The purpose of this study was to investigate the networked computer use by scholars and to determine whether or not this computer use could facilitate international communication, academic collaboration and increased scholarly productivity. An electronic mail survey was sent to 1048 biologists scattered across the globe. After adjusting for invalid electronic mail addresses, 731 out of the 1048 surveys were eventually delivered and a total of 333 completed questionnaires were returned yielding a response rate of 45.6%. Although this was an extremely homogenous population, many trends emerged. Networked computer use appears to enhance perceived productivity. Collaboration via the computer is valued with respondents reporting their most frequent activities as exchanging work-related messages with colleagues from abroad, reading postings on scholarly/academic discussion groups, and exchanging work-related messages with colleagues at home institutions. Scholars reported benefiting most from exchanging messages with colleagues from abroad and from collaboration with peers. Exchanging messages and collaboration are types of informal communication which is the best means of attaining membership in an invisible college which is a group of geographically scattered academics with common research interests who determine the scholarly direction of a discipline. The more frequently a user exchanged e-mail messages, the more that user perceived gaining benefit in the ability to collaborate. Similarly, those who more frequently exchanged drafts reported higher levels of perceived benefit from enhanced contact with colleagues abroad. Exchanging messages with colleagues abroad associated moderately strongly with English proficiency. Those who reported higher levels of benefit from their CMC use also more strongly believed that CMC is changing the way academic researchers collaborate. These findings lend indirect support to the possibility that the use of networked computers could lead to increased communication, collaboration and productivity on the global level. Results showed informal communication, collaboration and self-perceived productivity are all potentially increased by network computer use. All of these factors could ultimately lead to the opportunity to join an invisible college.

This research studied changes in ten middle school students' scientific conceptions during interaction with a computer microworld designed adaptively for exploring phases of the moon. Following direct observations of lunar phenomena, five students participated in the development of the computer microworld. The researcher implemented software design requests from the students based on their real world and microworld experience. Five different students used the final revised microworld and provided additional feedback. All sessions were transcribed and analyzed. Evidence from this case study suggests that this constructionist activity was a good catalyst for inducing conceptual change in learners—especially the five who had considerable ownership in the software development. Implications for classroom teaching strategies and suggestions for future research are offered.

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 dissertation presents results of a formative evaluation of AnimalWatch, an intelligent tutoring software system for 9–12 year-olds, which teaches whole numbers and fractions by adapting the difficulty of problems to students' performance. Results come from a macro-analysis of 350 students using AnimalWatch in two different schools during three years. Data from these studies were integrated to analyze the system's overall effectiveness, as well as gender and cognitive development differences in interactions with the system, particularly in relation to the help component. In general, it was found that students reduced their mistakes as they progressed in the tutoring session, and improved their attitudes towards mathematics after using the system. However, a rigorous study of the internal components of AnimalWatch showed that the system can be further improved to maximize its positive impact. Students saw too many easy problems, and this may explain the fact that they hardly reached the last topics in the system. In addition, students benefited differently from alternative kinds of feedback provided, depending on the level of abstraction within the help component and the amount of help. An analysis of help effectiveness for students of different gender and cognitive development showed that girls were more sensitive to amount and structure of help than to level of abstraction in the provided help. On the other hand, boys of low cognitive development were affected by level of abstraction in the help. While boys were being selective about the kinds of help they were willing to see, girls would obediently go through each of the hints provided.

This dissertation focuses on three country case studies: Singapore, United Kingdom, and United States, with occasional compelling examples from elsewhere. The cases are analyzed and synthesized into a rich and comprehensive conceptual framework with contextual factors and a set of metrics that can be used as a lens to assess a country's readiness and needs in terms of Information and Computer Technology education. The lens is applied directly to the case study of Mauritius as a test-bed, and yields the basis of a consensual strategic technology plan for education. Finally, the lens is tweaked to examine possible technology transfer to developing countries, in particular, to Africa. Further, this study develops the human capacity component of the United Nations Development Program—Markle Foundation's conceptual framework of the components of the development dynamic model, into a model for ICT education, thus providing an integrated conceptual model for ICT education, and ICT industry and/or development. By scanning the environment against the backdrop of the Information Revolution, the author reaped a body of practices and refined them into a set of best practices in teaching, learning, educational administration, school restructure, teacher training, infrastructure, contents, research and evaluation, school linkages with parents, community, business, and other stakeholders, strategic compact, leadership, funding, and sustainability. The results of the study impact e-learning and virtual institutions, the digital child, information literacy, computer fluency and new skills for productivity and creativity in the emerging knowledge-based society, and the digital divide. The implications of the dissertation are the provision of a clear guide to effective planning for ICT education for a broad range of countries and ICT transfer to developing countries. The study also explores some pathways in the search for a new social order where the digital capital of the ICT-developed countries could extend the digital dividends to minimize the digital divide within and between countries. It fills a gap in an increasingly important area of knowledge in a confused and turbulent environment. It will be useful to most governments, which have recently expressed some ambitious strategies for stimulating and supporting the use of ICT in education.

Women and girls of color are severely under-represented in the fields of Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology (SMET). Research indicates that SMET will continue to be dominated by men unless we address the needs of women of color to gain entry and sustain a career in these fields. Women of color issues and concerns are often combined with those of white middle class women, thereby making it difficult to tease out what is important to them in relationship to SMET. This qualitative research project was conducted at a large public university over a three month period with a group of women of color undergraduates, graduates and professionals in the field of engineering. Methods utilized included phenomenological in-depth interviews and observation. The study gave voice to what they encountered regarding access, recruitment, and retention to SMET careers, the gender and racial biased attitudes and practices that either supported or obstructed their determination to move forward along the engineering pipeline and the encouraging and discouraging relationships which supported or obstructed the women's determination to succeed in the field. The findings point out the important role engineering departments must take in lowering first year attrition rates by providing an inclusive, “women” friendly environment that provides same sex/race mentors, tutors and programs to encourage and support students through difficult times. Diversity workshops and programs should be created to inform faculty and administrators to develop more effective and respectful ways of communicating with different ethnicities. Creating inclusive pedagogy integrated with feminist frames and constructivist teaching methods whereby students lived reality is integrated into practical applications of knowledge would provide a more comprehensive, interesting and fun way to learn science, math and technology thereby alleviating the boredom often found in engineering courses. The study also identified the important role families played in the success of the women, especially the role of mother and daughter, which prepared these women academically and emotionally for the rigors of engineering. Moreover, K–12 teachers need to learn about, promote and facilitate skills development for girls of color to gain entry to SMET careers. One teacher can make a difference.

A three-semester experimental distance education course for training teachers as community development agents was carried out in the rural villages of Bolivia, with 364 graduates from the course in 1995. The teachers were trained to facilitate adult learning processes that empower community leadership and organizations with the essential capabilities required for sustained development. The primary purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of five key components of the experimental Course from a perspective and experience of the Tutors and Teacher-Participants. The components that were studied are: (1) Content of the Course: 12 Modules; (2) Elements of the learning methodology; (3) The training of Tutors; (4) Community participation in workshops and application exercises; (5) Moral Leadership Module. Three social research methods were triangulated to gather information for the evaluation: a survey questionnaire, focus groups and interviews. Over 80% of the Teacher-participants and Tutors participated in the survey, which provided data that was highly representative of the groups studied. The study shows that the Moral Leadership Component of the Course was a key factor in motivating the Teacher-participants to commit themselves to become agents of community development and to engage in processes of individual and collective transformation. A more extensive description and analysis was given to this Component in order to understand the role it played in the process of empowering teachers to become effective social actors. Although it is still too early to do an impact evaluation, the study attempted to assess some initial effects that the course has produced in the lives of the participants and in the communities where they work. This study may contribute to the betterment of distance education approaches in Bolivia and in Latin America in general. The evaluation of these components may also improve the quality and effectiveness of any future replications of this Course. The evaluation has also been designed to enhance the learning of the key stakeholders of the Course.

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.