario Tech University

  Field of Research: Early Childhood Education, Kindergarten

  Grant Amount: $10,000

  There is a consensus among researchers that play is beneficial to children’s learning and development. In recent years, as digital technology became a venue for children’s play, the idea of digital play has emerged. Broadly speaking, digital play can be described as a voluntary, energizing activity that involves using digital technologies to support children’s learning and development. It includes activities related to video and computer games, apps, Internet sites and search engines, electronic toys, mobile technologies, smart phones, iPads and tablets, makerspaces, and the creation of digital content. While play-based learning in the classroom is well established, the opportunities and appropriate sites for digital play is still evolving. In play-based Kindergartens, children learn through play and educators assess children’s play to promote further learning. Many educators are struggling, however, to translate this approach to digital play. One innovative approach to help educators has been the introduction of a Digital Play Framework, which can be used by educators as a new tool for observing and assessing, both formatively and summatively, children’s digital play in the classroom. My proposal is to develop a new framework focused on young children. This research project is designed to lay the groundwork for a study of digital play in early learning classrooms that can guide conclusions about what are the opportunities and appropriate sites for digital play, leading to the establishment of a Digital Play Framework for Early Learners.

• Project Title: Design and implementation of an authentic mathematics curriculum for grades 7-10

  

  Co-Investigators: Dr. Ami Mamolo, Associate Professor, Mitch & Leslie Fraser Faculty of Education, Ontario Tech University and Peter Taylor, Queen's University

  Field of Research: Mathematic Curriculum

  Grant Amount: $10,000

  Dr. Ami Mamolo and Peter Taylor (Queen’s University) lead an interdisciplinary team of education researchers, mathematicians, and practicing teachers in a project that seeks to enhance collaboration and capacity for developing and enacting an authentic and meaningful mathematics curriculum that values human flourishing. For decades mathematics educators have warned that the current school mathematics curriculum is overly technical and poorly designed to prepare our students for the world they will encounter. They have called for a curriculum that focuses on creative activity, on doing and playing, and on analyzing complex systems and structures. A curriculum that, in short, realizes the beauty, power, and artistry of mathematics. Our project responds to this call by leveraging the transformative learning capabilities of digital technologies to design and construct activities that cultivate mathematical strength, creativity, and growth, and nurture students as “mathematical artists."

• Project Title: Navigating the hyflex horizon: Uncovering successes and hurdles in hyflex

  

  Principal Investigator: Dr. Laura Morrison, Assistant Professor, Mitch & Leslie Fraser Faculty of Education, Ontario Tech University

  Field of Research: Hyflex Teaching and Learning in Undergraduate Education

  Grant Amount: $10,000

  Our research investigates a socio-constructivist approach to HyFlex teaching and learning in undergraduate education, aiming to balance flexibility with the creation of cohesive, collaborative learning communities. HyFlex education, which enables students to participate in in-person, synchronous online, or asynchronous formats, offers adaptability that is crucial for students managing diverse responsibilities. While this model enhances accessibility, it presents challenges, such as a fragmented sense of community and difficulty sustaining a socio-constructivist learning environment across varied participation modes. This study explores strategies to address these challenges, focusing on ways to support continuity, enhance peer collaboration, and improve technological consistency within the HyFlex framework. Our study employs Participatory Action Research (PAR) (Kemmis & McTaggart, 2007) to collaboratively design, develop, implement and reflect on socio-constructivism and the HyFlex model in undergraduate Educational Studies courses. Alongside PAR, we are using a Design-Based Research (DBR) approach (Barab & Squire, 2004), an iterative method allowing us to refine the HyFlex structure in response to classroom realities over multiple iterations. We are now in iteration three of four.