This thesis investigates the role of technology-use mediation in supporting the work of global virtual teams. The work is set in the context of a longer term action research programme into collaborative computing and global virtual teams, initiated by Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand and Uppsala University in Sweden. Over the period since 1998, global virtual collaborations involving teams of students from both universities have been conducted annually. This thesis investigates the 2004 collaboration cycle, in which participants from St Louis University Missouri joined the collaboration. This was the first triadic collaboration, and covered Northern, Southern and Western aspects of the globe while traversing three widely divergent time-zones. In spite of the extensive experience in collaboration possessed by the coordinators at all three sites, the results of the global virtual trial were at best mixed. This repeated experience of dissatisfaction in our global virtual collaborations, in spite of the technology being in place has been a primary motivator for this work. Why is global virtual collaboration difficult? What roles and activities are critical? How can we do it better? These are not issues solely to do with the student actors in the global virtual teams, but more to do with the supporting cast, engaged in “activities which involve the shaping of other users activities of [technology] use” (Orlikowski et al., 1995, p.425). Thus came about my interest in exploring the topic of technology-use mediation. This thesis applies a research framework adapted from DeSanctis & Poole’s “Adaptive Structuration Theory” (1994) by the author. Initially applied to “facilitation” in virtual teams “Extended Adaptive Structuration Theory (EAST)” (Clear, 1999a), has undergone further development. The resulting research framework “Technology-use Mediated AST (TUMAST)” is applied here for the first time to investigate technology-use mediation activities performed during the global virtual collaborative trial. A corpus of data based on the email communications of supporting parties to the collaboration is analysed in depth in this study, applying a combination of grounded theoretic and structurational techniques. Thus a very rich and firmly grounded picture of the processes of technology-use mediation is built. This thesis represents the first known in-depth longitudinal study of technology-use mediation in a real global virtual team setting. From this exploratory study some novel theorizations have resulted. Methodologically it demonstrates analysis of technology-use mediation applying the TUMAST framework in a manner that captures the richness and evolution over time of these complex activities. Substantively it proposes a novel theory of “Collaborative Technology Fit (CTF)”. It is hoped that future global virtual team coordinators and researchers may apply the theory in order to map their situation, and diagnose their degree of collaborative alignment on multiple dimensions, thus enabling corrective actions to be taken. While the work arises in a tertiary education context, it reflects the reality of professionals at work in a global virtual team. Its application within other domains remains to be proven, but readings from the literature, and personal experience within global virtual software development teams suggest its wider applicability.

At a theoretical level the research identifies a conceptual framework for the design of fruitful case discussions in an online environment and at a practical level, the conceptual framework has been used to implement and evaluate several versions of a case-based online course.

abstract: Individual and group accountability is an important part of productive group work. However, classroom evaluation of teamwork often relies on top-down assessment of group product by the teacher. Other methods include averaging group grades, group discussions, evaluative essays and random selection and application of one member's grade to the entire team. In contrast, the Teamwork Skills Inventory (TSI) developed by Strom and Strom provides assessment of individual conduct and contributions as observed by peers. The instrument also affords students with the opportunity to judge their own performance. Team members are responsible for their own behavior and skill development but are not held accountable for the actions taken by others. The TSI provides criteria for productive teamwork skills and behaviors. Students know in advance the criteria by which they and their teammates will judge each other's behavior skills. In turn, students have the opportunity to practice self-evaluation as they apply the same criteria to assess their own conduct. Self-evaluation compared with peer-evaluation provides support for confidence in behavioral strengths and can guide goal setting in areas where skills are weak and need adjustment. The TSI gives teachers an insider's view of group dynamics: the obstacles and benefits groups may encounter. Since team members have the vantage point of close interaction with peers they are more likely to know how individuals affect the thinking of others in a group. This frees teachers from the difficult task of judging group dynamics. TSI results can guide teachers in developing lessons that address the needs of individuals and groups. Data derived from the TSI can help schools provide for the needs of subgroups, such as special education and gifted classes. It can also help schools detect in-service needs for faculty and provide schools with a method of community accountability for use with cooperative learning methods and social skill achievement. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Educational Psychology 2010

Submitted by Lara Oliveira (lara@ufersa.edu.br) on 2017-04-20T20:11:49Z No. of bitstreams: 1 BrunoECRS_DISSERT.pdf: 1918787 bytes, checksum: 7f08c34826192f96bc288ff257f9ab9e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Vanessa Christiane (referencia@ufersa.edu.br) on 2017-04-26T12:15:43Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 BrunoECRS_DISSERT.pdf: 1918787 bytes, checksum: 7f08c34826192f96bc288ff257f9ab9e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Vanessa Christiane (referencia@ufersa.edu.br) on 2017-04-26T12:17:44Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 BrunoECRS_DISSERT.pdf: 1918787 bytes, checksum: 7f08c34826192f96bc288ff257f9ab9e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-26T12:17:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 BrunoECRS_DISSERT.pdf: 1918787 bytes, checksum: 7f08c34826192f96bc288ff257f9ab9e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-17 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Amid the great occurrences of chronic diseases, considered by some specialists as one of the great health problems of the 21st century, the diabetes stands out, because each patient presents different needs, be they alimentary, physical and/or psychological. Faced with this reality, is necessary that the diabetic patient has access to information that is in accordance with their reality of living with the disease, which will ensure that the information acquired by him is relevant and, in fact, will contribute to his treatment. Thus, it is necessary to know the patient, their reality, their interests and aspects influence your health. Moreover, it is essential that the information who reach the patient are safe and do not provide erroneous data, what can lead to complications in their health. Thus, this work addresses the development of a Social Network, which integrates an informal learning system for health, the MobiLEHealth, use the tools of Semantic Web to collect data of diabetic patients and, in base of their profiles, recommends contents to assist in the treatment. To ensure that this recommended information is secure and comes from trusted sources, was developed together with the Social Network an Expert Intermediate System, which allows a healthcare professional to evaluate the contents and sources that can be recommended to patients. At the end of development, these systems were submitted to a real users test. With this validation, it was realized the relevance that they present, as well as the importance of implementing these environments in the daily life of a diabetic patient and a health professional / Em meio as grandes ocorrências de doenças crônicas, consideradas por alguns especialistas como um dos grandes problemas de saúde do século XXI, o Diabetes Mellitus se destaca, visto que cada paciente apresenta necessidades diferentes, sejam alimentares, físicas e/ou psicológicas. Diante desta realidade, é necessário que o paciente diabético tenha acesso a informações que estejam de acordo com a sua realidade de vivência com a doença, o que irá garantir que a informação adquirida por ele é relevante e, de fato, vai contribuir com seu tratamento. Dessa forma é preciso conhecer o paciente, sua realidade, seus interesses e aspectos que influenciam na sua saúde. Além disso, é imprescindível que as informações quem cheguem ao paciente sejam seguras e não forneçam dados errôneos, o que pode acarretar complicações em sua saúde. Diante do exposto, este trabalho tem como objetivo o desenvolvimento de uma Rede Social, que integrada a um sistema de aprendizagem informal voltado também para a saúde, o MobiLEHealth, utiliza as ferramentas da Web Semântica para coletar dados de pacientes diabéticos e, com base nos seus perfis, recomenda conteúdos que auxiliam nos seus tratamentos. Para garantir que estas informações recomendadas sejam seguras e oriundas de fontes confiáveis, foi desenvolvido juntamente com a Rede Social um Sistema de Intermédio do Especialista, que permite que um profissional de saúde possa avaliar os conteúdos e as fontes que podem ser recomendados aos pacientes. Ao final do desenvolvimento, estes sistemas foram submetidos a um teste com usuários reais. Com essa validação, percebeu-se a relevância que eles apresentam, bem como a importância da implementação destes ambientes no cotidiano de um paciente diabético e de um profissional de saúde / 2017-04-20

Investigamos o potencial colaborativo mediador das Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC) livres, por meio da ferramenta de atividade wiki do Moodle. A meta era mudar o modo de produção no processo escolar presencial, semi-presencial e a distância e maior fluência em Ciência e Tecnologia na vida cotidiana. Propusemos a realização de um processo de investigação-ação escolar, com atividades de estudo mediadas pelo wiki do Moodle. Nos balizamos pelos conceitos de diálogo-problematizador, colaboração e autonomia, essenciais na interação escolar mediada pelas TIC livres, em especial nos Ambientes Virtuais de Ensino-Aprendizagem. Como resultado principal sinalizamos limites, desafios e avanços da referida mediação tecnológica educacional no escopo colaborativoescolar. / In this work we have investigated the collaborative mediation potential of free Communication and Information Technologies (CIT) present at the activity tool in Moodle's wiki. The objective was to change the way production occurs at presence, semi-presence and distance school processes and, to give greater fluency to Science and Technology in daily life. It was proposed the implementation of a school action research process with the school activities mediated by Moodle's wiki. We monitored our work with the concepts of a problem posing dialogue, collaboration and autonomy that are essential to school interactions mediated by free CIT, especially in a Virtual Teaching and Learning Environment. As a result from this work we delimitated the limits, challenges and advances of this educational technological mediation in a school collaborative scope.

The knowledge and learning building process through the technologic resources use, and consist in a complex and talked about subject. Both in the context psycho-educational as computational should be taken into consideration the entire process associated with the cognitive process. Several methodologies and experience have been used to enrich the learning process with the current possibilities that technology and especially the Internet can provide. Thus, this proposed work is a prototype of a collaborative environment as a new solution to the knowledge building process through the use of conceptual maps and resources for communication and video, subsidizing all learning process, being a different tool of others solutions currently. The process to become managed by a negotiable model, which does not exist in current environments, aids in the evaluation and measurement of learned content by using a synchronous communication model for the entire process. Techniques used for artificial intelligence in the environment construction could be considered and mechanisms used as the preti s networks, diagrammatic reasoning principles, languages of knowledge representation, and take into account aspects linked with studies on the collaboration learning with computational support, better known as CSCL (Computer Suport Collaborative Learning). / O processo de construção de conhecimento e aprendizagem através da utilização de recursos tecnológicos consiste em um tema complexo e muito debatido, tanto no contexto psicopedagógico quanto computacional, uma vez que, deve ser levado em consideração todo o processo cognitivo associado a aprendizagem. Diversas metodologias e experiências têm sido utilizadas com o intuito de fazer com que todo o processo de aprendizagem seja enriquecido com as atuais possibilidades que a tecnologia e principalmente a Internet passaram a propiciar. Assim, neste trabalho é proposta a criação de modelos de interação e o protótipo de um ambiente colaborativo como proposta para o processo de construção de conhecimento através da utilização de mapas conceituais, além de recursos de comunicação e vídeo, subsidiando todo o processo de aprendizagem, sendo uma ferramenta diferenciada das demais soluções encontradas atualmente, uma vez que todo o processo passa a ser regido por um modelo negociável e gerenciado, o que não ocorre nos demais ambientes existentes, auxiliando no processo de avaliação e mensuração do conteúdo internalizado pelos usuários através de relatórios, utilizando um modelo síncrono de comunicação para todo o processo. São consideradas técnicas de Inteligência Artificial para a construção deste ambiente, sendo utilizados mecanismos como as redes de petri, princípios de raciocínio diagramático, linguagens de representação de conhecimento, além de levar em consideração aspectos vinculados a estudos sobre a colaboração em aprendizagem com suporte computacional, mais conhecido como CSCL (Computer Suport Collaborative Learning), tendo como produto final os modelos provados através da construção do ambiente interativo.

For a long time, games were associated to entertainment activities, limited to recreation. The electronic games have as pioneer Willy Higinbotham, a physicist from Brookhaven National Laboratories that created in 1958 a simple game of tennis that was implemented in an oscilloscope. Since then, some failures occurred in the acceptance of such products. However, with the advent of new virtual worlds, more interactive and visually rich, capable of providing a rich communication, the current games online multi-player become a valuable tool for practice of collaborative learning. The collaboration, per se, is a strong goal in education that needs to be encouraged and exercised. This goal needs to be encouraged and exercised by the means available. In this context, the computer games deserve a lot of attention. The increasing presence and richness of the computer games gather favorable conditions to a process of knowledge construction through effectively collaborative activities. This paper proposes a model for building collaborative games, based on the assumption that cooperation leads to peer learning. The concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) defined by Vygotsky is essential to the understanding of their ideas about the relationship between development and learning. The study of the relationship game and education, and theoretical contributions of collaborative learning were essential to the creation of the model in this dissertation. Based on this work, one can see that the collaborative games can be a good way in an attempt to subjugate the evil effects of excessive competition in this games. / Durante muito tempo, os jogos foram associados a atividades de entretenimento, limitados a recreação. Os jogos eletrônicos têm como pioneiro Willy Higinbotham, um físico do Brookhaven Nacional Laboratories que criou em 1958 um simples jogo de tênis que era executado em um osciloscópio. De lá para cá ocorreram alguns fracassos na aceitação desses produtos, porém, com o advento de novos mundos virtuais, visualmente mais ricos e interativos, aptos a possibilitar uma comunicação rica, os atuais games on-line multi-player se tornam uma ferramenta valiosa para a prática da aprendizagem colaborativa. A colaboração, por si, é um objetivo forte na educação. Esse objetivo precisa ser fomentado e exercitado através dos meios disponíveis. Sob esse contexto, os jogos de computador merecem muita atenção. As interações cada vez mais presentes e efetivamente ricas que os caracterizam reúnem condições favoráveis a um processo de construção do conhecimento através de atividades efetivamente colaborativas. Este trabalho propõe um modelo para a construção de jogos colaborativos baseado na hipótese de que a colaboração entre pares leva à aprendizagem. Para tanto, o conceito da Zona de Desenvolvimento Proximal (ZDP) definido por Vygotsky é essencial para a compreensão de suas idéias sobre as relações entre desenvolvimento e aprendizado. Nesta dissertação, o estudo da relação jogo e educação, e das contribuições teóricas da aprendizagem colaborativa foram primordiais para a criação do modelo. A partir disso, é possível verificar que os jogos colaborativos podem ser um bom caminho na tentativa de subjugar os efeitos maléficos da competição excessiva presente nos jogos.

Qatar’s education system has recently been subjected to a process of deep structural reform. One of the beliefs which underpins this reform is the assumption that learner-centred pedagogy is more effective than traditional teacher-centred pedagogy. However, there is limited empirical evidence from a Qatari classroom context regarding the effectiveness of using learner-centred pedagogies. This lack of empirical evidence extends to the teaching of English as a foreign language. This study employed Vygotskian sociocultural theory as a lens to investigate the effects of working collaboratively on learners’ longer-term performance of two grammatical structures, the simple past passive and the present continuous passive, as well as the cognitive processes involved. Interventionist dynamic assessment was used to quantify the linguistic performance of male Arabic undergraduate EFL learners (N = 52) three times (pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest) over a 12-week period. In-between the pretest and the posttest, six form-focused treatment tasks were administered. The experimental group (n = 20) completed the treatment tasks collaboratively; the comparison group (n = 16) completed the treatment tasks individually; and the control group (n = 16) did not complete the treatment tasks. In addition, the genetic method was employed to trace the linguistic development of four participants in the experimental group. These four participants were audio-recorded as they collaboratively completed each treatment session. Mood’s median test (Mood, 1954) found a pretest to posttest statistically significant difference (M = 7.70, df = 1, p = 0.01) between the performances of the experimental and control groups for the structure of the simple past passive which is moderate to large in size (Cramér’s V = 0.46). However for both target structures, no statistically significant difference was found between the experimental group and the comparison group, suggesting that the treatment condition of working collaboratively was not more effective in promoting learners’ linguistic development than the treatment condition of working individually. Additionally, the descriptive statistics revealed high levels of individual variation. Of the four participants who were audio-recorded, the journey of one learner is presented. This data was analysed using a microgenetic approach with LREs (Swain and Lapkin, 1995, 1998, 2002) as the unit of analysis. The microgenetic analysis shows how working collaboratively provides learners with access to a shared cognitive space. Within this space, they can employ language as a cognitive tool to access other-regulation from their peers and deploy their own self-regulatory strategies. The experience of an individual was explored within the context of the linguistic gains made by the collective to whom he belongs. Thus, even though the statistical analysis of the results suggests that working collaboratively is not more effective in facilitating learners’ linguistic development than working individually, the process of language learning has been connected to the outcome of language learning through the results of the descriptive statistics and the microgenetic analysis. This study contributes to a better understanding of: the types of pedagogies that may be effective in a Qatari undergraduate context, why collaborative learning can be effective, how knowledge which is initially social can take on a psychological function, and how the Vygotskian sociocultural methodologies of the genetic method and dynamic assessment can be integrated into an SLA design.

Investigamos o potencial colaborativo mediador das Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC) livres, por meio da ferramenta de atividade wiki do Moodle. A meta era mudar o modo de produção no processo escolar presencial, semi-presencial e a distância e maior fluência em Ciência e Tecnologia na vida cotidiana. Propusemos a realização de um processo de investigação-ação escolar, com atividades de estudo mediadas pelo wiki do Moodle. Nos balizamos pelos conceitos de diálogo-problematizador, colaboração e autonomia, essenciais na interação escolar mediada pelas TIC livres, em especial nos Ambientes Virtuais de Ensino-Aprendizagem. Como resultado principal sinalizamos limites, desafios e avanços da referida mediação tecnológica educacional no escopo colaborativoescolar. / In this work we have investigated the collaborative mediation potential of free Communication and Information Technologies (CIT) present at the activity tool in Moodle's wiki. The objective was to change the way production occurs at presence, semi-presence and distance school processes and, to give greater fluency to Science and Technology in daily life. It was proposed the implementation of a school action research process with the school activities mediated by Moodle's wiki. We monitored our work with the concepts of a problem posing dialogue, collaboration and autonomy that are essential to school interactions mediated by free CIT, especially in a Virtual Teaching and Learning Environment. As a result from this work we delimitated the limits, challenges and advances of this educational technological mediation in a school collaborative scope.

abstract: ABSTRACT While attempting to provide real world experiences in STEM, educators face numerous challenges including adhering to curriculum requirements and working with potentially limited resources. The purpose of this action research study was to examine how the addition of authentic learning modules to the existing University of Arizona Middle School Engineering 101 (UA MS engineering 101) unit on energy efficiency can provide students with real world experiences as active participants. During an instructional workshop, participating teachers were introduced to strategies they use in their classroom so students could engage with individuals from both inside and outside of the school to create solutions for energy issues the students have identified within their own schools. This study used a series of observations, interviews, and focus groups with the teacher participants to gather data in determining how and in what ways students were able to obtain real world experiences as active participants through the authentic learning modules. Because there are numerous teachers within the UA MS engineering 101 group, a future goal was to assist these additional teachers in providing this innovation to their students. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Leadership and Innovation 2016