published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education

This dissertation addresses three distinct areas of composition: literacy,technology, and teacher training. The research questions I investigate are as follows:Are graduate programs in rhetoric and composition offering preparation for teaching new literacies, especially with digital technology? If so, what is the nature of that training?Does the faculty within a program perceive that training to be effective? Is thattraining perceived to be effective by graduate students?How do individual programs shape their graduate technology training to reflectand manifest specific programmatic agendas and goals?The first two sets of research questions are investigated using survey research methods. The last research question is addressed via case study methods.Using a multi-methodological research design that includes a national survey and two institutional case studies allows me to combine methodologies to draw meaningful conclusions from the data. For example, the survey helps to provide a brief sketch of the state of technology training in rhetoric and composition programs as well as universities, while detailed case studies provide a context that illustrates how the integration of technology into both the university and rhetoric and composition program affects teacher training. The survey demonstrates that many programs do not require courses or workshops that extend special help to those teaching in computer classrooms especially as technology relates to new literacies. Information from the survey also indicates that rhetoric and composition programs have no procedures in place to assess the state of technology training for new teachers and TAs. This dissertation offers one way of assessing technology training.The case studies reveal that the two universities have grand visions and broad technology initiatives. However, a closer look at university mission statements and specific rhetoric and composition programs reveals that the integration of technology is sometimes a less than smooth one. In one case, the department struggles to implement technology at the grass roots level, while another department, despite the inconsistencies apparent at the university level, seems to succeed at both integrating technology and training new teachers to address the new literacies produced by those digital technologies. / Department of English

Despite calls for better training of college composition teachers utilizing computer-assisted writing instruction (CAWI), English departments have only recently begun to systematically address the faculty development needs of these teachers. Other fields such as adult education and staff development have begun applying theory and research to faculty development efforts, but CAWI proponents have yet to attain that depth of study and commitment.By investigating methods and characteristics of CAWI faculty development programs, this study found that academic-year workshops were the most common development activity, although teachers preferred personal, collaborative approaches like mentors, consultants, and discussion groups. These patterns were consistent across types of colleges and universities, indicating general context descriptors like institutional size and mission did not significantly influence or limit faculty development practices. This discrepancy between preferred and offered programs indicates faculty needs are not being met, and offers potential reasons for a lack of satisfaction with CAWI faculty development and administration.Faculty respondents identified adequate time and funding as the most important contributors to the success of CAWI faculty development, noting that faculty support-particularly the personalized attention teachers prefer-is time-intensive and requires extensive commitment from those providing the services. These time concerns reflect staffing patterns: CAWI administrative duties were added to the workload of current departmental administrators just over half of the time, and CAWI support duties were assigned to current administrators over onethird of the time. These support duties were assigned to non-tenure-line personnel over one-quarter of the time, a practice that raises questions about authority and credibility needed to administer faculty development programs.Despite a relative lack of concern among faculty, evaluation and reward systems play an important long-term role in CAWI support. Current structures do not adequately recognize and reward CAWI-related scholarship and service, including faculty development work. Applying Boyer and Glassick's expanded concepts of scholarship might prove useful in improving and professionalizing CAWI faculty development efforts, thereby helping secure scholarly identity for CAWI and its support activities. / Department of English

Software systems have experienced an impressive growth in the last few decades and have impacted a wide variety of areas. In this respect, two elds bene t greatly. Learning and research. In this work, we present several software systems that we have created to assist in the process of learning and to help researchers by performing complex computations and generating data. We demonstrate three web-based educational video games that we developed to teach science to middle school students. We also describe several software systems that we created for research in graph theory and model checking. Finally, we discuss our results, contributions and future directions. / Educational perspectives -- Graph algorithms and their applications -- E-learning -- Model checking. / Educational perspectives -- Graph algorithms and their applications -- E-learning -- Model checking. / Department of Computer Science

A quantitative, descriptive research study was conducted at a nursing college to investigate the nature of nursing learners' exposure to computer assisted instruction and computer-based learning, the perceived benefits of this exposure, and the problems that they had encountered. Learners, who had been exposed to computer assisted instruction and computer-based learning, participated. A self-administered, structured questionnaire was administered to collect data. The research results revealed that the learners had limited exposure to educational computer packages, and computer-based learning activities. They encountered numerous problems. Although the learners derived many benefits from computer assisted instruction, this did not result in effective learning. They indicated that they preferred computer assisted instruction more than traditional teaching methods. This study contributed towards recommendations on improving learners' access to the necessary facilities, equipment and educational computer software. The researcher also recommended strategies to ensure that computer assisted instruction is based on sound educational principles. / Health Studies / M.A. (Health Studies)

The present research was an investigation of the effects of computer assisted instruction as a supplement to classroom instruction in reading and arithmetic. The purposes of this study were to determine the effectiveness of microcomputer usage in supplemental reading comprehension and math instruction. Utilizing an elaboration of the pre-test, posttest control group design, 66 fifth graders completed the 4-month study. One-way analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data.

Ph.D. / Until recently the majority of computer aided instruction (CAl) programs available for the teaching of history, only provided elementary facilities such as drill-and-practice exercises. Some of the more advanced systems use simulation techniques to create fictitious historical situations. These simulation systems take the form of computer games where the participants have to make decisions on historical situations with which they are confronted. The initial aim of this study was to develop a CAl-system for the teaching of history in which historical field battles could be simulated, or more correctly, in which a particular field battle situation could be reconstructed. By using the system, a student could get a better understanding of the different factors which played a role during a specific battle. It soon became clear though, that the original aims were too broad and too general. The decision was therefore made to undertake a study of the dynamic interrelationships of time and space with reference to field battles. A model was developed which provides a framework for the transformation of often unstructured and diffuse time and space relationships into more specific, structured values which can be loaded into the database of a computer. Historical field battles are used as a vehicle to outline the functioning of the model. After a history teacher or historian has analysed and restructured a specific field battle into relations that can be computerized, a history student can interactively formulate his questions on the time-space relationships of the battle under study. In the field battle model, the concept of an "event" plays an important role. An event defines an action or activity which took place during a field battle. Two of the major constituents of an event are the time when the event took place, and the geographical position where it occurred. Therefore much of the work reported in this thesis covers the development of algorithms for the representation of time and space relations. Algoritmhs were developed for the interactive drawing of geographical maps of the area where the battle took place. The main building blocks of a geographical map are points, icons, lines and areas. Special attention was given to the representation of these entities. Due to the limited viewing area available on the screen of a micro computer, an area clipping algorithm was developed for the display of selected parts of the map. Time which is observed under operational conditions during a field battle is referred to as "perceived time". Perceived time is often vague and even unreliable. An algorithm was developed through which these vague time references are transformed to more specific "clock time" values. The algorithm constructs a time network, using the vague known time of occurrence of events, to sequence the events relative to each other. By solving this network, the time of occurrence of the events forming part of the network, are determined to a fair degree of accuracy. These time values and other relevant information are entered into the database of a micro computer system, to be used for instructional purposes.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between using computer-assisted instruction (CAI) and success on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) mathematics exam with fifth-grade students in Texas compared to the effect of alternative improvement approaches used by a control group. Research explored the use of SuccessMaker® CAI educational software (Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ, www.pearsoned.com) in public elementary schools in Texas. Successmaker® CAI was not a good predictor of passing percentage on the mathematics TAKS. Multiple regression analysis utilized in this quasi-experimental design study predicted a negative and not statistically significant change in the percentage of students passing the mathematics TAKS exam (B = -.448, p > .05). SuccessMaker® use exhibited a very small effect size (r = -.04) and accounted for less than 1% of the change in passing percentage (r2 = .0016). Multiple regression model predicted a negative and statistically significant effect upon mathematics passing percentage by economic disadvantage percentage (B = -.211, p < .01). The 95% confidence interval for B ranged from -.365 to -.057. The large effect size correlation coefficient (r = -.51) accounted for 26% of the variance in the mathematics TAKS passing percentage (r2 = .26).

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