Instructional Media Design Commons^™

Tech-Savvy Educators’ Perceptions Of Using Smartphones For Self-Directed Professional Development, Matinga E. Ragatz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The proliferation of the smartphone has encouraged educators, particularly the tech savvy, to seek personalized learning options in lieu of the absence of individualized professional development (PD) offerings provided by their academic institutions that are not based on short-term whole group instruction. Although smartphone use has attracted the attention of researchers, not much has been examined about how educators use the device to enhance their learning. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to investigate the perceptions of tech-savvy educators regarding smartphone use for informal self-directed PD. The conceptual framework of the study was the 3 x 3 model …

Video Composition, Creative Discourse, And Facilitated Freedom: A Teacher's Journey To Reveal Student Potential, Michael A. Brinkmeyer

MSU Graduate Theses

This research project was conducted in response to students’ lack of engagement in traditional modes of instruction and composition in a high school English Language Arts course. In order to better understand students as creative composers of knowledge, this research project asked students to engage in the video production process in collaborative groups. The research was conducted over the course of eight class periods in three different sections of Junior-level English Language Arts courses. Analysis of the data from this study reveals three important findings: 1) students respond well to creative and relevant performance assessments; 2) students’ collaborative conversations, or …

Finding Lost & Found: Designer’S Notes From The Process Of Creating A Jewish Game For Learning, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This article provides context for and examines aspects of the design process of a game for learning. Lost & Found (2017a, 2017b) is a tabletop-to-mobile game series designed to teach medieval religious legal systems, beginning with Moses Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah (1180), a cornerstone work of Jewish legal rabbinic literature. Through design narratives, the article demonstrates the complex design decisions faced by the team as they balance the needs of player engagement with learning goals. In the process the designers confront challenges in developing winstates and in working with complex resource management. The article provides insight into the pathways the team …

Preparing For 1:1 Technology: Impact On Collaboration, Instruction, And Student Learning, Pamela R. Schwallier

Masters Theses

The purpose of this action research project was to examine how the preparation of a 1:1 technology initiative, through professional development and early access to devices, in secondary (6-12) schools affected personal computing skills of teachers as well as collaboration, instruction, and student learning. This study takes place at West Ottawa Public Schools where district educators received personal Chromebooks and had ongoing professional development throughout the 2015-2016 school year to prepare specifically for the successful adoption of the 1:1 technology model in the 2017-2018 school year. The district is able to provide personal Chromebooks for all students entering grades 7-12 …

Impact Of An Innovative Classroom On Bsn Students' Self-Efficacy And Academic Performance, Laurie Jo Singel

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The critical shortage of registered nurses (RNs) in the United States has led to increased enrollment in nursing schools, but the number of graduates is still decreasing, as nursing students struggle and fail in upper division courses. There is a significant gap in knowledge concerning students' self-efficacy (SE) as a factor directly influencing students' academic performance. The problem examined in this correlational study was the impact of collaborative learning in an innovative classroom setting on Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students' SE and academic performance. Framed by Bandura's theory of SE, the research questions examined the relationship between students' …

Promoting Information Literacy Through Teacher - School Library Media Specialist Collaboration, Pamela Denise Taylor

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Schools that support collaboration between teachers and school library media specialists (SLMS) outperform those that do not. Teachers at a rural Georgia middle school were not using the library media program or being trained on how to collaborate with the SLMS to promote student achievement. Guided by Bruner's socioconstructivist theory of learning, the purpose of this descriptive case study was to investigate teachers' experiences with integrating technology and information literacy into the curriculum and to examine the collaborative services the SLMS could provide to enhance integration. Eight teachers in Grades 6th through 8th comprised the sample. Data sources included teacher …

Multilinguality In The Digital Library: A Review, Anne Diekema

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Research

Purpose – Together, increasing globalization and the internet created fertile grounds for the establishment of multilingual digital libraries. Providing cross-lingual access to materials is of particular interest to political entities such as the European Union, which currently has 23 official languages, but also to multinational companies and countries that have different languages represented among their citizens. The main objective of this paper is to review the literature on multilingual digital libraries and provide an overview of this area.

Design/methodology/approach – Based on a thorough literature search in four different databases, a core set of literature on multilingual digital libraries was …

Online But Off-Topic: Establishing Common Ground In Small Learning Groups, Trena M. Paulus

Educational Psychology & Counseling Publications and Other Works

There is not yet a great deal of research in formal online learning environments focusing on the seemingly “off-topic” conversations that small groups engage in as they complete learning tasks together. This study uses the theory of common ground as a framework to explore what participants are talking about when not discussing the concepts to be learned and how participants negotiate common ground in distance learning environments, including their use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools. The email, discussion forum, and chat transcripts of ten small groups comprised of experienced distance learners were investigated using computer-mediated discourse analysis, particularly attending to …

Building Accessible E-Learning Collaboratively, Shalin Hai-Jew

SIDLIT Conference Proceedings

The presenter discusses issues online instructors must consider when creating an accessible Web-based learning environment for those with or without disabilities.