This case study, executed in school network driven by a private foundation for underprivileged children in Cambodia, provides a perspective from a unique situation of technology enablement in an environment with a predominantly instructivist teaching tradition.   The said environment is strongly influenced by private sector donors with strong constructivist traditions and expectations. The environment is thus unique in the sense that a relatively asset rich environment, with expectations of 21st century pedagogical skills, is transported into an asset poor environment that was/is strongly rooted in instructivism. The case study thus give a perspective on if technology itself is a possible solution for better teacher education/educational delivery, or if the underlying pedagogy first needs to be evolved to allow web-based platforms and tools to be fully leveraged.     In the specific environment being studies, teacher in-service training plays a larger role than formal teacher qualifications, and peer-to-peer, in-person, learning is the cornerstone of development (offline connectivism). Rather than changing the way the teachers learn, there should be opportunity in further strengthening the current practices of communities. Connectivist MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) do provide the community engagement and together with technology mediated professional learning platforms there should be opportunity to provide enhanced support for teachers’ education.   The two main hurdles to overcome, beyond functioning technology assets and web access, are teachers own comfort levels with technology platforms, as well as provision of platforms that support local language options. The comfort level with technology is important to address as, assuming technology and web access works, the openness and lack of control in a web environment is in direct contradiction to instructivist teaching. Unlocking the potential of the web requires that teachers are comfortable with the web itself and also truly support inquiry based learning over didactic teaching, and that they have the skills to help children navigate the openness of the web.   As economies shift towards becoming knowledge societies, collaborative problem-solving and navigation to knowledge are skills of increasing in importance, relative static knowledge recall that was previously viewed as value adding. This case study contributes to pedagogical theory and in particularly gives one more perspective on the shift from instructivist to constructivist teaching as a pre-requisite for capturing the power of the internet, and the shift to leveraging networks in a connectivist pedagogical approach. This case study also calls out the need for evolved frameworks to better describe technology mediated learning in least developing country environments. The case study also provides contribution to practice to technology mediated teacher education as it specifically addresses some of the opportunities in strengthening the support to teacher education in least developed countries.

Online communities of practice (CoPs) provide social spaces for people to connect, learn, and engage with one another around shared interests and passions. CoPs are innovatively employed within industry and education for their inherent knowledge management characteristics and as a means of improving professional practice. Measuring the success of a CoP is a challenge researchers are examining through various strategies. Recent literature supports measuring community effectiveness through the perceptions of its members; however, evaluating a community by means of member perception introduces complicating factors from outside the community. In order to gain insight into the importance of external factors, this quantitative study examined the influence of factors in the professional lives of educators on their perceptions of their CoP experience. Through an empirical examination of CoPs employed to connect educators and advance their professional learning, canonical correlation analysis was used to examine correlations between factors believed to be influential on the experiences of community members.

This mixed method study investigated K-6 teacher candidates' beliefs about informal science instruction prior to and after their experiences in a 15-week science methods course and in comparison to a non-intervention group. The study is predicated by the literature that supports the extent to which teachers' beliefs influence their instructional practices. The intervention integrated the six strands of learning science in informal science education (NRC, 2009) and exposed candidates to out-of-school-time environments (NRC, 2010). Participants included 17 candidates in the intervention and 75 in the comparison group. All were undergraduate K-6 teacher candidates at one university enrolled in different sections of a required science methods course. All the participants completed the Beliefs about Science Teaching (BAT) survey. Reflective journals, drawings, interviews, and microteaching protocols were collected from participants in the intervention. There was no statistically significant difference in pre or post BAT scores of the two groups; However, there was a statistically significant interaction effect for the intervention group over time. Analysis of the qualitative data revealed that the intervention candidates displayed awareness of each of the six strands of learning science in informal environments and commitment to out-of-school-time learning of science. This study supports current reform efforts favoring integration of informal science instructional strategies in science methods courses of elementary teacher education programs.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:56:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luciane Regina Vecchio.pdf: 2006375 bytes, checksum: 38fd580f36d3a291c92a565a5a79935e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-05-30 / This work, in view of the strong presence and growing ICT - Information & Communication Technologies - in society, aimed to seek the representations of students from years 8 and 9 of elementary school on Computers in Education. Such representations are seen as an important element to be considered by schools that seek to converge their core educational goals with the new characteristics and interests of this new generation towards pedagogical innovation using ICT. This research focuses on research and the discourse of these students based on the theory of social representations. Data collection was performed in three steps, using three tools: spreadsheet (with four open questions and twenty-one closed), virtual discussion forum (three open questions) and digital text document (three open questions). Content analysis was performed through the creation of categories, followed by preliminary analysis that based summaries of each step, which shaped the social representations of the students. Finally, analysis of students' social representations on Computers in Education could understand the scale assume that ICT in the school context and present the Computers in Education as a bridge, anchored in the desire for social inclusion and educational innovation / A presente dissertação, tendo em vista a presença marcante e crescente das TIC Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação na sociedade, teve como objetivo buscar as representações sociais de alunos de 8ºs e 9ºs anos do Ensino Fundamental sobre a Informática Educativa na escola. Tais representações são compreendidas como um elemento importante a ser considerado pelas escolas que buscam convergir seus objetivos pedagógicos essenciais com as novas características e interesses desta nova geração rumo à Inovação Pedagógica com o uso das TIC. A presente pesquisa tem como foco de investigação o discurso desses alunos e fundamenta-se na teoria das Representações Sociais. A coleta de dados foi realizada em três etapas, por meio de três instrumentos: planilha eletrônica (com quatro questões abertas e vinte e uma fechadas), fórum de discussão virtual (três questões abertas) e documento de texto digital (três questões abertas). A análise de conteúdo foi realizada por meio da criação de categorias, seguidas de análises preliminares que embasaram as sínteses de cada etapa, as quais configuraram as representações sociais dos alunos. Por fim, a análise das representações sociais dos alunos sobre a Informática Educativa na escola permitiu compreender a dimensão que as TIC assumem no contexto escolar e apresentam a Informática Educativa como uma ponte, ancorados no desejo de inclusão social e inovação pedagógica

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T13:10:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Karin Cristina de Camargo Oliveira.pdf: 1918051 bytes, checksum: b44949ca1968e77d5aacc408fa18930a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-10 / Children´s aged 0-2 attendance the growing and stature are considered a challenge for many professional nurses working in health service station but also in family health service station. There is a set of inter-ministerial actions that monitoring children aged 0-2 as priority attention, cause the vulnerability of the human being in this season of life. The knowledge and the autonomy of nurses to follow in nursing consultations of children aged 0-2 is very necessary because this is the season most important to the neurological development of the child. The nurse must have a holistic and focused look in the family to promote monitoring and consequent child's healthy growth 0-2 years seeking their unabridged care. The use of software in the specific work of nursing teaching allows self-directed study respecting each individual is learning time, and serve as a permanent educational tool for several professionals. The software was developed using Flash® multimedia, which produces images and animations in vector language, they are compacted files able to webcast or optical and magnetic media. Researcher authored the drawings used. 19 students from 3rd year of nursing college Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences of the Catholic University of Sao Paulo and an information technology specialist participated in the research. Students using the assessment instruments pre-test and post-test about their knowledge carried out the didactic software evaluation through. An instrument was used to assess their perception as to the applicability, suitability and interaction of educational software, containing four dimensions with Likert scale. The results of perception instrument illustrated good acceptance of developed digital tool by the students. The assessment instruments pre-test and post-test demonstrated cognitive gain to 18 participants, the results of perception instrument illustrated good acceptance of developed digital tool, because the minimum score obtained by size was 0.79. In the open field, hereof all comments regarding the tool were rated positive. It concluded the software had good adhesion by the research participants like a teaching tool on the children´s aged 0-2 growing and stature. It is a continuing education alternative for students and nursing professionals who will support and reference for child nursing consultation in this age group / O acompanhamento do crescimento e desenvolvimento da criança de 0 a 2 anos é considerado um desafio para muitos profissionais enfermeiros que atuam nas unidades básicas de saúde como também nas unidades saúde da família. Existe um conjunto de ações interministeriais que tornam o acompanhamento das crianças na faixa etária de 0 a 2 anos prioritária devido à vulnerabilidade do ser humano nesta fase da vida. A faixa etária de 0 a 2 anos é a mais importante do desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor da criança sendo necessário o conhecimento e a autonomia do enfermeiro para acompanhamento nas consultas de enfermagem. Buscando a integralidade do cuidado, o enfermeiro deve ter um olhar holístico e centrado na família para promover o acompanhamento e consequente crescimento saudável da criança. O uso de softwares no ensino da enfermagem permite o estudo autodirigido respeitando o tempo de aprendizagem de cada indivíduo, além de servir de ferramenta de educação permanente para os profissionais. Este estudo teve como objetivos elaborar um software sobre o crescimento e desenvolvimento da criança de 0 a 2 anos, com o uso de desenhos, animações, esquemas, vídeos e sons que simulam a consulta de enfermagem e ilustram características importantes à atuação do enfermeiro nesta faixa etária do ser humano, e avaliá-lo enquanto ferramenta de ensino e educação permanente para enfermeiros. O software foi desenvolvido com o uso do autor de multimídia Flash® que elabora imagens e animações em linguagem vetorial, são arquivos compactos capazes de transmissão pela Web ou mídias ópticas e magnéticas; os desenhos utilizados foram de autoria da pesquisadora. Participaram do estudo 19 estudantes do 3º ano da graduação em enfermagem da Faculdade de Ciências Médicas e da Saúde da Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo e um especialista em Tecnologia de Informação que efetuou a avaliação técnica da ferramenta desenvolvida. A avaliação didática do software foi realizada por meio de seu uso pelos estudantes utilizando-se pré e pós-teste de conhecimentos. Foi aplicado um instrumento para avaliar a percepção dos mesmos quanto a aplicabilidade, adequabilidade e interação do software educacional, contendo 4 dimensões com escala tipo Likert. Os resultados mostraram que o software foi concluído e bem avaliado pelos participantes. Os instrumentos de avaliação (pré-teste e pós-teste) demonstraram ganho cognitivo para 18 respondentes; os resultados do instrumento de percepção ilustraram boa aceitação da ferramenta digital desenvolvida, pois a pontuação mínima obtida por dimensão foi 0,79. No campo aberto deste instrumento todos os comentários a respeito da ferramenta avaliada foram positivos. Concluiu-se que o software teve boa adesão pelos participantes da pesquisa enquanto ferramenta de ensino sobre o crescimento e desenvolvimento da criança de 0 a 2 anos. Trata-se de uma alternativa de educação permanente para alunos e profissionais da área da enfermagem que servirá de apoio e referência para a consulta de enfermagem da criança nesta faixa etária

Novice teachers do not have sufficient opportunities to troubleshoot real-world teaching situations prior to having their own classrooms. Antiquated professional development (PD) models lack the collaboration element that provides authentic application of concepts. This qualitative case study was conducted to fill a gap in research on novice teachers' voluntary participation in an online community of practice. The study explored how the situated learning in this virtual community addressed the cognitive and social needs of early career teachers as they made the theory to practice connections. The community of practice framework and the social learning theories supported socialization as essential in early career teachers' growth. Research questions in the study examined five teachers' beliefs about collaboration- in promoting community engagement, the influence of voluntary participation on the quality of teacher engagement, and teachers' perceptions of the use of Web 2.0 technology to build community. A priori codes were created using the theoretical frame and research questions to guide the analysis of audio, transcriptions, observations, and other coded artifacts to find themes and patterns promoting internal validity. Findings revealed teachers' belief in collaboration impacted their level of engagement virtually. While voluntary participation motivates teacher participation, it does not guarantee high quality engagement without accountability. Since attrition is a continual threat to the teaching workforce, study results validate recommending the use of virtual resources to facilitate CoPs to remedy the mentoring and coaching void for early career teachers. Also, innovative use of Web 2.0 tools should be used to expose new teachers to diverse experiences that bridge theory to practice gaps and encourage teacher leadership, which promotes retention.

This research study investigated associations between online community college students' personal characteristics and experiences in online courses (n = 123). Specifically, students' personalities and cognitive styles were examined alongside the perceived quality and outcomes of collaboration. Negative correlations were found between the conscientiousness personality style and both the quality of collaboration (p = .09) and the outcome of collaboration (p = .05). This finding indicates that conscientious students who, according to the literature tend to have higher academic achievement than other students, perceive negative experiences in online collaborative environments. Conversely, a positive correlation was discovered between the extraversion personality type and the perceived outcomes of collaboration (p = .01). Thus, students with a strongly extraverted personality tend to perceive that they benefits from collaborative learning. Approximately 11% of the variance in the collaborative experience was explained by the combined personal characteristics. The reported frequency of collaboration was positively correlated with both the quality (p < .01) and the outcomes of collaboration (p < .01). While not generalizable, these results suggest that not all students perceive benefits from online collaborative learning. It may be worthwhile to teach students traits associated with the extraversion type like flexibility which is important for collaborative learning. Also, teaching students to adopt traits associated with conscientiousness that improve academic achievement like self-regulation may help improve perceptions of collaborative experiences.

The main purpose of the study was to design, develop, deliver and evaluate a new distance web design course for the needs of students in a vocational higher education institution. Proactive action research was used as a framework during the research process. This research focused on the analysis of the existing face-to-face course to mitigate its problems in the new design. Then, accomplishments and insufficiencies of the new design in the new context were investigated. For this study, data were collected in two different semesters, in a vocational higher education institution. In the first semester, an existing course was investigated to see the problems and the needs. The results revealed that there were problems associated with &ldquo / motivational&rdquo / , &ldquo / interactional&rdquo / , &ldquo / instructional activities&rdquo / , &ldquo / support materials&rdquo / , &ldquo / up-to-date content&rdquo / , &ldquo / technologic&rdquo / , and &ldquo / non-technologic&rdquo / aspects of the existing course. Before the delivery of the new distance course in the second semester, it was completely redesigned with the new characteristics to mitigate some of the predetermined problems of the existing course. In this new structure, an instructor from Ankara gave the course via smart class to this vocational institution located in another city. In the second semester, data were collected to understand what the accomplishments of the new course, and what aspects of the new course needed to be modified. To triangulate qualitative findings, two questionnaire were conducted to see the students&rsquo / attitude towards web-based instruction and students&rsquo / perceptions about learning environment. With the findings of these data collection procedures, the accomplishments of the new design can be categorized in five main headings. These are &ldquo / working with an experienced instructor&rdquo / , &ldquo / extended learning opportunities&rdquo / , &ldquo / increased future expectations of students&rdquo / , &ldquo / fulfilled software requirements&rdquo / , and &ldquo / applicability of a distance vocational course&rdquo / . On the other hand, in the new structure of the course, new problems emerged such as &ldquo / course delivery problems&rdquo / and &ldquo / students&rsquo / readiness&rdquo / , because technology use in education sometimes comes with its unique problems including the solutions. Those accomplishments and insufficiencies points of the new design would be helpful in the new distance course design projects.

Today, the impact of information technologies on education field is ever more clarified with the integration of new tools and methods to the education. Education has been becoming away from the traditional classroom environment through virtual environment. Besides education of theoretical disciplines, education of practice based disciplines, like design related disciplines are moving toward virtual environments. One of these is Industrial Design (ID) education which also has made the transition to the virtual world. This thesis aims to explore and scrutinize the latest forms of ID education, especially the online distance ID education. In order to comprehend the technological progress of ID education and its possible future, an overview of the origins and an evaluation of the current state of distance online ID education are made. By this study, it is expected to shed light to the design educators and the educational systems&rsquo / developers, for designing these environments. At the end of this research, it is concluded that it is not possible to imagine a future of ID education without technology integration. However, it would be better to apply both technological and traditional methods. In fact, the key people in the development of these educational systems and tools would be the designers themselves.

This study examined the integration of Small Basic as a new technology in computer courses of elementary schools in Turkey and investigated the perceptions of students and teachers of elementary school about the use of Small Basic in their computer courses in terms of its effects on their perceived motivation, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Also, information from teachers about advantages and disadvantages of this technology, and the suggestions of teachers about the use of this technology and the content was gathered. A case study was conducted in the form of an action research / that is, this study used components of case study by action research. The data were collected from 4th and 5th grade students of Plevene Elementary School by using a questionnaire. Also, interviews were conducted with the teachers. Descriptive statistics, frequency distributions and descriptive analysis methods were used to analyze the results. The findings of the study showed that Small Basic is accepted by students and all teachers as a new technology. Also, students and teachers stated that using this technology affected students&#039 / perceived motivation towards computer courses positively. Moreover, the students and the teachers perceived that Small Basic is a useful and easy to use technology. Moreover, it was stated that the students and the teachers are satisfied with advantages of the use of this new technology in their learning environment.