<p> There are three hypotheses for this research: 1. High school mathematics students in urban public schools, who are provided interactive technology resources during normal course work, will experience a multiplier effect of enhanced learning in mathematics. They will have an increase in positive dispositions indicative of their identity development as competent doers of math. 2. Through focusing on solving problems that relate to the life-world of students, students will experience an increase in the levels of solidarity with participants of the course. This will have a positive impact of the learning experiences and achievement of students. 3. Students will develop increased value of using their developing competencies in math to model and analyze issues relevant to their communities.</p><p> The purpose of this research is to study effective utilization of interactive technologies and math computer programs in public high school mathematics classes. The interactive technologies used in classes are to support graphical, tabluar, verbal and analytical representations of the mathematics in hopes of increasing the learning potential and math fluency of students. The research will serve as a basis for ongoing development of teaching practices that improve student achievement in mathematics. </p><p> The research design is an interpretive / phenomenological study of evolving attitudes and practices of students as they are engaged with math problem solving. Students will not be asked to produce any data solely for the purposes of the research. All activities that students do, and all data that will inform the research, will emerge from best teaching practices, which are supported by the school principal and have been formally approved by the school board. All methods and strategies employed in this study are ones I have used, over the past six years, in my role as a highly qualified math teacher in Newark public schools. No changes in what happens will occur because of this dissertation study. </p><p> The research design is an interpretive / phenomenological study of evolving attitudes and practices of students as they are engaged with math problem solving. Students will not be asked to produce any data solely for the purposes of the research. All activities that students do, and all data that will inform the research, will emerge from best teaching practices, which are supported by the school principal and have been formally approved by the school board. All methods and strategies employed in this study are ones I have used, over the past six years, in my role as a highly qualified math teacher in Newark public schools. No changes in what happens will occur because of this dissertation study. </p><p> Not all teachers are implementing the best practices that this study focuses on. I want to shed light on these practices and show how they can become more common and done in a more collaborative way. Students can opt not to use technologies at all, but it is not likely they would want to since doing so would slow down their progress. Teachers, however, are required to teach math with using various technologies, such as in an advanced graphing calculator or an interactive smart board. This is a case of, students are using technology in classes, gaining advantages with this technology use, and I would just like to analyze it write about my findings in my dissertation. Please see the school issued student calculator contract included with this application. It shows that math teachers are required to teach with school approved technologies, in this case a newer handheld graphing calculator), but that students may opt not to use it. Furthermore, many teachers don't yet know how to use these newer school approved technologies and must be shown the methods and benefits.</p>

<p>The Personalized Integrated Educational System (PIES) design theory is a design recommendation regarding the function and features of Learning Managements Systems (LMS) that can support the information-age learner-centered paradigm of education. The purpose of this study was to improve the proposed functions and features of the PIES design theory such that it is compatible with the technological needs of the information-age, learner-centered paradigm of education. Four schools or educational systems that embodied all or some of the characteristics of the learner-centered, information-age paradigm were selected through a purposeful, theoretical sampling process. They were selected based on how useful they would be in extending and improving the design recommendations for PIES and the extent to which the naturalistic cases had transitioned into the learner-centered, information-age paradigm of education. Research participants within these schools were chosen through a non-probability sampling method. Twenty teachers agreed to participate and were interviewed and observed. Data collected in the form of interview transcripts and observation notes were analyzed to reveal functions and features that could be added and removed from the PIES design theory. Data were analyzed to also reveal factors that encouraged/discouraged technology use, implementation, and policy. </p>

<p> In this dissertation, I describe a study examining institutional policy documents for statements related to the implementation of openness. The purposes of this study were to explore the current state of policies related to the implementation of openness in higher education, and to provide guiding recommendations to higher education institutions looking to address the issue of implementation of openness in their own policies. Policy plays a critical role in the implementation of innovations such as openness. The policy environment is complex and potentially confusing. Technology enables the proliferation of openness, and higher education institutions are now facing a number of challenges associated with the implementation of openness. Not much is known about the stance of higher education or the state of its response to openness. As a result, there was not much guidance available for institutions looking to address the implementation of openness in their institutions. </p><p> This dissertation involved a descriptive study that follows summative content analysis methodology. The research design was a qualitative dominant sequential mixed methods model, meaning that I focused primarily on the qualitative elements of the study and provided limited descriptive quantitative analysis derived from the qualitative data. </p><p> Five major areas of openness affecting higher education institutions were drawn from the literature. These are Open Access Research, Open Content, Open Teaching and Learning, Open Source Software, and Other, less pronounced, areas of openness. I searched the Faculty Handbooks, Strategic Plans, and Technology Plans of a stratified random sample of research-intensive higher education institutions for keywords related to the major areas of openness. I then evaluated the resulting statements based on the directness with which they address openness and on their policy role as enabler, barrier, or neutral toward the implementation of openness. </p><p> I provided 45 idealized policy statements as well as the best-found policy statements from the study. These statements were intended to be used as recommendations for guiding institutions in crafting their own policy statements to address openness through policy. The idealized statements were intended to fit in the three policy documents (Faculty Handbook, Strategic Plan, Technology Plan), serve each policy role (enabler, barrier, and neutral), and address area of openness (Open Access, Open Content, Open Source Software, Open Teaching and Learning, and Other Areas of Openness). Five major findings emerged from the study. These include the realization that openness is really a human-centered approach, and the discovery that openness is not commonly addressed in higher education policies. Additionally, I found that there was wide variance in how institutions actually address openness, that Open Access is addressed more than other areas in policy, and that content analysis is an effective method for obtaining information related to higher education policies. I provided my reflections and conclusions on the study in Chapter Five.</p>

<p> Few studies have investigated how university students in the United States or in other countries use smartphone technologies to support their learning. Much of the current research has investigated the general use mobile devices such as smartphones rather than identifying the specific applications used by university students to support their learning. In addition, there is a lack of research investigating the influence of institution, gender and culture on university students' use of smartphones to supporting their learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate how US university students and university students from Saudi Arabia use smartphone for learning in the undergraduate teacher education courses. A total of 249 undergraduate teacher education students from Montana State University and 320 undergraduate students from King Kahlid University, Saudi Arabia were surveyed to assess their use of smartphone applications to support their learning. Results from the 43 item smartphone survey found that MSU students reported using their smartphones "sometime to often" during class and outside of classroom setting while KKU students on the other hand reported using smartphones "Never or Rarely" during class or outside of class. The most frequent use of smartphones by MSU students reported was for communicating and collaborating with others by texting or through email. The most frequent uses of smartphones reported by KKU students during and outside of class were for "communicating with others by texting and "accessing course information". Although MSU and KKU students differed significantly on some of the items assessing smartphone use in and outside of the classroom, the differences were very small in magnitude. Both MSU and KKU students reported that they "never or rarely" observed others using their smartphones to dishonestly to complete assignments or during quizzes and exams. Results from this study indicate that smartphone applications are under utilized as a learning tool in higher education. As university students continue to have greater access to mobile devices, university faculty should consider ways to develop courses that are accessible by smartphones and other mobile devices to increase student learning opportunities.</p>

<p> Increasingly, educational reform efforts are turning towards data-driven decision making strategies to help teachers improve instruction through skills-based instruction/content that is both measurable and aligned to common rigorous standards, such as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Examining the impact of a formative online assessment system on a summative measurement of student achievement may provide evidence that data-driven instructional platforms can impact student achievement and learning outcomes. Guided by the theoretical frameworks of Vygotsky and Dewey, along with the concepts of multiple intelligence, constructivism, and mastery learning, this study examined the relationship between student scores from an online formative assessment administered quarterly and an end-of-year summative evaluation. A stepwise multiple regression analyzed the predictive power of the iReady formative assessment program towards archived SAT-10 reading and mathematics data among Grades 1-4 students, before and after the iReady program was implemented (<i>N</i> = 339). The results showed a significant relationship between the iReady program and SAT-10, explaining 11.6% of the variance in SAT-10 scores. The study's intended audience is educators, school districts, and policy makers who are using the achievement data produced by formative assessments to improve results on measures of academic achievement, leading to positive social change.</p>

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Curriculum & Instruction / Margaret Gail Shroyer / Compared to other nations, fewer American students are pursuing and completing degrees within the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. For the United States to remain competitive, the development of novel instructional techniques designed to reach students who might otherwise be lost from these majors is imperative. This study examined the use of teacher designed multimedia within an introductory STEM course. Quantitative methods were used in a real classroom setting to examine the relationship between the use of multimedia and the amount of information students comprehended and retained when learning photosynthesis. Also, the relationship between the use of multimedia and the learning gains of female students within introductory STEM courses was examined, as their participation within the STEM fields has historically been low. Qualitative methods were employed to discern which multimedia features students and instructors found the most beneficial regarding the presentation of complex and abstract scientific concepts. Using a quasi-experimental, design-based research approach, it was determined that the use of simple animations and corresponding narration increased student learning gains compared to the use of static pictures and text. This finding aligned well with theories regarding multimedia learning and its use of dual coding for reducing cognitive load. The value of multimedia for learning gains was greatest for females with lower prior knowledge levels, as defined by performance on a pre-test. However male students with low prior knowledge benefited, although not to the same degree as females. In agreement with the fundamentals of constructivism, this finding supported the idea that basic schema construction is paramount for increasing comprehension. Results from the qualitative portion of the study indicated that students prefer multimedia over static text and pictures because: 1. Complex processes can unfold in motion while being described verbally 2. Schema construction is guided by a trusted source, and 3. Small chunks of information can be presented yet tied together in a larger sequence.

This study examines the ways in which staff of communication units in agricultural extension agencies in Malaysia select communication media for the transfer of knowledge from the agencies to their target audiences. As noted in a number of media selection models, several elements would need to be considered when choosing the most appropriate media for a particular communication activity. / Two methods of data collection were employed. First, heads of the communication units were interviewed in order to gather background information about the units. Second, the units' staff-members were asked to respond to a self-administered questionnaire that would generate data to answer the research questions. Mostly closed-ended questions and ratings of items for frequency and applicability on a scale were employed in soliciting answers from the respondents. Ninety-five staff-members from eleven agricultural extension agencies responded to the questionnaire. / Results of this study reveal differences among agricultural extension agencies regarding their methods of selecting the most appropriate media for knowledge transfer activities. However, most of the staff-members of the communication units agree that the two most important elements to be considered in media selection are audience characteristics and the purpose of the communication activity. / An overwhelming majority of staff-members indicated that they preferred media selection to be conducted in four or fewer steps, beginning with audience identification and followed in order by knowing the type of information, knowing the purpose of the communication activity, and knowing the media attributes. With regard to the type of media considered by staff-members to be most appropriate for knowledge transfer, this study finds that the actual objects are thought to be best, followed by media that convey reality with a high degree of fidelity. / Based on the findings of this study, it seems that there is a need to develop a new set of guidelines for media selection in order to better facilitate information and knowledge transfer processes in the nonformal education sector. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2369. / Major Professor: John K. Mayo. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

While technologies such as videoconferencing have become commonplace in industry and some levels of education, higher education has been much slower to adopt such technologies despite pressures to become more productive and to serve larger and more dispersed constituencies. / Much of the research in the field has focussed on effectiveness, teaching methods, and student response to mediated instruction. Little has been done to explore the diffusion of such technologies in higher education. / The present study employed various participatory methodologies and the diffusion of innovations theoretical framework, to study Florida State University's efforts to adopt digital compressed video - interactive. The perceptions of the three primary potential adopter groups (i.e. administrators, instructors and students) were measured relative to the tenets of diffusion theory. Findings indicate that perceptions differ substantially between administrators and faculty regarding the need for instructional television and faculty motivation to adopt. While administrators and faculty articulated the macro-level advantages of interactive video (e.g. efficient delivery of classes, cost savings), faculty participation was not forthcoming. Instead, the "self interest" of the academic unit or individual adopter proved a stronger motivator. The viability of the academic unit proved to be a strong motivator while the absence of faculty incentives presented a barrier to widespread adoption. Other findings indicated an absence of effective change agentry and communication from project initiators, contributed to the slow rate of faculty adoption. Students, in general, were pleased to have access to additional instruction, despite negative opinions about certain aspects of the technology (e.g. problems with audio transmission). / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-12, Section: A, page: 4294. / Major Professors: C. Edward Wotring; John K. Mayo. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects on achievement of: (1) instructional control strategies, (2) prior knowledge, and (3) cognitive style in computer-based instruction. Also, this study attempts to find an optimal type of instructional control strategy based upon students' achievement and learning time. The contents of the nine lessons selected for this study are the multiplication facts. This type of computer-based instruction is basically composed of drill and practice programs. These computer-based instruction drill and practice lesson programs are developed for IBM compatible computers. To assess field independence and field dependence, the Children's Embedded Figures Test (CEFT) is employed. This CEFT developed as an instrument to identify the field independent and field dependent 7 to 12 year old students. The student population involved in this investigation comes from the Dong-Sung Private Elementary School located in Pusan, Korea. One hundred sixty-six second and third grade students were selected for this study during the second semester of the 1993 school year. The basic experimental design is 3 (program control, learner control, and learner control with advisement) x 2 (high and low prior knowledge) x 2 (field independence and field dependence). The dependent variable are the achievement score on the posttest and the time that students actually spend completing the computer-based lesson. The results show types of instructional control strategies interact with levels of prior knowledge and types of cognitive styles. This study suggests that instructional control strategies would be used differently based on students' aptitudes; also, instructional design should be considered with time on task. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-11, Section: A, page: 4069. / Major Professor: Robert M. Morgan. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

Phonological awareness is "the ability to phonologically segment, analyze, and synthesize the speech stream (p. 552)." The present study evaluated the effectiveness of two computer programs, Daisy Quest and Daisy's Dilemma, to provide phonological awareness training to poor readers. / Students from two local elementary schools participated in the experiment. 54 subjects were selected to participate in the study. These students were administered a series of pretests that assessed a variety of word reading skills, phonological awareness ability, and their general verbal ability. Subsequently, children were grouped into triplets on the basis of the word identification scores and then randomly assigned to one of three condition: (1) phonological awareness training (DQ), (2) phonological decoding (HH), and (3) computer control (C). Training was provided for approximately 25 minutes a day over the course of seven weeks. / A series of multivariate analyses of covariance were carried out to determine if there were mean differences in children's post test phonological awareness ability. Significant improvement was noted on three of the five measures of phonological awareness for those children receiving the phonological awareness training. More importantly, the children receiving the phonological awareness training made significant improvement in their ability to read real words. / It was concluded that both computer programs were successful in enhancing the phonological awareness skills of poor readers. In addition, the improvements in phonological awareness directly impacted the word identification skills of children who were struggling in their efforts learning to read. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-12, Section: A, page: 4388. / Major Professor: Joseph K. Torgesen. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.