Major Project 1: Project Proposal

Assignment/Project Summary:

This project entails creating a unique argumentative claim, using research, and persuading an audience. The primary claim should make a compelling argument about a specific issue(s), theme, question, theoretical approach, or platform related to educational technology which I identified.

In my project proposal, I wanted to focus my project on how edtech (educational technology) affects students from marginalized communities and I elaborate more on certain points I could make in the work and how it will be presented.

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Reflections and Comments:

This was the first formal project proposal that I wrote and submitted, so I was worried about the quality of my proposal. That worry and my perfectionistic tendencies actually led to me submitting this assignment late and putting me in a position where I was behind schedule. It's likely that I will have to write more project proposals as I continue in my college experience, so I am happy to start developing this skill early. Since I was given a structure to start with, I can reuse it next time and adjust it slightly to better suit my style of writing.

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Wendy Bui

Professor Caitlin Postal

ENGL 182K | Multimodal Composition

SA4 MP1 Project Proposal

Research Topic/Prompt:

Technology as it relates to education:

How does edtech impact the educational experience of students from marginalized communities in the United States?

Tentative Claim:

The rise of edtech makes education more accessible to a variety of people from marginalized communities, however, overreliance on edtech can reduce the quality of education for students overall and even make education inaccessible for certain students.

Stakes:

Since most schools and school districts are currently utilizing edtech to teach students it’s important to understand the different impacts that this learning model can have on different student demographics. This information can help to make education both more accessible and more equitable for students that are in marginalized communities as these students are typically underserved even without the additional factor of online education and reliance on edtech.

For example, one group of marginalized students would be students from low income backgrounds. Some questions to consider are:

• Do they have the hardware to access edtech software?

• Are they familiar enough with the technology to immerse themselves in online education?

• Do they have access to a stable/fast internet connection to get an online education?

Another example would be students from immigrant households:

• Do they understand how to use the technology?

• If not, can they get support from their family members to use the technology?

• What happens if a student does not have the academic support they need because of a language barrier between them and their families or families and staff?

Counterargument:

“Edtech will level the playing field for students that have trouble accessing a good education.”

“Edtech makes education more accessible for the majority of students overall, so it is okay to rely on it as a primary means of teaching students.”

Just because something benefits the majority of students does not mean that it’s acceptable to neglect the minority that may have different needs.

If edtech wants to be both an effective and equitable option for educating, it’s necessary to understand where edtech falls short both in and of itself as well as the barriers of access to fully enjoy the benefits of edtech.

Here, in addressing potential arguments, I have a lot of room to point out specific disadvantages that students can face being from low-income backgrounds, being neurodiverse, and more when talking about the advantages and disadvantages of edtech currently.

Research Sources:

For the sake of staying within the length requirement: A lot of the sources I’m considering will be pulled from research databases found on the UW library website such as Gale OneFile and ProQuest.

Preliminary Sources

Alamri, Abdulrahman, and Tandra Tyler-Wood. “Factors Affecting Learners With Disabilities–

Instructor Interaction in Online Learning.” Journal of Special Education Technology, vol.

32, no. 2, June 2017, pp. 59–69, doi:10.1177/0162643416681497.

Smith, Sean J., et al. “The Emerging Field of Online Special Education.” Journal of Special

Education Technology, vol. 31, no. 3, Sept. 2016, pp. 123–125,

doi:10.1177/0162643416660839.

Ortagus, Justin C. “From the Periphery to Prominence: An Examination of the Changing

Profile of Online Students in American Higher Education.” The Internet and Higher

Education, vol. 32, 2017, pp. 47–57., doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2016.09.002.

General Outline:

Introduction + Brief overview about learning styles employed and intro of online education (OE) → Benefits of OE (ex: general accessibility, convenience) → Observations about OE overall → issues that are occuring/viewpoints needed to be considered now that OE is widely used → what can be done (ideas/suggestions) → future implications → Conclusion

Genre:

I think this would work well as a semi-formal podcast or video essay because those mediums can range a lot from being entirely casual to being very formal, so having that freedom can also allow me to contribute my own personal experiences to strengthen my argument.

In this case, I think taking inspiration from Things You Missed in History Class and the GeniusBrain Podcast would be helpful since both are quite entertaining while also being informative despite having different subjects and styles. I have some experience with doing film analysis video essays so depending on the direction my base material takes me, I could make a video essay. That being said, due to time constraints and my own desire for a “perfect” product, I think writing a traditional paper is the best idea since both podcasting and making video essays require more time and consideration.

Audience:

My audience would be the general public as I want to critically analyze the role of edtech in students’ lives and inform people about drawbacks that certain students using edtech can face that might not be a first thought for some. With that in mind, the ideal genre of my presentation would be a video since it is an easy media to consume. Regardless of the actual format, I am making it a goal to keep my language and overall presentation as clear and concise as possible (which likely means shortening my sentence length more often).