abstract: The purpose of the iE3 Project was to explore the effect of using a collaborative apprenticeship model on the integration of student-owned mobile devices into classroom instruction. The iE3 Project was designed to overcome perceived barriers that prevented teachers from using student-owned mobile devices in the classroom. Based on earlier work, teachers suggested those barriers were support, time, resources, and professional development. Thus, the iE3 Project was conducted to empower teachers initiating the use of student-owned mobile devices as instructional tools. The study is grounded in situated cognition theory, situated learning theory, social cultural theory, and extends Evan Glazer's study of collaborative apprenticeship in a "bring your own technology" (BYOT) school environment. The literature review includes relevant studies from such areas as providing teacher support, employing collaborative planning time, using mobile technology resources, and offering authentic professional development within situated contexts. Participants included K-8th grade teachers. The 11 "non-user" participants established roles as peer-teachers (PT) and worked collaboratively with 11 "mobile device user" teacher leaders (TL) for twelve weeks during the iEngage, iEducate, and iEmpower phases of the iE3 Project. Participants completed pre- and post-intervention Stages of Concern Questionnaires and Innovation Configuration Maps, engaged in collaborative planning time, posted collaborative weekly reflections and descriptions of digital images online, completed a Perceived User Level retrospective survey, and participated in semi-structured interviews. The results of the project indicated a collaborative apprenticeship model as implemented in the current project was successful in addressing perceived barriers and empowered teachers to use student-owned mobile devices as instructional tools. Generally, results showed PT made substantial gains in using student-owned devices during instruction; reduced instructional, management, and other concerns about using mobile devices; and transformed them in terms of their thinking about using mobile devices for classroom instruction. Moreover, the perceived barriers were mitigated by using the collaborative apprenticeship model. In the discussion, complementarity of the quantitative and qualitative data were discussed and connections were made to the extant literature. Additionally, lessons learned, limitations, implications for practice, and implications for additional action research were discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2015

The emergence of online learning environments and advances in web-based technologies enable teachers to interact and exchange ideas and experiences in online communities. However, these rapid technological advances also cause such online communities to disband quickly, before they have the opportunity to evolve into a community of practice, in which a group of teachers build a shared history, a shared repertoire of resources and activities, and mutually engage in collaborative professional development, over time. Moreover, rapid advances in technology necessitate on-going collaboration among teachers so that they develop meaningful technology integration practice. While such collaborations have taken place in face-to-face settings, how this might be achieved through participation in an online teacher community of practice has been under-researched. Therefore, the present study examines one long-standing, globally-distributed, online community of practice created by English language teachers, called "Webheads in Action", whose shared domain of interest centers on exploring the pedagogical uses of web-based technologies in English language teaching. The study employs netnography, or online ethnography, in which the researcher collects data through participant observation, interviews, and archiving, all of which is conducted completely online. The aim of this study was to understand the broader culture of learning, collaboration, and mentoring in this online language teacher community by exploring and analyzing its shared repertoire of resources, and activities; ways members engage in the collective development of this technology integration practice; and the role of participation in such an online community of practice on developing language teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge when designing instruction. The data for this study comes from various sources of data collected through online participant observation in this community's activities over a year, reflective observational fieldnotes, online interviews, and archived data. Throughout my online fieldwork, I participated in this online community's activities both synchronously and asynchronously. At the same time, I took reflective observational fieldnotes of my participation and observations during these activities, as well as community's spaces and email communications. As for archival data, I archived the email communication that occurred during my time in the field, as well as screenshots of the community spaces and platforms. I conducted in-depth interviews with four key people in this community in order to better understand the organization and background of this community and its activities, and interviewed five individual members in order to learn about their stories with and as Webheads. Through qualitative data analysis procedures, namely coding, categorizing and finding themes, the study provides a rich and thick description as well as an analysis of this community and its culture in the light of my experiences and observations, as well as the experiences of others. The study reveals insights as to the culture of teacher learning in an online community of practice and the mediation of technological pedagogical content knowledge in online communities of practice. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are also presented, as well as an in-depth discussion of how ethnographic fieldwork practices are adapted in netnography with online communities of practice.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-20T13:57:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Ana_Maria_Simoes_Netto_Costa.pdf: 2861419 bytes, checksum: 03d70c3b21a436c302aba3899afd96d5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-16 / The present study begins research on how social networking sites Twitter and Facebook involved modifying the teaching-learning of mathematics. Therefore, it approaches the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in everyday school life through the influence of the social context in which it is inserted contemporary society and exceeds the physical education that occurs. Specifically on ICT discusses the possibility of using social networking sites as spaces mediators of teaching-learning process, aiming collaborative production of knowledge, the development of teaching projects involving research into the history of mathematics. This research is based on theories that discuss the use of ICT in education such as Pierre Lévy, the research as a process that enables the student to work in the construction of their learning as Pedro Demo and articulates the concepts of the theory socio-cultural-historical Vygosky to be the student, the active subject in the process of learning and development. It is concluded in this study that social networking sites actually participated and changed the teaching-learning process, and enabled the collaborative production of knowledge in enabling change to teaching. / O presente trabalho tem origem na investigação sobre como os sites de rede social Twitter e Facebook participam e modificam o processo ensino-aprendizagem da Matemática. Para tanto, aborda-se as Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC) presentes no cotidiano escolar pela influência do contexto social no qual está inserida a sociedade contemporânea e que transcende os espaços físicos em que ocorre a educação. Sobre as TIC, mais especificamente, aborda-se a possibilidade de uso dos sites de rede social como espaços mediadores do processo ensino-aprendizagem, visando a produção colaborativa do conhecimento, no desenvolvimento de projetos de ensino que envolvem a pesquisa sobre a História da Matemática. Esta investigação está respaldada em teóricos que discutem o uso das TIC na educação como Pierre Lévy, a pesquisa como um processo que possibilita o aluno atuar na construção de seu aprendizado conforme Pedro Demo e articula os conceitos da teoria sócio-histórico-cultural de Vygosky por ser, o aluno, o sujeito ativo no seu processo de aprendizado e desenvolvimento. Constatou-se nesta investigação que os sites de rede social de fato participaram e modificaram o processo ensino-aprendizagem, bem como viabilizaram a produção colaborativa do conhecimento e propiciaram mudança no fazer docente.