<p> Research has documented numerous benefits of parent involvement in children's education including increased attendance, increased test scores and better behavior. Access to increased and meaningful communication between home and school enhances parent involvement. The utilization of technology through the use of the Internet and e- mail for school to home communications is growing rapidly as an additional means of two-way communications between home and school. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the role of emerging technologies, specifically social media use by school principals and how its use affects communication between schools and parents. Data gathered from three principals, parents in their schools and actual social media communications were triangulated across these three perspectives as part of a case study analysis, using a convenience sample to further our understanding of the benefits and challenges of using social media tools to build home-school partnerships. </p><p> Findings suggest that school principals are mainly responsible for social media use at the school. Consistent, child-centered use of these tools has the opportunity to complement face-to-face, two-way communications between home and school, provided there is a relationship with the school to begin with. In identifying the communication needs of the school, both technology and non-technology related communications must be utilized as part of a "menu of offerings" based upon solicitation of technology and non-technology related tools used by a school's families. This differentiated home- school communication approach allows for more families to engage in two-way communications with the school. </p><p> Ultimately, the outcomes of the study may help lead to changes in family and community partnerships, leadership practices by principals, as well as teachers and parent groups expanding their use of social media tools to build a connected and transparent learning community. The insights included in this study may be used to support the development and implementation of a school or district's communication strategies and professional development plans for all stakeholders.</p>

<p> Online education has grown into a part of the educational market answering the demand for learning at the learner's choice of time and place. Inquiry skills such as observing, questioning, collecting data, and devising fair experiments are an essential element of 21st-century online science coursework. Virtual immersive worlds such as Second Life are being used as new frontiers in science education. There have been few studies looking specifically at science education in virtual worlds that foster inquiry skills. This quantitative quasi-experimental nonrandomized control group pretest and posttest study explored what affect a virtual world experience had on inquiry skills as measured by the TIPS (Test of Integrated Process Skills) and TIPS II (Integrated Process Skills Test II) instruments. Participants between the ages of 18 and 65 were recruited from educator mailing lists and Second Life discussion boards and then sorted into the experimental group, which received instructions to utilize several displays in Mendelian genetics at the Genome Island location within Second Life, or the control group, which received text-based PDF documents of the same genetics course content. All participants, in the form of avatars, were experienced Second Life residents to reduce any novelty effect. This study found a greater increase in inquiry skills in the experimental group interacting using a virtual world to learn science content (0.90 points) than a control group that is presented only with online text-based content (0.87 points). Using a mixed between-within ANOVA (analysis of variance), with an alpha level of 0.05, there was no significant interaction between the control or experimental groups and inquiry skills, F (1, 58) = .783, p = .380, partial eta squared = .013, at the specified .05 alpha level suggesting no significant difference as a result of the virtual world exercise. However, there is not enough evidence to state that there was no effect because there was a greater increase in scores for the group that experienced a virtual world exercise. This study adds to the increasing body of knowledge about virtual worlds and inquiry skills, particularly with adult learners.</p>

<p> Universitas Terbuka (UT), the Indonesia Open University and the 45^th state university in the country, is the only one that uses distance learning as its sole mode of delivery and instruction. Although UT has operated for 28 years, unlike face-to-face classroom-based education, distance education has not been considered as a fully legitimate delivery system in Indonesia. In the mindset of the people of Indonesia, "education" necessarily implies a conventional classroom environment; and, as a consequence, the relatively new format of distance learning does not register as "real education." Yet under the pressure of increased demand for higher education, the participation in distance learning programs at UT has been rapidly growing. </p><p> However, that popularity also poses a problem. Indonesian students have difficulty with distance formats given lack of familiarity with the requirements of independent study and a low level of current aptitude for reading on their own. UT has therefore developed tutorial programs to assist distance learning students with overcoming the problem and reviewing their material. Most are offered face-to-face but are only accessible to the minority of students living near centers where such instruction can be delivered. With the spread of internet access in the country, online tutoring programs have been established but have been little evaluated. This study was devoted to assessing the quality of implementation and effectiveness of online course tutoring for Bachelor's degree distance learning students enrolled in UT. </p><p> Results indicate that despite difficulties of administration, the program is relatively well implemented and in the majority of classes, online tutorial participants score better than classmates who do not participate in the tutorial on final exams. Overall, therefore, the online tutorial program appears to be performing a real service but to be in need of better specification, some modification of methods and closer quality control. A number of recommendations for greater effectiveness and better service to UT students are offered in the last section of the text.</p>

<p> This qualitative multi-case study explored the perceptions and beliefs of teachers of students in Grade 9 and 10, at a high school in south-central New Jersey, who taught traditional classroom courses that incorporated technology, regarding their lived experiences delivering homebound instruction for the same curriculum. Technology used in the classroom was compared to the use or lack of use of technology in the homebound setting. Similarities and differences were identified in instructional design, as well as teacher perceptions of efficiency and effectiveness for the student. The study revealed a disparity between the classroom instruction using technology and the homebound instructional setting. Five specific insights for leadership emerged from this study. The insights include (a) providing technology for the homebound instructor; (b) increase parental involvement in homebound instruction; (c) increase the amount of time for homebound instruction; (d) educate instructors in instructional technologies; and (e) to provide the homebound student with time management and organizational skills. These insights are helpful for recommending steps organizational leaders can take to increase the effectiveness of homebound instruction.</p>

The Internet has provided an ideal environment for engineering education. This thesis describes the development of a new problem generator used in the Engineering Design Tutor (EDT) system to provide multi-step problem generation capability. The EDT system allows the user to specify a set of design concepts from a specific domain, based on which a problem tree is generated. All the possible solution paths in the tree are searched and the most complete and correct path is automatically selected as the shortest path. Using the values obtained from a constraint satisfaction solution for the variables in the shortest path, and the templates provided for the problem description, the system allows the automatic generation of a set of problems all using the same shortest solution path.

This thesis presents a virtual reality system developed to support the training of astronauts as operators of the Mobile Servicing System (MSS) at the Canadian Space Agency. The objective of this system called Virtual Operations and Training Environment (VOTE), is to provide 3D visualization and simulation tools used by instructors to help astronauts understand MSS remote manipulator operations conducted in the context of the International Space Station assembly. The thesis first presents both telerobotics and virtual reality fields with accompanying literature survey followed by the description of the MSS hardware, operation and ground based simulator. A description of the design and details of the current implementation is followed by an evaluation of performance results and anticipated future work.

The ESOPE-VR virtual reality power substation operator training system incorporates advanced features such as a 3D video display, audio interpretation and feedback, sophisticated navigation and object manipulation interfaces, and an expert system to validate operations. When these human-computer interaction techniques are brought together, they offer the opportunity to learn interactively with the training environment, rather than providing a passive classroom-like visual or audio training experience. Features such as the automatic creation of a 3D model substation derived from single-line diagrams, and the use of a distributed network methodology have been developed to enhance the flexibility of ESOPE-VR. / Alternate manipulation devices such as the 2D mouse, Logitech 6D flying mouse, and the Powerglove all have unique characteristics that can enhance the realism of the user interactions. This thesis investigates the effectiveness of these devices in providing an interaction interface to the ESOPE-VR virtual reality operator training system. These manipulation devices are analyzed and the development of accompanying manipulation strategies are described. Experimental results are presented and discussed.

<p> This study is aimed at analyzing how contemporary urban Aymara youth hip hoppers and bloggers are creating their identities and are producing discourses in texts and lyrics to contest racist and colonial discourses. The research is situated in Bolivia, which is currently engaged in a cultural and political revolution supported by Indigenous movements. Theoretically the study is framed by a multi-perspective conceptual framework based on subaltern studies, coloniality of power, coloniality of knowledge, interculturality and decolonial theory. Aymara young people illustrate the possibility of preserving Indigenous identities, language, and knowledge while maximizing the benefits of urban society. This challenges the colonial ideology that has essentialized the rural origin of Indigenous identities. Moreover, this research argues that the health of Indigenous languages is interconnected with the health of the self-esteem of Indigenous people. Additionally, this study provides information about the relation of youth to the power of oral tradition, language policies, and the use of technology.</p>

<p> When applied to mathematics education, manipulatives help students to visualize mathematical concepts and apply them to everyday situations. Interest in mathematics instruction has increased dramatically over the past two decades with the introduction of virtual manipulatives, as opposed to the concrete manipulatives that have been employed for centuries. This quasi-experimental study proposed to explain the relationship between concrete and virtual manipulatives when used in a seventh-grade mathematics classroom. Using students' mathematics composite scores on standardized and teacher-created assessments, it compared the effectiveness of using concrete manipulatives alone versus using a combination of concrete and virtual manipulatives. The foundational theory of the study is that when students can visualize a mathematical concept in action, a deeper level of understanding occurs. </p><p> The results of this mixed methods study consisting of 44 seventh-grade students (22 in each group) indicated that coupling concrete manipulatives with virtual manipulatives led to a measureable change in mathematics composite scores. One recommendation is that mathematics educators incorporate both concrete manipulatives and virtual manipulatives into their mathematics curriculum. As the results of this year-long study indicated, the combination of these two types of manipulatives enabled the students in this group to accomplish a measureable change in tested mathematical ability. Educators need to offer their students lessons that are authentic and interesting in order to hold students' attention as they attempt to grasp the concepts. The different options also provide students with the needed differentiated instruction to suit their varied learning styles.</p>

The Internet's growing acceptance as a key medium to educate people is the main focus of this thesis. Although distance education has been a popular learning method since the end of the 19th Century, never before has technology made it so easy to disseminate knowledge by linking different media formats---e.g. text, sound, video. In fact, this huge library accessed by a universal interface, is one of the key contributions that the Internet and the World-Wide Web have brought to the learning process. / The main goal of this thesis is to encourage instructors to create and deliver courses using the Internet and, most of all, to show that the process can be simple and effective. In order to support this study, four major Course Management tools are presented and analyzed: Pathway by Solis-Macromedia, LearningSpace by Lotus, WebCT by The University of British Columbia, and Virtual-U by Simon Fraser University. / As a result of this thesis, a Grades Application was developed using the Internet protocol. This application is an uncomplicated, yet effective solution for using the Web to manage, calculate, and view students' marks. With the open architecture of the Web and standard programming languages such as JavaScript and Perl, the system will execute in most computers available in universities around the world.