This work focuses on Web-based intelligent instructional systems and research issues associated with the development of student modeling in an adaptive hypermedia system. The framework is iMANIC (intelligent Multimedia Asynchronous Networked Individualized Courseware), in which courses originating from existing video-taped lectures provide an initial set of slides, audio, and class notes. However, the existing course structure is initially linear, which, though usable, is not optimal for a WWW presentation. Web courses are used asynchronously and thus can provide a more individualized and interactive learning experience than can live courses. Therefore, we investigate ways in which personalized instruction can be delivered via the WWW. The domain organization used in iMANIC supports a non-linear, individualized course. However, once we introduce a non-linear topic structure, the “lost in hyperspace” problem might arise, in which students become confused about what to study next and how to remember where they have been. To combat these problems, adaptive navigation techniques are used to help guide the student through the course material. The original class material is presented so that each student sees the same content. This does not take into account learning differences of individual learners. However, iMANIC can consider those differences and adapt the information presented to each user. This adaptive content is achieved through a two phase approach which considers the user's level of understanding and the content that matches the user's preferences. A Naïve Bayes Classifier is used to learn the student's preferences by observing what type of content he chooses to see. An empirical study of the iMANIC system was conducted during 2000/2001 with 24 students learning Unix Network Programming. Results from this study show distinct differences in students' learning styles and provide evidence that using the same teaching strategies for each student cannot adequately support all students. This is demonstrated through two examples. The first shows that there is not a consistent direction for the correlation between time spent studying and quiz performance. The second shows that using the same parameters for the Naïve Bayes Classifier for every student results in poor overall performance of the classifier.

This study examined the impact of a local history project on students' computer use, skills, attitudes toward computer technology and history learning. The variables of gender, grade level, etc. were also investigated. This one-year project integrated computer technology into history curriculum using primary sources. The participants were 64 students from four Western Massachusetts public schools. The Likert scale pre and post surveys were used to gather quantitative data as a main research method. Class observations and informal interviews were conducted for qualitative data as supplementary information for the research. To analyze the pre-post differences at the item level, approximation to binomial distribution was applied. To analyze the data at the aggregate level, One-way ANOVA, a univariate analysis of variance tests was employed. The data results showed significant differences in students' computer use and computer skills between the pre and post surveys. However, the data didn't show significant differences in students' attitudes towards computer technology and history learning. The reason for this may be due to the fact that the students already had positive attitudes prior to the project. The trend for computer skills indicated that as girls got older their skill level went up, but as boys got older, their skill level went down. The same trend was also reflected in students' attitudes toward computer technology. As for students' attitudes toward history learning, the older students had more positive attitudes than the younger students. The qualitative data also indicate the positive impact of the project on student learning. Most of the students “enjoyed working on the project” and believed “computer technology was useful”. Many students commented that they “learned not only the local history, but also computer technology”, and they “learned much more from researching on the Internet than from the textbook”. However, the biggest challenge for the students in doing this project seemed to be teamwork, and some students had difficulty cooperating with other people in the group.

This qualitative study evaluates design and delivery of technology-integration professional-development programming delivered through a hybrid distance-delivery model involving telecasts, online, and on-site instruction. The study analyzes perceptions of learning shared by ten veteran urban high school teachers who completed a graduate course delivered through the model. Research questions ask if teachers found gains achieved were commensurate with learning challenges, what factors of school and district affected the value of staff-development, whether perceptions changed over time, and what learning profiles were a best fit for the model. The study also examines the larger contexts of a Professional Development School technology-infusion initiative and a district-level technology-training program. Research methods include content analysis applied to data collected longitudinally through written program evaluations and interviews conducted over a four-year period. Analyses of email messaging and other electronic communications provide further triangulation of data. The study provides cross-case and case study treatments, the latter providing small-scale maximum variation sampling of learning profiles. The study reports teachers entered the program preferring informal, on-site workshop instruction to all other technology-training options, and that this preference proved durable. Teachers dismissed graduate coursework and district-level training, citing issues of trust and expressing themes regarding respect and lack of respect, and the value of local knowledge. Teachers differentially perceived the pace of the course and relationships with instructional staff, according to their self-assessed computing skill levels. Teachers' perceived video-based instruction as valuable but felt synchronous video was not valuable, and found web-based learning challenging and frustrating but believed educational resources on the web are bountiful. Overall, cohort members expressed satisfaction with the course, attributing their satisfaction primarily to participation in project work. Findings suggest characteristics of a design process for customizing instruction to needs of individuals and cohorts. The literature review addresses constructivist and adult learning theory and principles of instructional design. The researcher examines the role of the Professional Development School and the school district in technology training and addresses Cynthia Selfe's concerns regarding the digital divide and the “technology-literacy link,” advocating continued research on teachers' perceptions of technology-integration staff-development and positing new roles for teachers in program design.

This study was designed to examine the influence of different media presentations on children's comprehension and memory of a story. Sixty-six first grade children experienced a well-structured story presented either by audio, audio-visual, or interactive CD-ROM media. Within the interactive CD-ROM condition, children either controlled the interactions (participant) or observed another child's interactions with the program (observer). The interactive CD-ROM contained a wide variety of animations and sound effects that were considered mostly irrelevant to the story content. All children received a memory and comprehension interview containing a free recall question, specific factual and inference questions, a picture sequencing task, and media preference questions. Results indicated no difference among the media conditions in terms of children's free recall of the story. However, children's recall of the story categories fit the pattern established by story grammar theory. In terms of the specific memory questions and picture sequencing task, children who just heard the story (audio) performed significantly worse than the children in the other media conditions, even when the questions were based on information that was contained in the narration. All children performed better on the inference than factual questions. Interestingly, there were no differences in terms of memory or comprehension among the audio-visual, participant, and observer interactive CD-ROM media conditions. It appears that watching irrelevant objects and animations did not distract children from comprehending the story. The presence of a well-established story grammar structure may have facilitated children's ability to retain the basic story components despite interruptions. In addition, explorations within the CD-ROM were documented and described for children in the participant interactive media condition. Although there was a surprising amount of variability in children's interactive behavior, it appears that gender may have influenced both the amount and type of interactions with the story program. Results are discussed in terms of the implications for children's multimedia design.

This research is a qualitative study describing the interaction in a two-way video environment. It compares this environment with face-to-face (F2F) and provides descriptive information about instructional activities fostering instructor-student interaction and student-student interaction. The subjects studied were an experienced distance education instructor and his students at host and remote sites. The technical environment included two fully equipped video classrooms on the UMass Video Network, a five interactive system that provides two-way audio and video communication between students and instructor. Data were gathered from analysis of on-site observations, videotaped lessons, student surveys, and instructor interviews. Observation, survey, and interview data are analyzed and reported. The study concludes that this two-way video classroom environment can support interactive learning but not without the instructor's thorough planning, good classroom management skills, and use of a variety of learner-centered activities. It found that effectiveness in the two-way video environment to be very much instructor dependent and describes a thoroughly competent instructor successfully implementing several interactive strategies. It also identifies barriers that would impact interaction in this environment. Host and remote site student perceptions of the quantity and quality of interaction are reported as well as their suggestions for changes. Several other ancillary findings are discussed. Recommendations for possible future studies are offered.

This dissertation examines the impact of technology coaching on teachers' use of technology as a professional and instructional resource in a higher education and public school technology coaching partnership called e-TEAMS. In this project, teachers who had identified themselves as generally "not confident" or "somewhat confident" in their abilities to integrate technology into classroom practice were paired for a semester with e-coaches who were college students possessing up-to-date knowledge of computers and other information technologies, to design and teach lessons that infused computers, the Internet, videos and other technologies into English, mathematics, science, and history teaching. Teachers found that the presence of an e-coach helped them to envision new ways to use technology in teaching. Generally, teachers who used inquiry-based teaching methods tended to incorporate technology into instruction more easily than did teachers who tended to use traditional teaching methods. Teachers noted that e-coaching was a new experience, making the process of working with an e-coach one of new learning through gradual progress with some setbacks.

This dissertation critically examines the life and teaching experiences of four teachers who use multicultural participatory video projects (PVP) to enrich the learning opportunities of their students. Colleagues and former students recommended the teachers for their experience using PVP and multicultural perspectives. The study is based on a theoretical framework grounded in multicultural education as it relates to teacher transformation, technologically assisted learning, and participatory learning theory. A review of the literature of multicultural education makes evident the need for teachers to transform their cultural awareness and perspectives before our schools can become effective multicultural learning environments. This study seeks to document this need, and to highlight PVP as a tool with the potential to catalyze teachers toward this transformation. The major findings of this study are that the use of participatory video project enriches the life-long development of multicultural perspectives for teachers who actively confirm self-identity through expressive life arts. The findings suggest that PVP taps into many aspects of a teacher's life and teaching experience to increase multicultural awareness and provide "fuel" for the transformation process. They also suggest that teacher education and support programs that advocate for issues of diversity and against issues of injustice and inequity in schools advance the use of PVP in their programs and communities to insure increased multicultural awareness through policy and procedural changes. Transforming schools into multicultural learning environments requires education reform that includes supporting teachers to develop multicultural perspectives.

As civilization becomes more dependent on complex technology, education develops increasing importance. Computerized tutoring is a practical mechanism for making advanced education more widely available, especially for ongoing maintenance of skills in the workplace and other situations outside formal institutions of learning. We built a simulation-based intelligent system for teaching medical personnel cardiac resuscitation skills, including a novel mechanism for monitoring student performance and dynamically adapting the simulation to the student's needs, using an expert model of the domain encoded with planning representations. Domain topics were explicitly represented so the system could reason about the student's learning needs and accomplishments, while adapting the simulation context toward states where profitable learning was expected, keeping the student challenged but not overwhelmed. Knowledge of what to teach was separated from knowledge of how to teach, leading to simplified representations that support improved communication between domain and system experts as demonstrated by the fact that a major change in the medical standards adopted during system development was implemented in about a week. The system used planning techniques to make common sense interpretations of unexpected situations while reasoning about simulations of multiple, coordinated agents with distinct roles performing multiple tasks. The system combined techniques from simulation, planning and user modeling in a multimedia tutoring environment, demanding consideration of the different strengths and idiosyncrasies of these components. This approach to integrating domain models, student models, course goals and pedagogical knowledge to create an individualized study plan in a tutoring system is novel and results in improved learning times. An iterative development methodology with formative evaluations of the system involving two classes of medical students helped direct the technology to meet the practical needs of the user community and ensured that the final system was accepted in the target environment. Results of this evaluation support our architecture and development approach. This research contributes to global access to knowledge which, it is hoped, will lead to improved decision making at all levels of civilization, providing for more efficient use of resources, more effective conflict resolution strategies and an overall increase in the satisfaction of critical social goals.

The complexity of robotics and automated systems in manufacturing today requires service technicians to have extensive knowledge and skills. Programs offering educational curricula for robotics and automated systems are primarily available in colleges and universities. These programs, however, lack practical application and do not meet industry requirements. Today, technicians require more skills and practice than theory. Since the vocational education students at the secondary level are trained more in skills and practical application than in theory, it is logical to assume that gaps in the work force could be filled by individuals properly trained in high school. To accomplish that, it was necessary to develop a curriculum that could be taught at the secondary vocational education level. Such a curriculum was not in existence at the outset of this study. The approach to the development of an operable curriculum was based on a survey method of research to collect the necessary data. A 50-item survey instrument was developed and sent to 110 contact persons in industry, who use robots and automated systems for manufacturing their product. The mean for the responses was calculated and a t-test was used to make comparisons between present and anticipated future industry needs. Based on the recommendations of a reviewing board, the results of the analysis were used to develop a suggested curriculum for a four-year program for robotics/automated systems service technicians. The findings indicate that industry requires technicians to have extensive backgrounds that provide positive work ethics, excellent communication skills, high quality standards for workmanship and safety, the ability to establish realistic vocational goals, conscientious awareness of safe practices, leadership skills, and functional math and science skills. Technology skills require strong backgrounds in electronics, blueprint reading, basic electricity, machine tool fundamentals, electro-mechanical devices, and robotic applications. In conclusion, industry requires service employees to have extensive backgrounds in general knowledge skills as well as technology skills. More valuable to the industry than any other technical skill, however, is the ability to analyze systems and solve problems. Oral communication is important for service persons because it often reflects company image and helps future sales.

This study examines the design and development of computer-aided composition (CAC) software and its implications for Composition in general. The aims of the study were to identify the who and how of CAC software design and possibly construct models for CAC software development. In addition, the study sought to identify the forces that impact these development models, determine emerging trends in CAC software development, and explore the implications of those forces and trends for the development models and Composition. The study centers around a series of interviews with five designers of CAC programs, close examination of their programs, and interviews with seven researchers in the field of CAC software development. The findings indicated four representative models for software development. The study describes and compares these four models and then examines three primary impacting forces upon them: technological forces (system architecture, programming languages, hypermedia, networking, CD-ROM, and artificial intelligence); reward and recognition, and funding. The study suggests the ascendancy of cognitively-based development programs. It argues that the pluralism of theoretical and pedagogical approaches to writing currently valued in Composition are threatened by the privileging of cognitively-based CAC efforts and calls upon the field to respond.