The Challenges of Narrowing My Project Focus

As I work through the com­plex­i­ties of my Mas­ter of Edu­ca­tion project, I’ve found nar­row­ing the focus both excit­ing and chal­leng­ing. My goal is to cre­ate an inclu­sive, tech­nol­o­gy-enhanced mid­dle school wood­work class­room that sup­ports all stu­dents, par­tic­u­lar­ly ELL. At the heart of this project is explor­ing how UDL, sup­port­ed by SAMR and TPACK, can cre­ate flex­i­ble and acces­si­ble learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for a diverse group of stu­dents.

I’ve framed my research around the ques­tion: How can tech­nol­o­gy sup­port inclu­sion in the mid­dle school wood­work class­room, specif­i­cal­ly address­ing the diverse needs of stu­dents regard­ing lan­guage, learn­ing pace, and acces­si­bil­i­ty? This ques­tion reflects my per­son­al com­mit­ment to mak­ing every stu­dent feel empow­ered to suc­ceed, no mat­ter their start­ing point.

One of my biggest strug­gles has been find­ing research that direct­ly con­nects UDL, ELL learn­ers, and tech­nol­o­gy inte­gra­tion in a way that applies to hands-on, tech­ni­cal sub­jects like wood­work­ing. While there’s plen­ty of lit­er­a­ture on UDL’s impact and the val­ue of tech­nol­o­gy in edu­ca­tion, the inter­sec­tion with ELL sup­port in this con­text often feels under­ex­plored. I’ve spent hours refin­ing search terms like “UDL” AND “ELL” AND “tech­nol­o­gy inte­gra­tion” to find rel­e­vant stud­ies, but much of what I’ve learned has come from reflect­ing on my own teach­ing expe­ri­ences and piec­ing togeth­er research from adja­cent areas.

Inte­grat­ing SAMR and TPACK into this frame­work has been anoth­er lay­er of com­plex­i­ty, but it’s also excit­ing. SAMR helps me eval­u­ate how tech­nol­o­gy can rede­fine learn­ing in my class­room, while TPACK reminds me to keep ped­a­gogy and con­tent at the fore­front when intro­duc­ing new tools. For exam­ple, using Google Class­room, CAD soft­ware, or inter­ac­tive dig­i­tal assess­ments has opened doors for ELL stu­dents to engage with wood­work­ing projects in ways that align with their learn­ing needs.

As I nav­i­gate these frame­works, I keep ask­ing myself how to bal­ance the­o­ry and prac­tice. I want the tools I cre­ate — dig­i­tal project plans, inter­ac­tive tests, and mul­ti­lin­gual resources — to be ground­ed in research but also imme­di­ate­ly prac­ti­cal for my class­room. This isn’t just about meet­ing aca­d­e­m­ic goals; it’s about cre­at­ing a space where every stu­dent, no mat­ter their back­ground, feels sup­port­ed and capa­ble.

Even though it’s been a chal­lenge to refine my focus and con­nect these frame­works, I feel con­fi­dent this work will pay off. Each strug­gle push­es me to think more deeply about what inclu­sion real­ly means and how I can use tech­nol­o­gy to fos­ter an envi­ron­ment where all stu­dents, espe­cial­ly ELL learn­ers, can thrive.