Public education has been in a recession many years longer than our economy and unless we make some attempt to break from the past the outlook for public education in the state of Massachusetts looks bleak. This study discusses the status of experienced teachers working in public schools in ten communities in Massachusetts. Using the telephone interview survey the research shows a lack of technological skills among the participants and demonstrates a definite need for retooling the seasoned teacher. Public schools do many things well but very often we find our school systems short on finances and short on long-range planning. This is especially true in the areas of staff development. There are still many educators who are still professing that our traditional teaching methods are adequate to address the needs of today's student. The survey relates the responses of one hundred teachers regarding their knowledge and expertise in the use of computers and the use of computers in education. Retooling the experienced teacher is essential to the success of our public schools. Among the towns surveyed all ten of the communities reported that seventy-five to eighty percent of their teaching staffs are on the maximum salary step. The subjects of this study ranged from twenty years of experience to thirty-four years. The literature review indicated that very little research has been conducted around the topic of teacher training in technology. Most of the literature and research has been dedicated to the promotion of various brands of computers and various software programs and very little on the needs of the classroom teacher in the age of technology. All of the subjects surveyed recognized the prominence of computers in education and also showed a willingness to be trained to make use of the computers available to them. This study discussed the responses of the teachers and their suggestions for staff development.

This case study describes how the language arts learning process of one fourth grade class in a public elementary school was influenced by having an audience for their school work. Students were involved in collaborative writing, reading, and peer review. Their work was audiotaped and resulted in a radio program, "Kid's Talk", which was aired on a local AM radio station. An existing body of research literature examines numerous radio programs that are available for children. However, there is relatively little work that has been done involving children creating their own radio programs, the processes involved, and the motivational aspects of such work. This study adds to the body of research regarding these factors. This dissertation draws on qualitative research techniques. It utilizes interviewing, student journals, and both parent and student questionnaires, offering several different perspectives of how the participants were affected by their awareness of an audience. Issues addressed include students' reactions to having an audience for their work; the classroom teacher's description of day-to-day experiences while creating the programs with the students; and also the parents' reactions as they witnessed the process through observations of their children. Finally, this work looks at educational benefits derived by the students from working together on a project that involved each member of the class.

No description available.

The purposes of this research study were to determine: (a) how educational technology resources are being used to support student learning and achievement and (b) if secondary school principals credit educational technology with having influenced student achievement gains. The five research questions that guided the study addressed: (a) the educational technology methods and strategies that secondary school principals perceive as effective means to improve student achievement, (b) the extent to which a relationship exists between a school's use of educational technology and student achievement, (c) the difference in student achievement between secondary schools that have technology plans and those that do not, (d) the difference in student achievement between secondary schools that have on-site technology related professional development and technical support and those that do not, and (e) the difference in student achievement between secondary schools in which there is a principal support for technology implementation and those that do not have principal support. Data were collected using a survey instrument that contained 20 questions designed to elicit information that addressed the research questions. The surveys were mailed to the principals of 214 randomly selected secondary schools in three southeastern states: Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina. Descriptive statistics, correlation coefficients, and t-tests were used to analyze the data for each independent variable. In addition, data were collected from open-ended questions on the survey instrument. Results indicated that most of the respondents approached technology implementation through a formal planning process. A majority of respondents reported that a school technology plan existed in the form of either a stand-alone document or as part of the school improvement plan. Significant results were obtained indicating that student achievement was higher at schools where a formal technology plan was in place. Although the research revealed that the principal's role was critical to the successful implementation of technology, the results of this study indicated that there was no significant correlation between the principal's participation in technology implementation and student achievement. There was, however, a correlation between technology assets and principal involvement and a correlation between accepted educational technology practices and principal involvement. The implications for policy and procedure drawn from this study were: (a) a written technology plan is essential to successful technology implementation, (b) the technology plan must be continually reinvented to adequately address student achievement goals, (c) principals may wish to consider how to accomplish a general infusion of technology applications that contribute to student achievement.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 142-145). Also available in print.

<p>The emergence of social media technologies (SMT) as important features of life in the twenty-first century has aroused the curiosity of teachers and scholars in higher education and given rise to numerous experiments using SMT as tools of instruction in college and university classrooms. A body of research has emerged from those experiments which suggests that SMT may be useful in promoting student learning and improving academic outcomes. However, as of yet the evidence from that research is scant and inconclusive. The study described here was designed to contribute to that body of research by investigating whether or not requiring students to use a microblog&mdash;Twitter in this case&mdash;in a community college history course would help students display higher levels of attainment of content-based course learning outcomes on traditional types of assessments. Student activity on Twitter and performance on traditional types of assessments were quantitatively tracked and evaluated according to a number of specialized rubrics, the results of which were integrated into a series of hierarchical regression analyses. Qualitative data was also collected in the form of open-ended questionnaires in order to provide insight into how students perceived of and used Twitter as an instructional tool. Data obtained through both methodologies were integrated into the final analysis. The results of this study suggest that microblogs can be an effective platform for teaching and learning when the instructor is experienced in the use of the medium, deliberate in how it is used, and highly engaged during use. </p>

<p> Accountability measures, by way of standardized curriculum and assessments, have played a large part in the attempt to ensure that students from all backgrounds receive equal access to quality education. However, the inherent disadvantage of a standardized system is the implied assumption that all students come in with the same knowledge, learn at the same pace, and learn the same way. In the wake of an increasingly diverse K-12 population, educational researchers, learning theorists, and practitioners agree that the concept of the average student is, in fact, a myth. Students come to school with different needs, norms, interests, cultural behavior, knowledge, motivations, and skill sets. In order for education to properly address the issue of equity, the issue of learner variance must first be attended to. </p><p> In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education released its educational plan encouraging teachers to address student variance through more inclusive learning environments. The report highlighted Blended Learning (BL) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as promising practices in enabling, motivating, and inspiring all students to achieve regardless of background, language, or disability. Research suggests that the combination of these two approaches could lead to transformative teaching practices that dramatically impact student learning. However, the efficacy of such a model has yet to be tested. </p><p> This study tested the efficacy of a Blended Universal Design for Learning (BUDL) model in improving student outcomes. An experimental design was used to explore the impact of a two-week BUDL intervention in an accelerated 7^th grade math class. The effect on student achievement, engagement, and perception was measured. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Though results from the study were statistically insignificant, possible positive associations between a BUDL intervention and student achievement, engagement, and perception emerged. Considerations for clinical significance, suggestions for improvement on the BUDL model, and implications for future research are discussed.</p>

<p> A student&rsquo;s ability to achieve his or her goal in an online course depends on the quality of the material presented by the instructor, and the motivational aspect of the student before committing to an online course. However, neither of these can be reached to their maximum if the dominant learning styles of students are not uncovered prior to enrolling in an online course. With the quick expansion of online learning in higher education, proper protocol has not been taken in order to help millennials reach their full potential, by allowing instructors to help identify methods to communicate with the students through an online platform. To maximize the impact of these two aspects, the dominant learning styles of millennials must be uncovered. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the dominant learning styles of millennials enrolled in an online business course, on order to provide instructors with insight of how to present course material to students in an online platform. The population consisted of 37 millennials enrolled in three separate online business courses at a California State University. Data were collected using one research instrument, the Building Excellence (BE) Learning Style Survey, consisting of approximately 120 questions. The survey instrument was used to measure the dominant learning styles of the participants among 28 different elements among six categories (perceptual, psychological, environmental, physiological, emotional, and sociological). The study looked into the perceptual category to reveal a strong necessity of millennials preferring to learn material by having it presented using visual images, and/or visual text. By improving the method of instruction in an online business course to incorporate with these learning styles, instructors can maximize their ability to teach students.</p>

There is a growing trend toward collaboration, both between companies, and between academia and industry. Studies have linked the use of external sources of information and expertise to the enhanced generation of innovation. Innovative companies, in turn, have been shown to out-perform non-innovating companies in terms of both growth and profit. Therefore, against a background of increasing international competition and rapid technological change, governments are actively encouraging collaboration as a means of improving innovation efficiency and thereby enhancing wealth creation. Collaboration provides companies with the means by which to advance technologically, at lower cost and with less inherent risk. Collaboration also provides access to a greater breadth and depth of knowledge and technologies than would normally be possible through internal development. For universities the benefits include additional public and private funding, and increasingly, licensing and patenting income, as a result of technology transfer activities. However, these considerable potential benefits are often not realised in practice. The major reason is that collaborations between, often diverse, organisations, need considerable management effort in order to be successful. To this end, considerable research (reported in the literature) has been devoted to identifying management "success" factors, factors which where present, enhance the probability that a collaboration will be successful. This information was used by the author to develop a best practice model for collaboration management that is more comprehensive than has previously been reported in the literature. To date however, the literature provides no guidance as to how the full range of these success factors could be applied in the every day context of managing a collaboration. The Framework presented here provides a mechanism for achieving more effective collaboration management in the form of a simple-to-apply management tool. The Framework was developed on the basis of case study research and disparate sources of relevant published research. Essentially, it provides a means of applying the current body of knowledge in a way that does not assume prior experience of collaboration management on the part of the user. Through the provision of reference material and diagnostic features, the Framework encourages an awareness of the key issues affecting the success of collaborations and prompts the manager to take appropriate and timely action to prevent the occurrence of problems later on. The main feature of the Framework's feedback mechanism, the Collaboration Chart, enables the user to identify quickly, specific areas where problems could arise. The concept of the Framework is new to the collaboration field and as such it constitutes the main innovation to result from this research. Furthermore, while ihe Framework was originally conceived as a specific aid to collaboration between WMG and its industrial partners, this research indicates that it is potentially much more widely applicable. The Framework is certainly shown to be applicable to other university-industry collaborations, and with some modification, could also be applied to industry-industry collaborations. In addition, the Framework would lend itself to development into an evaluation tool that funding bodies could use to assess research proposals. The potential value of the Framework therefore extends beyond industry and academia, to ensuring the efficient use of public funds.

<p> Personalized learning is not a new concept and can be traced back to the 1700s, but it has become increasingly popular in today&rsquo;s schools (Bray &amp; McClaskey, 2015). With the high rate of technology introduction into classrooms, the implementation of personalized learning has become easier as instruction shifts from teacher-led to student-centered (Grant &amp; Bayse, 2014). The purpose of this study was to identify the role of technology in personalized learning and to determine if the implementation of the pedagogy had an effect on student achievement scores. Elementary classroom teachers and elementary principals served as the participants for this study, which was conducted in a southwest Missouri school district. Teachers rated their personal level of personalized learning implementation on a survey. The rating was compared to mean student scale score gains in reading and mathematics, as measured on the i-Ready Diagnostic Assessment. Teachers and administrators also identified how technology impacted personalized learning in their classrooms or buildings. After an analysis of the data, it was determined there was no statistically significant correlation between the degree of implementation of personalized learning and student achievement. According to survey responses, 89% of educators agreed technology eased the implementation of personalized learning, and the teachers and administrators indicated using technology for research and accessing resources outside of the classroom as the most frequent use for devices.</p>