<p> This study was designed to document the discourse of faculty in regards to the integration of massive open online courses (MOOCs) among the community college sector. The study examined what presuppositions faculty held about MOOCs and the significance of these notions for higher education. Additionally, the study reviewed the ways in which community college faculty made references to MOOCs in their everyday discourse.</p><p> Participants were selected from two Maryland institutions of higher education known for referencing MOOCs through their websites and publications. Participants comprised full-time and part-time instructional faculty who had worked at least two consecutive semesters in the community college sector in the three academic years prior to the focus group. Previous participation in a MOOC was not required for eligibility, but a basic understanding was recommended. Between the two institutions, four focus group interviews were held. Each focus group had four participants, for a total of 16 participants. Following each focus group interview, participants were contacted to participate in a one-on-one semistructured interview. Gee's tenets of discourse analysis were used to document the conversational discourse surrounding MOOCs as a way to understand where the discussions started, where they currently are, and what will be discussed in the future.</p><p> Faculty viewed characteristics of MOOCs with polarizing perceptions: they either agreed or disagreed with various aspects of MOOCs and rarely discussed middle ground options. Most faculty members had a basic awareness of MOOCs, but few (6 of the 16) participants reported first-hand experience. Participants reported a need to learn more about MOOCs in order to move the conversation into the direction of acceptance and acknowledgment among the community college sector. As the result of participants' limited experiences with MOOCs, most of their presuppositions and everyday discourse was based on their teaching experiences and comparisons to current traditional teaching models. MOOCs were viewed as more of a supplement to higher education than a standalone learning forum.</p>

<p> As mobile devices become more and more ubiquitous among teens, such devices have also been fighting their way into the educational landscape. In this digital world where people are constantly entertained, educators have found it difficult to capture their students' attention and motivate them to stay engaged in formal class. Rather than focus specifically on types of devices as education has historically done, this study focused on ways in which those tool could be used. Using a TPACK framework (technological, pedagogical, content knowledge) allows educators to pull the attention from specific types of devices and focus on how those devices could be used academically. This exploratory study surveyed how undergraduate students and higher education instructors at two small faith-based universities in Southern California used mobile devices in and outside of the class for academic purposes. The researcher cross-referenced the results from the 2 groups to make correlations. The results of this study showed that nearly all instructor participants had multiple devices and almost half of the student participants had 2 or more devices as well. Those devices are being used in and outside of formal class for academics in very basic and emerging way that are just touching the surface of their capabilities. This study found that students use their devices in class to read, reference, or search materials. Faculty reported using their devices as presentation devices most often. Both groups, students and teachers, reported a few unique mobile devices using special purpose applications. Those special purpose uses are beginning to move in the direction progressive mobile learning and beginning to touch the surface of TPACK integration. This study aimed to integrate the current uses of mobile devices by students and faculty with the TPACK educational framework. It connected current mobile device usage to advanced device usage to integrate TPACK teaching strategies for educators to integrate those devices into their future instruction.</p><p> <i>Key words:</i> mobile devices, TPACK, formal learning, informal learning.</p>

<p> In a school district, teachers and administrators found that students lacked the academic technology immersion necessary to ensure their technological preparation for the 21st century. Professional development was offered to prepare teachers to integrate 21st century technology into their instruction; however, teachers were not fully implementing technology. Administrators and stakeholders have indicated concern. The purpose of this study was to explore whether professional development was effective in increasing teachers' capacity to integrate student-directed technology into instruction. The study, guided by Prensky's transformation and Siemen's connectiveness theories, indicated that technology immersion was necessary within schools. The overarching research questions explored the extent to which technology-based professional development experiences have most directly affected the integration of technology into the classroom. The research design was a qualitative explorative study comparing archival teacher learning logs of 15 teachers from 5 high schools with 2 questionnaires. The narrative findings from the learning logs were cross-checked through triangulation with the percentage data from a Likert-type scale and questionnaire to determine accuracy and reliability. Data indicated that professional development increased technology integration in a moderate way, whereas comprehensive integration will better prepare students for the future. The purpose of the white paper report was to encourage stakeholders to collaboratively discuss the needs of teachers and review strategies to meet the 21st century technology skills of students. Implications for social change are that high school stakeholders who read this white paper may be prompted to discuss options to equip students to use 21st century skills to address personal, local, and world issues.</p>

<p> Academic Technology (AT) is a fast growing field that deserves attention given its dynamic nature and impact on educational practices. The field has evolved from information technology to concentrate on advancing technology to enhance teaching and learning. Yet, the field appears to be insufficiently mature or defined making it difficult for AT professionals to be categorized and characterized or to fully understand their changing roles. There is uncertainty as to the roles, responsibilities and positions of AT professionals both within and outside of the field. </p><p> Research in this area is minimal and highlights the need for strategic action to support the differentiation of instructional tasks and promote the influence of AT professionals (Kowch, 2013; Nworie, 2005). An online survey was conducted of 81 AT professionals to better understand the responsibilities and perceptions of their roles, concerns and influence. Statistical factor analysis identified five most cited responsibilities and compared the differences between what the professionals "do" and what they believed they "should" do. ANOVA was used to calculate gaps in performance based on the "do" and "should" responses. </p><p> The study findings concludes that the majority of AT professionals have influence on the AT decision making process at their institution of higher learning, AT decisions appear to be made based on technological rather than pedagogical considerations and AT professionals have an expanded responsibilities and obligations at their institution of higher learning. These findings are consistent with literature that indicates that AT professionals need to be in influential positions on campus and that decisions concerning technology for teaching and learning are not made by AT professionals who are unique in that they have knowledge and experience in both academia and technology (Kowch, 2005). </p><p> This study suggests more research is needed especially in the areas of AT in higher education and AT leadership. For example do universities have an AT strategic plan? If so, who is charged with implementation? Further research in these areas will enhance the field of AT and solidify the AT leadership position on campus.</p>

<p>Critical media literacy (Kellner & Share, 2005) may better equip children to interpret videogame content and to create games that are nonviolent and socially just. Videogames are growing in popularity in classrooms. Yet educators and parents have concerns about the violent and stereotypical content they include. An earlier study based on the curriculum Beyond Blame: Challenging Violence in the Media (Webb, Martin, Afifi, & Kraus, 2009) examined the value of a media awareness curriculum. In this mixed-method study, I explored the effectiveness of a critical media literacy program that incorporated collaboratively creating nonviolent or socially-just games in teaching fourth-grade students the factors of awareness of violence, marketing, and critical media literacy. Qualitative data collected from teacher reflection notes, student journals, Scratch projects, and interviews revealed the positive effects of the program. Quantitative data supported these conclusions. This highlights the need for schools to engage students in computer programming as a means to learn academics, while educating students in critical media literacy to better enable them to navigate wisely the media saturated world in which they live. In learning programming, students engage in collaborative work, their interactions helping them to collectively create meaning for the symbols they create. Set in a framework of critical media literacy and symbolic interactionism (Blumer, 1969; Mead, 1934), this study provides an innovative model for teaching computer programming and critical media literacy skills to students.

<p> Digital literacy is fast becoming a necessary skill for mediating life in the 21st century. Digital technologies, digital media, and digital devices have become ubiquitous and intrinsic in modern society and using one to interact with the others requires specific skills&mdash;digital literacies&mdash;be learned. The purpose of this research was to understand the extent to which Baby Boomers are digitally literate, the digital devices they understand and use, and the purposes for which they are using them. </p><p> Residents living in a specific group of age-restricted communities comprised of people 55 years of age and older were e-mailed requests to participate in an online survey. More than 8,200 homes received the invitations and 659 people agreed to participate. The survey consisted of 17 three-part, forced-choice questions and five demographic identifiers. To analyze the data, the researcher used SPSS and ran chi-square tests on each response comparing Older Boomers to Younger Boomers regarding specific digital activities in which they engaged, the device(s) they used, and the frequencies with which they engaged in those activities. </p><p> The results of this study indicate that the Baby Boomers in the study possess basic functional digital literacies. They use the Internet daily to read news, check weather, and look up recipes, directions, and medical information. While participation in the various activities was fairly even between both Boomer groups, Younger Boomers tend to send and receive text messages, bank online, pay bills online, search for recipes, save online bookmarks, visit social networks, read blogs, and take online classes more than Older Boomers. The majority of respondents were women, college educated, with annual household incomes of $75,000.00 or more. The most popular digital devices used were laptops, desktops, tablets, and smartphones, respectively and respondents averaged using three different digital devices while engaging in their digital activities. The trend is toward decreasing use of desktop and laptop computers and a corresponding increase in the use of tablets and smartphones.</p>

<p> Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become a hot topic in higher education and have undergone rapid growth. More than 800 MOOCs have been offered to the public from more than 200 of the most well known universities in the world, with millions of learners taking them. While many elite universities have developed MOOCs, their motivations have not been entirely clear. This qualitative case study research explores what three early adopter universities, Columbia University, Duke University, and Harvard University, hope to achieve by becoming involved and investing in MOOCs, how they are assessing progress toward goals, and what value proposition they seek as a return on their investment. The findings of this research suggest that the studied universities have several goals in common and a few that differ, and importantly, that several of their goals do not directly align with the public narrative around MOOCs in the press. In particular, while the goals of the studied universities do include expanded access to education, their goals may have even more to do with promoting teaching innovation and providing benefits for their residential education. None of the studied universities were focused on improvements to higher education completion challenges through pursuit of MOOC credit, or the use of MOOCs as a way to control higher education costs&mdash;both of which are major elements of the public dialogue on MOOCs. Other goals of the early adopters studied included providing more visibility for some of their educational programs and their faculty, and enabling more evidence-based education research. This study concludes that the value proposition for early adopter universities is the ability to simultaneously pursue the goal of improving on-campus teaching and learning while also promoting the university and its faculty and connecting through educational outreach with the public&mdash;all while showing leadership in an emerging higher education learning technology.</p>

<p> Remote access technologies enable students to investigate science by utilizing scientific tools and communicating in real-time with scientists and researchers with only a computer and an Internet connection. Because remote access technologies offer students unique learning experiences, for the first time in history students can become virtual researchers and collect and share scientific data. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that contribute to successful remote learning investigations, document students&rsquo; perceptions of ownership of data, science motivation, science identity, learning outcomes in conjunction with a remote investigation, and to document students&rsquo; perceptions of virtual presence during a remote investigation.</p><p> This study, conducted with high school students (<i>n</i> = 72), explored the impact of students&rsquo; perception of <i>ownership </i> of data during a remote investigation. A pretest-posttest control group design was used and students were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups: students able to collect their own insect to use during the remote investigation (<i>n</i> = 36) and students that did not collect their own insects to view during the remote investigation (<i>n</i> = 36).</p><p> The results of this study showed that students&rsquo; perception of <i> ownership of data</i> does not significantly change their perceptions of motivation to do science, science identity, and learning outcomes during a remote investigation. Students&rsquo; in the experimental group reported being less distracted during the remote investigation than students in the control group, whereas students in the control group reported controlling the technology was easier than the experimental group. The remote investigation positively influenced students&rsquo; learning outcomes and students&rsquo; perception of science identity. Exploratory factor analysis of all identified constructs in the remote investigation indicated that <i>Science Learning Drive</i> (students&rsquo; perception of their competence and performance in science and intrinsic motivation to do science), Environmental Presence (students&rsquo; perception of control of the remote technology, sensory and distraction factors in the learning environment, and relatedness to scientists), and <i>Inner Realism Presence</i> (students&rsquo; perceptions of how real is the remote program and being recognized as a science-oriented individual) are factors that contribute to a successful remote investigation. This study provided valuable information of students&rsquo; perceptions of motivation, science identity, and virtual presence during a remote investigation that can provide insight into remote learning environments.</p>

<p> The role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in higher education has increased in recent years, and most university administrators consider ICT important in effective teaching practices. While administrators encourage the use of ICT, many teachers do not use technology. Most studies regarding ICT have been concerned with the practices of full-time faculty. This is problematic, since adjunct faculty members are becoming a growing and influential presence on college campuses, and research suggests that factors unique to adjuncts may create barriers to ICT implementation. A review of the available literature indicates that the body of knowledge regarding adjunct faculty members' perceptions toward ICT implementation is limited. The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental study was to investigate the degree to which differences or variations in gender, teaching discipline, average number of courses taught per semester, and perceived barriers to ICT use are related to adjunct faculty members' reported ICT integration into teaching and perceptions of ICT use to improve teaching. Data were collected via an anonymous, Internet-based survey administered to a random sample (n = 186) of part-time faculty who were on the contact list of New Faculty Majority: The National Coalition for Adjunct and Contingency Equity. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted, one for each dependent variable. Statistically significant correlations were found between reported ICT integration into teaching and average number of courses taught per semester, (&beta; = .17, <i> t</i>(141) = 2.12, <i>p</i> = .04), as well as perceived barriers to ICT use (&beta; = -.22, <i>t</i>(141) = -2.72, <i>p</i> =.01). Statistically significant correlations also were found between perceptions of ICT use to improve teaching and perceived barriers to ICT use, (&beta; = .49, <i>t</i>(152) = 7.05, <i>p</i> =.00), as well as teaching discipline, (&beta; = .23, <i>t</i>(152) = 3.32, <i> p</i> = .00). Based on the results, it is recommended that institutions implement mentoring and training policies to encourage best practices in ICT implementation. To expand the results of the study, future research is recommended to replicate the study using a larger sample, compare perceptions of adjunct faculty members with full-time, and examine differences in low-level and high-level ICT use.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-06, Section: A, page: 2330. Adviser: Susan Noffke. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-142) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.