Initially my research topic idea for the year was the application of cybersecurity in K-12 schools and its effectiveness.  Many threats affect school networks and devices, and the topic still interests me, but I would like to take my research in a different direction and look at the use of devices themselves in the classroom setting.  My main questions for this topic are, will the growing number of device deployment in schools benefit the educational goals of teachers and students and will the addition of this technology be financially and technically supported by the education system?  

      The question of security still remains for me however and a secondary question is whether or not the students and teachers will be adequately protected and trained to properly utilize the emerging technology that continues to enter the education system?  Both of these questions intrigue me as an educator because there may be research available or I may be able to uncover and implement some proven techniques that will help to secure the networks and devices for the students of my district. 

     While completing the Week 6 Blog Post, I was able to find research that focused on the procurement of devices at the K-12 level, and this led me to the selection of my current topic interests.  Morrison, Ross, & Cheung (2019) dove into the topic of technological procurement in the K-12 environment and gave research on its integration into the classrooms of several different districts over multiple years.  Along with this article I also made note of some interesting articles from the U.S. Department of Education concerning the national model for creating personalized and relevant curriculum, as well as how technology can bring more powerful learning experiences into students’ daily lives.  

      The first database that I found useful in the library was the Education Source Database.  While searching terms in this database, I had a lot of returned articles for my terms and I feel like there is a good chance for finding information relating to the the Education department here.  My second database, Applied Science & Technology, is a technology database that also returned multiple articles about the integration of technology in schools.  At this point I was very pleased to see that there was information and studies in both areas for my topic, if not specifically, generally.   Computer Source was the third database I tried and I had similarly good results, although I would say several of the articles were based in other countries and I am not sure if that will be relevant to my topic or if I will need to broaden my ideas of the subject to make it useful to me.  Overall there seemed to be a tremendous amount of information out there and that does make me hopeful.

Morrison, J. R., Ross, S. M., & Cheung, A. C. K. (2019). From the market to the classroom: how ed-tech products are procured by school districts interacting with vendors. Educational Technology Research & Development, 67(2), 389–421. https://doi-org.ezproxy.fhsu.edu/10.1007/s11423-019-09649-4

U.S. Department of Education. (2010). Transforming American education: Learning powered by technology: National Educational Technology Plan 2010. Washington, DC: Ofce of Educational Technology. Retrieved from https://fles.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED512681.pdf.