Digital Commons Network^™

Balancing The Benefits And Risks Of Ai Large Language Models In K12 Public Schools, Jesse Senechal, Eric Ekholm, Samaher Aljudaibi, Mary Strawderman, Chris Parthemos

MERC Publications

With artificial intelligence (AI) models rapidly emerging, the potential implications for K12 education are imminent. To illuminate the potential impacts on public schools, this MERC research brief answers the following questions: 1) What is AI? What are AI large language models? How do they work?, 2) What are the implications of large language models for teaching and learning?, 3) What are the main concerns with the use of AI large language models? What are the concerns for use within public schools?, 4) What are the considerations for school district policy on AI large language models?, and 5) What are the …

‘…In The Secret Of One’S Life’: Bernard Stiegler And Philosophy In The Intimacy Of His Prison Cell, Anna Kouppanou

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

In his book, Acting Out, philosopher Bernard Stiegler confesses that the question once posed to him by Marianne Alphant − namely, ‘How does one become a philosopher in the intimacy and secret of one’s life?’ threw him ‘into an embarrassing position’, mainly because Stiegler became a philosopher in the intimacy of his prison cell. There is no question that from Socrates to Antonio Gramsci, there have been philosophers who have suffered shorter or longer periods of imprisonment, but this was mainly because of their philosophy – their individuated way of being and thinking. In Bernard Stiegler’s case, it appears …

The Instructional Technology Resource Teacher: A Descriptive Case Study Of Deployment, Use, And Perceptions, Mary Sepelyak

Theses and Dissertations

This case study describes one professional development approach to support technology integration at all public schools in one large county in central Virginia. Using data obtained from daily time logs, the frequency of Instructional Technology Resource Teacher (ITRT) use by classroom teachers was analyzed. Descriptive statistics were used to describe overall percentage of ITRT use, the various types of professional development requested by teachers, the consistency of those activities over time, and if the frequencies of activities varied as a function of school level, Title I status at the elementary level, or subject area taught by teachers at the secondary …

Daring To Imagine: A Large-Scale Approach To Visual Arts Assessment Through A Virtual World Environment, Pamela G. Taylor

Art Education Publications

Discussion of a research project, eLASTIC, designed to transform concept mapping, brainstorming, journaling, and research into compelling play through interactive computer technology. Although this article reports on the development of one particular tool, the intention is to inspire other art teachers to imagine, construct, and develop or build upon the lessons learned in this project. The hope is that in this process, art education will lead the way to implementing authentic embedded assessment processes across all education disciplines and grade levels.

An Analysis Of The Effect Of Lecture Capture Initiatives On Student-Athletes At An Ncaa Division I Institution, Gregory Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Student-athletes often miss class due to travel and competitions (Diersen, 2005; F. Wiseman, personal communication, September 30, 2010; Hosick, 2010; NCAA On-line, 2008; Rhatigan, 1984). Missing class is negatively associated with grades (Park & Kerr, 1990; Romer, 1993; Schmidt, 1983). Therefore, as classroom instruction time is replaced by athletic-related commitments, student-athletes may be negatively affected academically. As technological advancements continue to evolve, it is possible to mitigate the effects of missed class time. One such technology being employed in 2012 is lecture capture. This case study examined the academic effect of lecture capture on student-athletes at Big Time University using …

(De)Fencing The Cultural Commons Through A (De)Constructive Media Art Curriculum, Steven Ciampaglia

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Rampant consolidation in the media industry has led to an ever-increasing push to extend the breadth and scope of copyright law. A deliberate and systematic effort to restrict access to cultural texts that were previously accessible has led to a creative climate that is increasingly intimidating to young artists. The personal computer provides students the ability to re-open these texts and reclaim their right to fairly use the cultural artifacts of their surroundings as building blocks of expression. The personal computer can deconstruct closed media texts into malleable parts of visual language that students can reconstruct into new texts. These …

Greenstem@Vcu: An Innovative Program For Integrating Service-Learning Into Middle School Science, Technology And Mathematics Instruction, Suzanne Kirk, Kelly Lockeman, Lynn Pelco

Division of Community Engagement Resources

GreenSTEM integrates science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education with a focus on energy and the environment using service-learning techniques for middle school science, mathematics and technology teachers.

An Assessment Of Principals' Technology Leadership: A Statewide Survey, Jeffrey Duncan

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to collect data about engagement and involvement around technology issues by principals in Virginia. Virginia public school administrators were surveyed using the Principals Technology Leadership Assessment (PTLA) instrument and results compared to the National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators (NETS-A) (ISTE, 2002). This study, though limited in scope, provided meaningful data for research. The study reflects that despite 10 years of having NETS-A in place, Virginia public school administrators are barely meeting minimum standards in five out of the six dimensions. The study correctly looked at the old NETS-A standards but resulted in a …

Lego Brick As Pixel: Self, Community, And Digital Communication, Jay Michael Hanes, Eleanor Weisman

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Over the last three years the authors attended Brickworld Conventions for adult and teen fans of LEGO in Chicago. Through interviews, observations, and research they conclude that the LEGO brick is a medium replete with possibilities for creative construction and playful design beyond the expectations of its corporate producers. The history of the brick as a toy infuses play throughout its use, and the Internet provides a forum for adult and teen fans to communicate, critique, and discuss their creations. Online communication is perhaps the most interesting facet of LEGO play. It demonstrates a model of social change with LEGO …

¡Pendejo! Preschoolers’ Profane Play: Why Children Make Art, Marissa Mcclure

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

In this article, I address the concept of critical coalitions in play from two perspectives. First, I consider young children’s art making with digital video through contemporary play frames that propose moving beyond the dichotomy of subject (child as actor; active meaning-maker) and object (child as dupe; susceptible to media and moral panic). This reaffirms that play is at once contradictory, pleasurable, fantastic, and culturally purposeful. Analysis of young children’s digital video as play within frameworks proposed by Wilson (1976), Walkerdine (2007), and Freud (1922/1948) allows for an expansion of philosophical ideas about young children’s art making. This coalition between …

Virtual Reality In Art Education, Sohhyoun Yoon

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis project presents possible uses of Virtual Reality for art education. To understand VR, this thesis reviews the history of using technology in educational environments and explores the concepts, definitions, and characteristics of VR in general. Then, it shows diverse purposes of VR for education and art educational environments. For an art class, the units present the use of Teen Second Life, which is a free on-line virtual world. The units demonstrate how art educators may use Teen Second life for high school art classes to build students’ understandings of their identities by creating their avatars, clothing, objects and …

Podcasting Possibilities For Art Education, Melanie L. Buffington

Art Education Publications

Technological developments influence the way artists create works of art. Newer technologies associated with the Web, called Web 2.0, are changing and affecting the work of contemporary artists. One form of Web 2.0 is the development of podcasts, which are compressed files that can be shared through the Internet. Podcasts are mainstream and many art museums use them as a means to provide audio or video for visitors, virtual or real. Over the last few semesters, I worked with groups of undergraduate and graduate art education students to develop podcasts based on their interpretations of works of art. Through these …

Contemporary Approaches To Critical Thinking And The World Wide Web, Melanie L. Buffington

Art Education Publications

This article begins with a review of the history of critical thinking and some current ideas on the topic. Then, I explain my working description of critical thinking and how critical thinking is currently articulated in discussions of the WWW in schools. I conclude with ideas for teachers related to developing critical thinking in art classrooms using the WWW.

Comparisons Of Attitudes Toward Computer Use And Computer Technology Based On Gender And Race/Ethnicity Among Eighth Graders, Kitty J. Boitnott

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not having a laptop computer for individual use 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week lessens differences between how eighth grade girls and eighth grade boys in 10 middle schools in HenricoCounty, Virginia perceive computer use and computer technology. Having a laptop computer to use at any time of the day or night eliminates the issue of competition between boys and girls for computer use. It also eliminates the need for either girls or boys to perform in front of other students while learning, thus lessening to some degree, feelings of computer anxiety. Competition for …

Preliminary Research On Taiwanese Art Curriculum Design Based On Visual Culture, Jui-Jung Chang

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, art education has started an on-going discussion on the issue of visual culture. In the past few years this issue also becomes topical due to the necessity to improve art education in Taiwan. Currently, art education based on visual culture has become a very important concern in Taiwan. However, the concept of visual culture has its origin in foreign theories. In order for our art professional to remain independent, it is essential that Taiwanese art teachers begin to address the issue of how to properly incorporate the concept of visual culture into the design of our art …

Un/Becoming Digital: The Ontology Of Technological Determinism And Its Implications For Art Education, Alison Colman

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Artists have been experimenting with analog and digital technologies since the 1960's; early examples include Billy Khiver's Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) and Nam June Paik (1966). While countless artists have since made highly innovative use of new media such as the computer, artificial intelligence (AD, biotech, the Internet and the World Wide Web, LED, motion capture, gesture tracking, CPS, open source, and robotics, artist/ theorists such as Penny (1995), Lovejoy (1997), Weibel (1996; 2001) and Wilson (2002) have cautioned against appropriating deterministic engineering models underlying such technologies.(l)These models, predominant in commercial industry, government and the military, embrace efficiency, …

Using The Internet To Develop Students' Critical Thinking Skills And Build Online Communities Of Teachers: A Review Of Research With Implications For Museum Education, Melanie L. Buffington

The Melanie Buffington Papers

This dissertation presents a Critical Content Meta Analysis of published literature related to using the Internet to develop critical thinking skills in students and to build online communities of teachers. An underlying goal of the research was to work toward the development of stronger connections between museums and public schools. Through analyzing the literature, I developed suggestions for museum personnel to implement when creating educational museum web sites. The analysis of the literature on critical thinking shows that there is no agreement among the authors as to the meaning of the term “critical thinking.” The literature largely endorses the view …

Teaching Critical Practice For Future Technologies, Leslie Sharpe

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

What are the issues when faculty wishes to teach art students critical or alternative practices with newer technologies not yet widely available to the public? Can one teach alternative practices that consider social or personal contexts when the technologies are not yet publicly available? What other issues are involved when teaching art students to do fine art with such technologies, and when not training artists to do commercial work for the communications industry or mainstream media? What does it mean for the art students who wants to use these technologies for fine art to have ideas for their use, but …

Commentary: Art Education And New Technology: Are You Ready?, Susan Witwicki

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

As an Art education major, I was somewhat daunted by a recent job offer requiring me to teach in the Career and Technology Studies department. As a recovering technophobe and lover of scissors and paste, I was cautious of this ‘Brave New World’ of computers. I perceived post-millennial teens to be cyber savvy know-it-alls, largely due to the way in which they were portrayed in the media. As well, if the ads were true, teens weren’t the only ones riding the new technological wave; Cisco Systems 1999 television campaign presented a global Utopia of citizens united through surfing the net. …

Using The Internet To Support K-12 Teaching And Learning: A Review Of Literature, Rachel A. Karchmer, Leanne Eberly

MERC Publications

The purpose of this literature review is to examine what research and theory has informed us about using information and communication technologies (ICT), specifically the Internet, to support K-12 instruction. In the fall of 2000, 77% of K-12 classrooms in the United States has at least one computer with Internet access (Cattagni & Farris, 2001). This number has surely risen especially as programs such a E-rate, funded by the federal government, provided billions of dollars to schools for the purpose of establishing Internet connections (see www.fcc.gov/learnet).

When reviewing the existing literature, it becomes clear that while great emphasis has been …

Art Education And Technology: These Are The Days Of Miracles And Wonder, Paul Duncum

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

This paper examines the impact on human consciousness of the exponential proliferation of electronic images, and offers suggestions concerning how educators should respond. A postmodern critique includes the ideas of an inverted Kantian aesthetics which embraces the everyday, a dramatic compression of space and time, and personal disorientation. A further critique grounds these views of consciousness in new economic arrangements and the rapaciousness of capitalism. I argue that the only viable educational response to this new consciousness is a critical examination of mass media imagery. Basic components of media education in schools are signposts of an appropriate response.

Violence And Generation X: How The Right Is Managing The Moral Panic Through Television And Teen Films, Jan Jagodzinski

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

The continual "cultural wars" between "Generation X" ("baby busters" whose birth years begin with 1961, aged 11-35), and New Right "baby boomers" (whose birth years range. From 1946 to 1960), around the issue of violence as represented in the popular cultural forms of film and television provide critically concerned art educators with an opportune moment to examine how conservative rhetoric has made "moral panic" an object of current discourses. This highly-charged debate, now literally and symbolically represented by the censorship that "V-chip" technology provides, is explored in this essay from a seemingly non-populist position given the current tide against the …

Portrait Of The Computer Artist: Between Worlds, Mia Johnson

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

As a result of ignorance and misconceptions about the nature of computer artwork, the computer artist is misunderstood by practitioners in fine art, art education, science, and industry. This paper enters the world of the computer artist to look at some of the factors which contribute to misperceptions. It examines social issues ranging from the design and use of hardware and software to access issues, and problems with concrete and electronic exhibition venues. It also describes communication barriers in education and the media.

The Deep Creek School: Technology, Ecology And The Body As Pedagogical Alternatives In Art Education, Daniel L. Collins, Charles R. Garoian

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

The Deep Creek School is grappling with a cultural condition in which the line between actual experience and its simulation has become blurred as never before. Today’s students are conversant in the language of electronic media and consumer culture--but they encounter difficulties when trying to navigate the real crises in the health of their bodies and the global environment. There is a deep sense among many of the artists and educators that we speak with that art programs nationwide are not responding sufficiently to the dramatic changes occurring in the culture at large. The precedent of fitting programs to the …

State-Of-The-Art Technology Applications, Amanda Parks, John Pisapia

MERC Publications

This document provides information on descriptions of state-of-the-art technology using schools across the country. It is a resource that can be used by teachers, school administrators, and researchers who are investigating the varying applications of technology in the classroom. It should be helpful in: 1) learning how other schools have implemented similar technology and integrated in within specific curricula, 2) planning, purchasing, adopting, or implementing technology in a classroom or entire school, and 3) it serves as a valuable resource to identify such schools already engaged in exceptional educational technology usage.

Learning Technologies In The Classroom: Case Studies, John Pisapia

MERC Publications

These case studies were commissioned by the Virginia Department of Education during the development of the State Master Plan for Technology. The case studies complement an exhaustive review of the literature also conducted during the development of the Master Plan for Technology. The information found in these case studies makes it possible to approach technology decisions at the school level with a healthy blend of informed instinct and analytical deliberation.

The case studies collected information under three broad categories; an organizational profile, technology profile, and resource profile. Each of these areas were further broken down into sub areas to organize …

Technology: Review Of Literature Executive Summary, John Pisapia

MERC Publications

This literature review focuses on the application of technology (primarily the computer) to education. It is organized to present background information to familiarize the reader with basic issues relevant to teaching with technology, the restructuring of American schools, and the performance one could expect from the infusion of technology into schools and classrooms. Furthermore, it summarizes findings regarding access and equity, in-service and pre-service education, and funding and facilities.

After the decade of enthusiasm, there still is no single compelling vision driving the infusion of technology into the schools; four have been projected.

1. The Social Rationale. Policy makers want …

Learning Technologies In The Classroom: Review Of Literature, John Pisapia, Jeanne Schlesinger, Amanda Parks

MERC Publications

This literature review focuses on the application of technology (primarily the computer) to education. It is organized to present background information to familiarize the reader with basic issues relevant to teaching with technology, the restructuring of American Schools, and the performance one could expect from the infusion of technology into schools and classrooms. Furthermore, it summarizes findings regarding access and equity, in-service and pre-service education, and funding and facilities.

After a decade of enthusiasm, there still is no single compelling vision driving the infusion of technology into the schools; four have been projected.

1. The Social Rationale. Policy makers want …

Learning Technologies In The Classroom: A Study Of Results, John Pisapia

MERC Publications

The Research reported in this paper focuses primarily on the shot term question, "Do learning technologies effect student learning?" It utilizes a meta analytic technique to review comparative studies of differing technologies under different conditions.

A study had to meet the following criteria to be included in this analysis: It 1) took place in a classroom; 2) had a control and treatment group structure; 3) was free of major methodological flaws, and 4) provided either an effect size or the data to calculate one. The 184 studies selected for this review represent a diverse array of district and vendor evaluations, …