Digital Commons Network^™

Am I In A Healthy Relationship? Exploring Emotional Consequences Of Young Women’S Relationships With Social Media Influencers, Betsy Byrne Desimone

Doctoral Dissertations

In order to enjoy the benefits of technology, we must understand the potential harmful effects. This study uses a qualitative approach to investigate the implications of young women following and developing a relationship with social media influencers. Young women were chosen because they are the most vulnerable group when it comes to using social media. Results came from a total of 12 interviews suggesting that women develop strong relationships with social media influencers. The implications for the women are often harmful, but as they grow older they learn coping techniques.

Technological Innovation And The Gics: A Discussion Of Classification Needs In A Disrupted World, Madison Leann Moats

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

The Anxiety And The Ecstasy Of Technical Vertigo: Psychological And Sociological Foundations Of Critical Socioanalysis From The Italian Renaissance To The 21st Century, Joel Michael Crombez

Doctoral Dissertations

Subjects of advanced modern societies are burdened by increased feelings of anxiety as their lives become functions of the totalizing logics that structure their minds as well as their social environments. Sociology has historically left the problem of anxiety to the field of psychology, which has predominantly treated it as a biological problem with a psychopharmaceutic solution. Building on the tradition of critical theory and its comparative historical approach, I trace how anxiety has shifted from a predominantly individualized affect to one with social roots, thus making it a problem that demands a sociological intervention. I proceed to explain how …

Preparing The Workforce For Integrated Healthcare, Denise Ratliff Black

Doctoral Dissertations

Integrated healthcare is recommended to deliver care to individuals with co-occurring medical and mental health conditions. Identifying the knowledge necessary for behavioral health providers to practice in integrated settings, and determining whether a computer application is an effective strategy to disseminate this knowledge, are essential steps to transitioning these individuals to integrated healthcare delivery systems. A literature review of U.S. based publications from 1999 to 2015 identified 68 articles that met inclusion criteria and identified specific knowledge for integrated healthcare settings. A survey completed by 154 behavioral health providers working in integrated healthcare settings examined the extent to which respondents …

Railways And Regret: Revising Mobility Myths In Victorian Literature And Culture, 1857-1891, Kathryn Winslow Powell

Doctoral Dissertations

Since 1979 when Wolfgang Schivelbusch applied Marx’s phrase “annihilation of time and space” to the nineteenth-century railways, the idea that locomotives revolutionized mobility and restructured life has undergirded historical analysis. Recent scholarship challenges this long-standing assumption, countering that transportation networks expanded through evolutionary change and that cultural adaptation occurred by resisting the imposing forces of modernity. My study joins this critical departure but proposes a new conceptual model defined by regret and revision. This dissertation argues that fiction written between 1857-1891 illustrates railway growth as a recursive and participatory process. I show through the writing of Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte Riddell, …

A Model For Sustaining New Technology Based On Government Incentives, Girish Upreti

Doctoral Dissertations

The diffusion of new technology that provides environmental benefits may require government incentives for a duration of time, especially when the technology is expensive. The Center of Systems Research and Education (CASRE) model is developed that analyzes the impact of incentives in sustaining new technologies to allow their social acceptance. The CASRE model includes both demand and supply variables associated with incentive policy to sustain new technology. The key to market dissemination and sustainability is the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) levels provided by the government. The level of ITC is based on the current cost to the customer and the …

Privileged Killers, Privileged Deaths: German Culture And Aviation In The First World War: 1909-1925, Robert William Rennie

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines aviation’s influence on German cultural and social history between 1908 and 1925. Before the First World War, aviation embodied one of many new features of a rapidly modernizing Germany. In response, Germans viewed flight as either a potentially transformative tool or a possible weapon of war. The outbreak of war in 1914 moved aviation away from its promised potential to its lived reality. In doing so, the airplane became a machine which compressed time and space, reordered the spatial arrangement of the battlefield, and transformed the human relationship with killing. Germany’s fliers initially served as observers, noting …

The Discursive Construction Of Language Teaching And Learning In Multiuser Virtual Environments, Douglas W. Canfield

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to broaden how researchers within computer-assisted language learning (CALL) make sense of and examine psychological and power constructs at play in language courses conducted in 3D multiuser virtual environments. 18 students and 2 teachers in 8 formal English as a Second Language (ESL) classes in the 3D multiuser virtual environment of Second Life participated in a discourse analysis study to explore the theoretical and analytic ways in which critical discursive psychology could function to explore how teaching and learning are performed as interactional events in a community of language teachers and learners in Second Life by investigating …

Undergraduate Motivations For Choosing A Science, Technology, Engineering, Or Mathematics (Stem) Major, Preston Taylor Mitchell

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Fostering Foreign Language Learning Through Game Play, Rachel Marie Floyd

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of pedagogical video games in positively affecting students’ knowledge of a foreign language and culture as well as their students’ perspectives on the learning process in such a learning-throughgaming environment. The theories that support such an endeavor are explored. This study looked at the process of making a French pedagogical video game that focuses on presenting French culture, history, language as well as fostering lexico-grammatical, interpersonal communication, and interpretational skills. It focuses specifically on learning through gameplay and provides evidence on the positive effect of the game on elementary level …

2015-2016 Pebble Smartwatch Advertising Campaign, Robert W. Jellicorse

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Consequences Of Shopper-Facing Technologies: Their Effect On Shopper Experiences And Shopping Outcomes, Brian Ijams Spaid

Doctoral Dissertations

Just as technology has influenced nearly every facet of the modern consumer’s life, it is also significantly changing how those consumers shop and how it influences their purchase decisions. Understanding how technology impacts these shoppers within the retail environment is crucial for retail managers who are expected to deploy and manage these sources of continuous change.

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the phenomenon of shoppers experiencing technology in the retail environment. Specifically, our primary goal is to understand how shopper-facing technologies impact shoppers’ experiences and behaviors and subsequently affect outcome variables that matter to retailers. To that …

An Evaluation Of The Feasibility And Acceptability Of A Technology-Based Pilot Program To Reduce Overweight And Obesity Among College Students, Christine Sumie Sugimoto

Masters Theses

Background: One-third of US undergraduate students are overweight or obese, and weight gain may occur during the college years. Thus, there is a need for weight loss interventions for college students. Innovative technology-based programs may be a promising strategy to promote weight loss. Weight management interventions incorporating technology have been implemented in US university settings, with varying degrees of success.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility and acceptability of a pilot technology-based weight loss program to reduce overweight and obesity among college students.

Methods: The pilot study investigated the effectiveness of a …

Augmented Reality On Mobile Devices To Improve The Academic Achievement And Independence Of Students With Disabilities, Donald Douglas Mcmahon

Doctoral Dissertations

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that overlays digital information on a live view of the physical world to create a blended experience. AR can provide unique experiences and opportunities to learn and interact with information in the physical world (Craig, 2013). The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate uses of AR on mobile devices to improve the academic and functional skills of students with disabilities.

The first chapter is a literature review providing a clear understanding of AR and its connections with existing learning theories and evidence-based practices that are relevant for meeting the needs of individuals with …

Solar Technology In Our World- A Business Approach, Luke Ingalls Liska

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Self-Directed Learning: A Potential Predictor For Technology Integration Among K-12 Teachers, Julia Marie Kirk

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between technology integration and self-directed learning readiness among K-12 teachers in one large southeastern school district. The intent was to determine the extent to which self-directed learning might predict the level of technology integration. In this study, the Levels of Teaching Innovation (LoTi) (Moersch, 2010) instrument was utilized to measure the level of technology integration (Technology Integration), current instructional practices (CIP), and personal computer use (PCU) of K-12 teachers. Additionally, the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) (Guglielmino, 1977) was employed to measure self-directed learning readiness in K-12 teachers.

To conduct …

Communication Breakdown: The Introduction Of Several Communication Technology Innovations, The Societal Effects, And The Disconnect In The Way That We Connect., Christopher Vincent Tramontana

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

"This Murder Done": Misogyny, Femicide, And Modernity In 19th-Century Appalachian Murder Ballads, Christina Ruth Hastie

Masters Theses

This thesis contextualizes Appalachian murder ballads of the 19^th- and early 20^th-centuries through a close reading of the lyric texts. Using a research frame that draws from the musicological and feminist concepts of Diana Russell, Susan McClary, Norm Cohen, and Christopher Small, I reveal 19^th-century Appalachia as a patriarchal, modern, and highly codified society despite its popularized image as a culturally isolated and “backward” place. I use the ballads to demonstrate how music serves the greater cultural purpose of preserving and perpetuating social ideologies. Specifically, the murder ballads reveal layers of meaning regarding hegemonic …

The Tech-Savvy Generation? Students’ Experience With Computer Technology At The University Of Tennessee., Almut Haboeck

Masters Theses

This study analyzes the technology experience and knowledge of students of the generation of digital natives at the University of Tennessee. In an online survey students were asked about their experience and knowledge of certain software applications, their daily computer habits and their ability and skills to troubleshoot a malfunctioning computer.

In general, the results show that students’ computer experience and knowledge are limited to a specific set of software applications that is widened according to required needs. Students are knowledgeable in web browsing, using word processors, course management software and email. If academic courses require them, students learn how …

Handmade And Diy: The Cultural Economy In The Digital Age, Benjamin Joshua Shultz

Doctoral Dissertations

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In recent years there has been growing consensus among academics and policy makers that cultural industries are key drivers of contemporary economic growth. For geographers and economists, the roles of agglomeration and knowledge flows are important factors that sustain the cultural industries. However, existing research focuses overwhelmingly on elite cultural industries in global cities. In addition, there has been little effort to account for new technologies that …

Rss Feeds, Browsing And End-User Engagement, Mary Beth West

Masters Theses

Despite the vast amount of research that has been devoted separately to the topics of browsing and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) aggregation architecture, little is known about how end-users engage with RSS feeds and how they browse while using a feed aggregate. This study explores the browsing behaviors end-users exhibit when using RSS and Atom feeds. The researcher analyzed end-users’ browsing experiences and discusses browsing variations. The researcher observed, tested, and interviewed eighteen (N=18) undergraduate students at the University of Tennessee to determine how end-users engage with RSS feeds.

This study evaluates browsing using two variations of tasks, (1) an …

The Professional Development Of Pre-K Mentor Teachers: Insights From A Face-To-Face And Online Community Of Practice, Lori Allison Caudle

Doctoral Dissertations

Early childhood classroom mentor teachers are often left with little support and guidance as they assume the role of teacher educators. The purpose of this collective case study was to explore how a community of practice comprised of pre-K mentors and a university program coordinator supported the development of shared and individual understandings about how to effectively supervise preservice teachers. Utilizing key tenets of sociocultural theory, four pre-K mentor teachers from two public schools in the Southeast participated in an online and face-to-face community of practice facilitated by a university program coordinator. The pre-K preservice teachers (n=6) were secondary participants …

Revisiting The Iceberg: A Study Of Technology, Self-Direction, And The Learning Projects Of Small Business Owners, John David Harrison

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine and describe the learning projects of a selected sample of small business owners in a community in the Southeastern United States. The study included the revision and modernization of Tough’s (1971) Learning Project Interview Schedule. A total of 35 small business owners were interviewed using a modified version of Tough’s Learning Project Interview Schedule. The schedule consisted of 10 learning project and seven demographic items that were adapted or created by a collaborative research team at the University of Tennessee using Tough’s (1971) Interview Schedule. Data revealed that participants had a …

Creating And Validating An Instrument To Measure Middle School Mathematics Teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Tpack), Geri A. Landry

Doctoral Dissertations

Due to the pervasiveness of technology, the role and preparation of teachers as they strategically use technology for teaching mathematics needs to be examined. Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) is a framework for knowledge as teachers develop meaningful learning experiences for their students while integrating strategic use of technology (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). The purpose of this study was to develop a survey for measuring mathematics teachers’ Mathematical Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (M-TPACK). The survey measures the domains of mathematics content, pedagogy and technology. This mixed methods study first examined middle school mathematics teachers’ TPACK through the use of an …

Www.Homeless.Org/Culture: A Cross-Level Analysis Of The Relationship Between Organizational Culture And Technology Use Among Homeless Service Providers, Courtney Marie Cronley

Doctoral Dissertations

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires federally-funded homeless service providers to participate in an homeless management information system (HMIS). While federally mandated, no one has examined how these technologies are being used. Theory and research suggest that the technology dissemination is contingent upon the organizational culture in which it is used. This study represents the first empirical analysis of HMIS use and explores the cross-level relationship between staff members’ HMIS use and organizational culture.

Staff members at 24 homeless service providers completed the Organizational Social Context (OSC) survey and scores from each provider were aggregated …