mTechnology: A teacher tool for growing a community of practice within an emerging responsive data-driven process

The purpose of this study was to describe the initial implementation of handheld, mobile technology as a progress monitoring tool. This mixed methods study was designed to specifically address teacher interest in integrating handheld mobile technology as a tool for gathering pre-reading DIBELS Initial Sound Fluency (ISF) data. The study also described how the teachers used the technology-assisted data to differentiate small-group reading instruction and strengthen phonemic awareness for the most at-risk kindergartners. A community of three kindergarten teachers at the action researcher's assigned elementary school was selected as the participants of this study. The setting was an elementary school in a large suburban school district located in the southwestern United States.;The core of this study involved attempts to quantify the attitudes and the behavioral patterns of the participants. The methodological instruments used to support this goal were the Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ), specifically designed for assessing attitudinal understanding about educational innovation, and the Levels of Use (LoU) Branching Interview, a formative assessment for collecting information about individual behaviors and actions. Overall findings revealed that participants experienced accelerated positive change in their attitudes and behaviors about Technology integration within an emerging data-driven process. Handhelds, as an educational affordance, served as a responsive solution to DIBELS progressive monitoring within an early childhood community of practice (CoP). Data collection is an integral core of a Response to Intervention (RtI) model for special education identification. Future implications of this study suggest that SoCQ methodology could assist in the implementation of progress monitoring training and aspects of professional development critical to the RtI initiative.