Digital Commons Network^™

An Analytical Approach To Information And Communication Technologies, Sahir Hismiogullari

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The twentieth century was a century of scientific and technological development. Especially the fact of information and communication technologies, beyond being a technological leap, has led to different levels of development and changes / transformations. Therefore, developments, possibilities, changes and problems emerging in the Internet and other digital contexts have attracted the attention of communication scientists, sociologists, historians and philosophers, and have become a field of research that leads to interdisciplinary studies. Along with the mass media developed for the last two centuries (from the spread of newspapers to the invention of the internet), every social development or transformation is …

Listening In Action: Students' Mobile Music Experiences In The Digital Age, Rebecca Marie Rinsema

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since the introduction of the iPod in 2001, portable music listening devices that play or stream compressed music files have steadily become the standard devices used to listen to music. Despite this, few music education researchers have investigated the role that such devices have in shaping students' music listening experiences. This dissertation is meant to fill that gap in the literature and contribute to the existing sociological and psychological literature on music listening in everyday life.

Phenomenology served as the theoretical framework for the design of the study. 10 college students from three institutions underwent iterative interviews and were asked …

Saved By The (Alexander Graham) Bell: An Analysis Of Synchronous Communication And Student Satisfaction / Retention Rates In The First Year Online Composition Classroom, Jennifer Jane Lynch

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Online first-year writing courses, with all of their promise, still maintain alarmingly low retention and student satisfaction rates, driving online curriculum designers to take another look at ways to increase both retention and satisfaction. To replicate the high rates of face-to-face classes, we must revisit and revise our approach to communication in the first-year writing online classroom. Think about it: The online classroom has abandoned a mainstay in education for thousands of years - synchronous communication. Why have we been so quick to dispose of it? Are we now paying the price?

This research will provide additional value to the …

Internet Use And Economic Development: Evidence And Policy Implications, Joseph J. Macdougald

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how Internet use impacts four different measures of economic development using several econometric techniques on multi-country panel data. The economic development outcomes investigated are: per capita GDP, per capita export revenues, per capita market capitalization, and societal well-being as measured by the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI). Data from the World Bank, the International Telecommunication Union, and the United Nations –covering 202 countries over the period 1996 to 2007– are combined to allow for empirical investigation using dynamic panel data and finite mixture model estimation techniques on the total sample and subsamples stratified by country income …

Queering Cognition: Extended Minds And Sociotechnologically Hybridized Gender, Michele Merritt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the last forty years, significant developments in neuroscience, psychology, and robotic technology have been cause for major trend changes in the philosophy of mind. One such shift has been the reallocation of focus from entirely brain-centered theories of mind to more embodied, embedded, and even extended answers to the questions,

what are cognitive processes and where do we find such phenomena? Given that hypotheses such as Clark and Chalmers‘ (1998) Extended Mind or Hutto‘s (2006) Radical Enactivism, systematically undermine the organism-bound, internal, and static pictures of minds and allow instead for the distribution of cognitive processes among brains, bodies, …

From Airport To Spaceport: Designing For An Aerospace Revolution, Paula Selvidge

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

"Airports will shape business location and urban development in the 21st century as much as highways did in the 20th century, railroads in the 19th and seaports in the 18th" - John D. Kasarda, Ph.D. Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina http://www.aerotropolis.com/author.html

I say, spaceports will shape the urban development of the 21st century, more than airports, bringing about an aerospace revolution. Just as new technologies triggered the global revolutions of the past, so the invention of reusable spacecraft will revolutionize transportation.

The invention of such spacecraft suggests the need for a different kind of transportation hub: a spaceport. …

Developing The Nomological Network Of Perceived Corporate Affinity For Technology: A Three Essay Dissertation, David Earl Fleming

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Technology is changing the face of both the sales and service domains. Honebein and Cammarano (2006) note that properly implemented self-service technologies serve dual purposes of decreasing firm overhead costs, while simultaneously engaging the customer in a way encourages the co-create of value for both parties. To get these benefits stakeholders must be willing to adopt and use the technologies that are available.

Traditionally, this has lead to the research question "How do firms do this?" However, according to a recent article by Woodall, Colby and Parasuraman (2007), consumers are now demanding more technology-based options and becoming more technologically savvy. …

Six Fifth Grade Students Experiences Participating In Active Gaming During Physical Eduction Classes, Lisa Witherspoon Hansen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As technology and sedentary lifestyles have become an integral part of children's lives, so too has the prevalence of childhood obesity. Although video games are often associated with influencing sedentary behaviors, active gaming is a new genre that requires children to become physically active while playing the games. In this inquiry I explored six fifth grade students' experiences participating in active gaming in physical education classes for 30 minutes, twice weekly, during an eight week (16 sessions) study. I used qualitative methods including interviews, journal entries, and observational field notes. Analysis of data revealed students have a "Persistence to Game" …

“According To Wikipedia…”: A Comparative Analysis Of The Establishment And Display Of Authority In A Social Problems Textbook And Wikipedia, Alexander A. Hernandez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I aim to examine (1) how authority is established and (2) how it is displayed. Through the use of content analysis, I investigate how the topics of "gender" and "race" within a contemporary social problems textbook compares and contrasts to corresponding Wikipedia articles. Through my research I wish to shed light on the social construction of knowledge within our modern society while also shedding light on the role that authority plays within knowledge. In order to examine how authority is established I examined the number of citations found in each topic, the publishing date of each reference …

Cooper-Hewitt Museum Of Design And Technology (C-Hmd+T): Biomimetic Architecture As Part Of Nature, Isabel Marisa Corsino Carro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

If architects are to create a sustainable world, one in which we are accountable to the needs of all future generations and living creatures, we must recognize that our present form of designing buildings is deeply flawed. Being the number one cause of emission gases, building design needs to be revolutionized to be able to surpass such climatic changes and finally harmonize with nature. To create a sustainable future and solve the global warming crisis, architects need to incorporate nature within design through the process known as biomimicry. Janine Benyus, the author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, stressed how …

Moonlight In Miami: A Field Study Of Human-Robot Interaction In The Context Of An Urban Search And Rescue Disaster Response Training Exercise, Jennifer L. Burke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores human-robot interaction during a 16-hour high-fidelity Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) disaster response drill with teleoperated robots. Situation awareness and team interaction were examined using communication analysis. Operators (n=5) sought assistance from team members to compensate for difficulties building or maintaining situation awareness. Operator-team member communication focused on relating what was seen through the robot's eye view with prior knowledge and planning search strategies. Results suggest operators need a new cognitive mental model to filter and comprehend data provided by the robot, and that robot-assisted search is a team task rather than an individual one. USAR technical …

Secondary Students Using Expert Heuristics In The Analysis Of Digitalized Historical Documents, Daniel W. Stuckart

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In time, more historical documents have become accessible through various technological modes including the Internet, CD-ROMs, and local databases. Teachers are now able to infuse a rich variety of resources into lessons with relative ease. This study measured expert historian heuristics in secondary students engaged in analysis of technologically-enhanced historical documents relating to women in the early United States republic. Nine 10th grade Advanced Placement world history students from an urban high school in the southeastern United States were assigned randomly to one of three conditions: paper historical documents, HTML historical documents, and HTML historical documents with simulated, limited Internet …

Patterns Of 4th Graders' Literacy Events In Web Page Development, Rewa Colette Williams

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study describes in-class and home literacy events that occur when students work in groups to create web pages as evidence of learning the academic content that was presented within a fourth grade classroom. The constructivist approach to learning was the underpinning idea examined as well as its connection to technology and group work. Data were collected in a variety of ways to obtain a picture, as comprehensive as possible, of the oral, listening, viewing, and written on-task communication and interactions that occurred. As the in-class and home literacy events emerged, the competencies and strategies that students used while interacting …

A Prototypical Computer Museum, Eric Otto Ryder

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Civilization seems barely able to keep up with the new information technology. Therefore, I propose a place where the technologies of the future may be interacted with like the comfortable knowledge of the past. I propose a place where technology may be interacted on as in the realm of the past with the doors of the future ahead. The Museum of Science and Industry, where the grasp of our technological history is displayed, would be an ideal site for the creation of a Prototypical Computer Museum. With its close proximity to the University of South Florida, resources and participants would …