Title from title page of covpage PDF (University of Missouri--St. Louis, viewed February 17, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-151).

Thesis (MEd. Computer-integrated Education (School of Teacher Training))--University of Pretoria, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

<p> The Study Island computer program is one of many highly used instructional programs in school districts nationwide; however, there is little independent research available that provides information about its impact on student achievement performance. This study used a descriptive comparative research design to compare the mean gain scores of the semester that students received math instruction with Study Island to mean gain scores of the semester that students did not receive math instruction with the program to determine if a significant difference exists between the two semesters. The test scores from a sample of 124 ninth-grade math students from an economically disadvantaged suburban school district in a southeastern state were used. The results concluded that the mean gain scores from pretest to posttest of the semester that students used the Study Island program were significantly higher than that of the semester that students did not use the program.</p>

<p> Autobiographical digital storytelling (DST) is a burgeoning multiliteracy practice in in- and out-of-school spaces. Recently, education researchers have explored DST's potential as a robust critical literacy tool for non-dominant youth to tell agentic counter narratives. A less explored area of youth DST practices relates to how authors account for audience (local and macro discourse) when composing digital autobiographies. Using feminist poststructural theory as a heuristic and analytical tool, I investigated the varying discourses youth authors engaged throughout their processes and products related to autobiographical DST. </p><p> The ethnographic data for this dissertation were collected in an English Language Arts high school classroom, African American Literature, over the course of four months across fall semester 2012. The three case study findings chapters illustrate three non-dominant students' approaches to negotiating their subjectivity within the school context across multiple school spaces. The findings from this study complicate notions of agency; namely the case studies demonstrate how diverse youth of color negotiated multiple and competing discourses when narrating stories of the self in relation to a perceived peer audience. More specifically, each case provides a detailed analysis of how Darius, Malcolm, and Gabriel, negotiated local and macro discourses related to Black masculinity, salient intersecting subjectivities for each. </p><p> This study holds theoretical implications in establishing the importance of using poststructural feminist theories in combination with Critical Discourse Analysis of student processes and produced related to autobiographical storytelling by way of detecting the complex power relations youth navigate within the school context. Moreover, this study reports important implications regarding the utility of digital storytelling as a culturally responsive, multimodal, critical literacy practice that affords youth opportunities to draw on personally and culturally meaningful discourses (e.g., hip-hip music) as they compose digital representations in relation to local and macro discourse. Additionally, implications for English Language Arts practice encourage future examination of how youth author's attentiveness to peer audience discourse demonstrate students' facilities in composing narratives in relation to audience.</p>

One of the fundamental concerns of instructional design is pedagogical sequencing which is a practice of organizing course materials according to the underlying knowledge structure and concept dependency. In the conventional settings, like the secondary schools or tertiary institution, instructors are required to interpret learning materials by their own domain knowledge. But in many online learning systems, analyzing and interpreting learning materials are very challenging due to the lack of instructional contexts and pedagogical attributes of the learning units. The learning objects and learning object metadata (LOM) are learning technologies to formalize the concept of learning unit and standardizing the specification of learning object annotation framework. The learning object is aimed to provide a solution for reuse and sharing of learning materials, and to provide infrastructure for pedagogical design. The LOM has been widely adopted in various learning systems, methodologies and system frameworks proposed to solve instructional design problem based on the pedagogical information as provided in the LOM. However, an empirical study showed that most real-life learning objects do not provide necessary pedagogical information. Thus, it is not clear how the issue of incomplete metadata and hence incomplete pedagogical information will affect those LOM based methods. A new approach to reconstruct the underlying knowledge structure based on information extracted from LOM and data mining techniques is proposed. The main idea of the approach is to reconstruct knowledge structure by the context of learning materials. Intrinsically, the vector space model and the k-means clustering algorithm are applied to reconstruct the knowledge graph based on keyword extraction techniques, and concept dependency relations are extracted from the obtained knowledge graph. Then, the genetic algorithm is applied to optimize for a learning path that satisfies most of the obtained concept dependencies. Furthermore, the performance of applying different semantic interpreters and rule extraction methodology are carefully tested and compared. Experimental results revealed that learning paths generated by the proposed approach are very similar to learning paths designed by human instructors. / published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

Current research has identified various cases of gender difference in perception and adoption of technology in general and language learners’ use of technology for second language learning. To understand these differences, this study investigated the use of technology out-of-class to enhance their second language learning of the students in a Chinese high school in Chengdu, Sichuan. It was showed that males and females have some differences in using technology for affection regulation, technology for culture regulation, technology for metacognition regulation and technology for resource regulation. In addition, this study unraveled the factor of family background that influenced students’ perception and selective use of technology in second language learning. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Use of a next-generation, classroom-based network technology for mathematics instruction illuminates possible connections between the aesthetic perceptions of mathematics and mathematics teaching practices. Generative activity design makes use of participatory classroom simulations with the technology to allow students to fully engage in the activities from various levels and trajectories of understanding. Moreover, the student engagement with these activities produces artifacts, the projections of which make mathematical aesthetic visible and a substantial topic in the classroom discourse. This investigation entails the study of one secondary mathematics teacher, examining her instructional practices in the context of a networked-supported environment. This case study, conducted within the framework of a design experiment, uncovers the ways in which the teacher's mathematical aesthetic perceptions acted to (1) constrain her process of generative activity design and (2) frame her role in the mathematical discourse during classroom implementation of the network. Findings suggest the need for augmentation of a generative activity design framework to include overt connections to aesthetic.

<p> The introduction of technological tools has created a paradigm shift in the field of education. As such, online learning has become a popular method for students to access educational courses. Due to the increased demand by learners for online classes, administrators at American institutions of higher learning are faced with the challenge of moving faculty members to an online environment. However, transitioning to an online environment requires a role change for faculty members. Specifically faculty members must shift their instructional methods from on-ground lecturer to online mentor, which can be challenging. Indeed many faculty members transition to online instruction without the necessary training, support, or skills needed to be successful. The purpose of this qualitative, multiple case study was to develop a better understanding of how higher education faculty members transition from a face-to-face (i.e., on-ground) teaching format to an online teaching format. Participants included nine faculty members, representing different colleges and universities, who teach at post-secondary institutions within the United States. Participants had taught face-to-face classes for one year or more, and had taught at least three classes using an online format. An in-depth, open-ended, semi-structured interview format was used to gather data. The data provided by the participating faculty members were collected, coded using a line-by-line format, and the codes were compared to one another with the goal of finding a pattern. The development of conceptual categories and data analysis continued until saturation was achieved. Based on the data analysis, <i>transforming</i> was the conceptual theme for how higher education faculty members transition from a face-to-face (i.e., on-ground) teaching format to an online teaching format. Three transitioning skills were also identified as integral components for faculty members transitioning from face-to-face to online instruction. Future areas of research include: 1) how foreign language instructors develop asynchronous communicative collaborative activities and 2) how administrators could add specific subject area needs into their training programs or workshops.</p>

<p> The purpose of this mixed-method study was to examine the three different types of interactions (student-student, student-instructor, and student-content) that occur in an online language learning classroom and whether the amount of time spent predicted the performance in two key areas, grammar proficiency and vocabulary knowledge. This study also examined the way students felt about motivating themselves in an online language learning classroom. The study involved 40 students enrolled in an entirely online entry-level Spanish course who completed a survey about their experience in the online environment and an assessment of their knowledge of vocabulary and grammar points in the language. </p><p> The multiple regression analyses revealed that the amount of time spent in interactions with the content for the course was a predictor for grammar proficiency, but no other interactions were predictors for grammar proficiency or vocabulary knowledge. The participants discussed the difficulty of motivating themselves and how they stayed motivated in the online environment. This study provided some considerations for practitioners in an online environment, but also called into question the efficacy of learning a language in an entirely online environment.</p>

<p> Colleges and universities are now part of an ecosystem that includes educational technology companies. As more faculty adopt Web 2.0 technologies, institutions of higher education must seek sustainable methods to support faculty and this may involve collaborations with ecosystem partners. The purpose of this action research study was to improve the support resources provided by the VoiceThread organization, a Web 2.0 tool provider, to its higher education users. This study was guided by three questions: a) is there a significant difference in faculty perceptions about the pedagogical benefits of VoiceThread between faculty who examine VoiceThread in an eBook and faculty who examine VoiceThread through a webinar; b) how can an eBook be designed to support the diverse needs of 21^st century faculty; and c) what are the support needs of faculty who teach with VoiceThread? A purposeful sample of 53 full-time and part-time faculty from 2-year and 4-year institutions was randomly assigned to a control or treatment group. Quantitative data was collected through a pretest and posttest survey. Qualitative reflection and interview data was also collected. The study found that the eBook did not have a more significant impact on faculty perceptions than the webinars. Findings also show that eBooks used to support faculty should incorporate a blend of technology and pedagogy, include real-world teaching examples, discuss instructional design strategies and student perspectives, be accessible from anywhere at any time, include hyperlinks to videos and other resources, and incorporate illustrations and icons. Flexible, online faculty support services support faculty more effectively than on-campus workshops. The findings show that supporting faculty involves more than access to resources, however. Faculty who teach with VoiceThread feel isolated from their peers and see the eBook as a vehicle that may facilitate conversations about teaching with VoiceThread with peers, influence increased adoption on campus, and improve the likelihood of acquiring a site license. This study encouraged the VoiceThread organization to re-examine the value of the eBook to its higher education users and, as a result, will now provide the eBook as a free resource to all faculty, as opposed to institutions with a site license. Additional research should consider how free, open eBooks co-created through faculty and Web 2.0 company partnerships support part-time and full-time faculty across multiple institutions.</p>