Digital Commons Network^™

Technology Resolved: An Ethnographic Approach To Instructional Design Within Urban Middle School Debate, Dana Bryant

Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology Dissertations

Technology literacy is the latest achievement benchmark for 8th grade public school students under No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Although necessary for contemporary academic and professional success (Selfe, 1999; Pearson & Young, 2002), this benchmark is at odds with the legacy and current state of social inequities within American public education, as all students have not been provided with equal opportunities for engaging and safe learning environments (Kozol, 1991; Darling-Hammond, 2006)—much less technology enabled ones. The purpose of this qualitative study was to design culturally informed technology activities for urban middle school students in the Computer Assisted Debate (CAD) after …

The Effects Of Pedagogical Agents On Listening Anxiety And Listening Comprehension In An English As A Foreign Language Context, Young-Ah Ko

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study aimed to explore the impact of pedagogical agents in computer-based listening instruction on EFL students' listening anxiety levels and listening comprehension skills. A total of 66 Korean college students received computer-based listening instruction. Students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: American agent condition, Korean agent condition, or no-agent condition. Additional data sources were included in the experimental design in order to investigate students' learning experience more thoroughly.

Results indicated that there were no statistical differences in listening anxiety levels and listening comprehension skills between students who worked with the agent and students who worked without the …

Towards Using Www For Teaching And Learning, Meg O'Reilly

Dr Meg O'Reilly

Traditional forms of distance education course delivery rely on paper based exchange of information and invariably suffer from an extreme paucity of dialogue. On the other hand, telecommunications-based education (Debreceny, Ellis & Chua, 1995) makes use of both existing and new technologies for a variety of options in course delivery which maximise dialogue, interaction and interactivity.

Bringing Library Resources To The Online Classroom: Building Faculty-Librarian Partnerships, Sofia Slutskaya, Rebecca Rose, Amelia Glawe

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

The number of students taking online classes has risen substantially over past several years. Many traditional colleges offer online and hybrid classes as an alternative to traditional face-to-face instruction. Face-to-face faculty are encouraged to learn and use course management systems (CMS) to publish syllabi and assignments, track student grades and supplement traditional interactions with chat and electronic discussion boards. Often overwhelming to instructors, digital educational tools proliferate throughout the academic landscape. Determining which tools will work for your classroom environment can be daunting, in addition to the hours of training so as to effectively use those tools. Partnering with librarians …

Working Together: The Role Of Collaborations In Promoting The Use Of Academic Technologies In Higher Education, Kate Hudson

Open Access Dissertations

Through the centuries, institutions of higher education, and the people who labor in those institutions, have helped countless millions to learn--to stretch their boundaries, to think creatively, to find joy in discovery, and to create new knowledge that benefits the world in a myriad of ways. Yet while the knowledge produced through our educational process has transformed the world, the process of teaching and learning within these institutions has remained largely unexplored and unchanged over the centuries (Bass, 2009; Duderstadt, Atkins, & Van Houweling, 2002; Woolsey, 2008). In recent years, the advent and rapid development of information technology has provided …

Technology In The Classroom An Educator’S Guide To Technology & Learning, Joseph Lawrence Bishop

All Graduate Projects

The need for an educational technology manual was researched. Based on research a resource handbook for understanding and using technology in the classroom was in demand. In order to meet the demand for a technology training guide for teachers, a detailed handbook was created. The handbook includes information on the following aspects of educational technology; desktop computers, laptop computers, miniature computing, visual technologies, educational software, accessibility software, the Internet, video technology, and WebQuests. The handbook is intended to be used as a technology resource for teachers K-12 in any State/Country.

Learning Spaces For The New Way Students Work, Helen Y. Chu

Helen Y. Chu

The Dynamic Graphic Organizer And Its Influence On Making Factual, Comparative, And Inferential Determinations Within Comparative Content, Cameron Spears

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

By augmenting an existing static medium (a graphic organizer) with attributes such that learners were able to sort or rearrange information in multiple ways, two new types of “dynamic” graphic organizers were created. An experiment was performed to investigate the effectiveness of these dynamic graphic organizers as instructional tools. One-hundred-sixty-one students were recruited for participation in the study from a two-year community college and a four-year public university in the southeast United States. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three graphic organizer treatment groups: static, sortable, and shuffle-sortable. Response accuracy and response latency measurements for three types of mental …

The Effects Of Pedagogical Agents On Mathematics Anxiety And Mathematics Learning, Quan Wei

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the mathematics anxiety treatment messages in a computer-based environment on ninth-grade students' mathematics anxiety and mathematics learning. The study also examined whether the impact of the treatment messages would be differentiated by learner's gender and by learner's prior mathematics anxiety levels (High vs. Medium vs. Low). Participants were 161 ninth-grade students, who took a required introductory algebra class in a public high school neighboring Utah State University. The learning environment was integrated with a pedagogical agent (animated human-like character) as a tutor. This study employed a pretest and posttest …

A Pbl Response To The Digital Native Dilemma, Roisin Donnelly, Timo Portimojärvi

Books/Book Chapters

The purpose of the chapter is to delve into the growing imbalance between the educational technology widely supported by higher education institutions and today’s digitally cognisant student body. The authors argue that technology, such as Learning Management Systems (LMS), are not meeting the needs of the current students, commonly referred to as "digital natives", and that a disparity exists between how the students choose to communicate, in general, and how they are encouraged or required to communicate in accredited courses.

Infusing Technology: A Study Of The Influence Of Professional Development On How Teachers Use Technology, Amy E. Cottle

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study examined whether a quality professional development course, Infusing Technology, influenced the use of technology by elementary and middle school teachers in West Virginia. Infusing Technology was designed to help school-based team learning communities use technology in their instruction while engaging students in critical thinking, reasoning, and problem solving skills.

This mixed-method study used the LoTi Digital-Age Survey, aligned with the National Educational Technology Standards, to collect quantitative data on levels of technology innovation, levels of personal computer use, and levels of current instructional practices. Participants in the Infusing Technology course completed the survey before the summer institute and …

Learning Styles And Entrance Requirements For Online Master's Programs, Dr. Stanley L. Lightner, Dr. Anthony Mark Doggett, Dr. Vesta R. Whisler

Architectural and Manufacturing Sciences Faculty Publications

As more online graduate programs are created and traditional programs shift to an online format, the need to identify and understand skill sets necessary for students’ success becomes more apparent. Typically, graduate programs rely on entrance requirements such as the GRE, undergraduate GPA, and a writing sample to evaluate an applicant’s potential success. Is it reasonable to expect that other entrance requirements might be needed for student success in online graduate degree programs?
Research comparing learning and personality styles of online learners exists; however, application of this information as part of the admissions process for online graduate programs is sporadic. …

Let Them Moodle: Utilizing An Open Source Learning Management System To Extend The English Classroom, Mark Randall Rousseau-Smith

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of the project was to install a Moodle installation on a server and deploy it to select teachers while developing a series of training modules to help assist teachers to utilize Moodle as an online supplement to their classroom teaching. The goal was to give the teachers involved an additional outlet for learning beyond the classroom setting. Specifically, this project centered on creating video tutorials and a demo class aimed to help teachers utilize this powerful medium. Moodle activities are items such as blogs, forums, wikis, and quizzes among many other learner-centric technologies. The participants to pilot this …

Social Studies Through Web 2.0: A Study Of Online Learning, Kenneth Michael Snell

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this project was to develop a social network site, complete with the abilities to create home pages, blog and participate in a message board (Web 2.0) to create a learning environment, based on constructivist principles and asynchonous learning, to teach a unit of U.S. Government.

Influences Concerning Faculty Use Of Technology To Teach Distance Education, Helena Joyce Johnson

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study is to examine pedagogical and professional beliefs that might illuminate influences to higher education faculty decisions to teach distance education using technology.

Using Technology To Enhance Back To School Night, Heidi Balatico Dacio

Theses Digitization Project

This project was intended to build communication between the school and the home. With the use of a multimedia presentation, DVD, school and classroom expectations were communicated to the parents. A survey was given to first grade parents to determine whether this DVD would be beneficial. The results of that survey showed that there was a need, and parents were wanting information in areas of school and classroom expectations, academic standards, disciplining students, and character development. Through the Assessment, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation process (ADDIE), a DVD presentation was designed, developed, and implemented to communicate these learning objectives.

The Integration Of Information And Communication Technologies In The Content Areas And Adolescent Motivation, Lindsey Diane Blackwell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to investigate the types of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) integrated into the content area classrooms of two local high schools, and whether the use of these ICTs motivated adolescent students to read and write in the content areas. The investigator created a student survey, student, teacher, and other support faculty interview protocols, and a classroom observation protocol to collect data for the study. The investigator faced several challenges which prevented her from spending adequate time in the schools. Due to these challenges, sufficient data was not obtained to form conclusions about the research questions. This …

From Shadowmourne To Folk Art Articulating A Vision Of Elearning For The 21st Century, Christina Kapp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines mass-market applications for some of the many theories of eLearning and blended learning, focusing most closely on a period from 2000-2010. It establishes a state of the union for K-12 immersive eLearning environments by using in-depth cases studies of five major mass-market, educational, and community-education based products—Gaia Online, Poptropica, Quest Atlantis, Dimenxian/Dimension U, and Folkvine. Investigating these models calls into play not only the voices of traditional academic and usability research, but also the ad hoc voices of the players, commentators, developers, and bloggers. These are the people who speak to the community of these sites, and …

An Analysis Of Science Content And Representations In Introductory College Physics Textbooks And Multimodal Learning Resources, Suzanne Mary Donnelly

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study features a comparative descriptive analysis of the physics content and representations surrounding the first law of thermodynamics as presented in four widely used introductory college physics textbooks representing each of four physics textbook categories (calculus-based, algebra/trigonometry-based, conceptual, and technical/applied). Introducing and employing a newly developed theoretical framework, multimodal generative learning theory (MGLT), an analysis of the multimodal characteristics of textbook and multimedia representations of physics principles was conducted. The modal affordances of textbook representations were identified, characterized, and compared across the four physics textbook categories in the context of their support of problem-solving.

Academy Students' And Pre-Service Teachers' Perceptions Of The Use Of Electronic Technology In Their Personal Life And School Experiences In A Selected Union Conference, Alan R. Williams

Dissertations

Problem. The influx of N-Gen students into the classroom of teachers of earlier generations has created a digital generation gap. This gap has serious consequences for schools. For example, only half of the public school teachers who had computers or the Internet available in their schools use them for classroom instruction. However, today’s students are very technology savvy, feel strongly about the positive value of technology and rely upon technology as an essential and preferred component of every aspect of their lives. It appears that the slow speed at which technology is changing the classroom is providing challenges to educators …