Middle school students misuse social media without understanding the negative influence on their global digital footprint and lives. Research does not provide insight into how students develop digital citizenship skills for positive digital footprints and appropriate social media use. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore students' growth as digital citizens while participating in one digital citizenship project using global collaboration and social media. The conceptual framework included Ribble's theory of digital citizenship and Siemens's theory of connectivism. Research questions asked how students' digital citizenship developed when they were engaged in social media and global collaborative projects. Participants included 7 middle school teachers and 1 project administrator. Structured interviews and Wiki data were analyzed using an iterative open coding technique to identify rich, thick themes and patterns. The findings showed global collaborative projects and social media served as catalysts to motivate students as they took action as digital citizens, overcame barriers to digital citizenship, used social media for learning and collaboration, and adopted less ethnocentric views of the world. Students compared other cultures to their own, considered the welfare of others online, and modified their online behavior in favor of positive global digital footprints. Students used social media responsibly, were academically motivated by an authentic audience, and shared their academic learning with others in their local and extended communities. Reform of middle school curricula to include global collaborative projects and instruction in digital citizenship may bring about positive social change as students learn to be responsible users of social media.

Web 2.0 technologies offer many educational benefits in higher education. Leaders of the U.S. community college examined in this study desired to explore students' familiarity with the educational benefits of Web 2.0 tools before investing in technology upgrades for the college. The purpose of this quantitative survey research was to explore community college student readiness to use Web 2.0 technologies as part of their distance learning experience. The research questions were designed to clarify students' attitudes and behavioral intentions towards using Web 2.0 applications. Data were collected from 253 randomly selected distance-learning students using a survey derived from the decomposed theory of planned behavior (DTPB). The DTPB assesses individuals' likely actions related to using Web 2.0 technologies as a function of behavioral intentions reflected through attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Results of the Spearman rho analyses indicated significant positive relationships related to Web 2.0 applications between attitude and behavioral intentions, subjective norms and behavior, peer influence and subjective norms, and self-efficacy with facilitating conditions and perceived behavioral control. There was no relationship between perceived behavioral control and behavior. Additional findings revealed that students perceived the existence of a beneficial social network within the distance-learning environment. The results of this study facilitated college administrator awareness of students' perceptions of using Web 2.0 tools for learning, and suggest that implementing these tools would be beneficial for the students and college by creating a more inclusive learning environment for online students.

Past studies have indicated that teachers in the United States have limited opportunities to collaborate with peers; this limitation has been found to be particularly problematic for social studies teachers. An increasing number of educators are using the social media application Twitter to collaborate. Little research exists concerning social studies teachers' use of #edchats, a weekly recurring Twitter session. The focus of this qualitative case study was the collaboration that exists among social studies teachers participating in Twitter edchats. The theoretical framework was communities of practice. Transcripts of 10 edchat sessions in 2013 were coded with an a priori strategy, and emergent themes were triangulated with interviews from 7 of the most consistent contributors from the edchats. Emergent themes included close personal connections among participants consistent with communities of practice and a narrow focus on social studies-specific content. Findings were consistent with existing research describing a general lack of formal training on the methodology of incorporating Twitter and a general consensus among active participants that adopting new technologies was relatively easy. Results indicate the potential of #edchats as an asynchronous and synchronous form of collaboration but also illustrate the need for formal training to help educators who feel less comfortable with adopting new technologies. The project resulting from this study, a free professional development program designed to teach educators how to use Twitter, will contribute to social change by sharing the benefits of creating a collaborative environment through Twitter, thus freeing participants from the constraints of physical location and time at no significant cost.

Social interaction is key to students' learning in blending learning discussions. Although there is research on interactions in online courses and traditional classes, there is little on whether blended learning discussions are meeting students' social interaction and educational development needs. The purpose of this multicase study was to examine attitudes of first-year and final-year business and technology students and faculty members for patterns of interaction and knowledge construction. The study was conducted in the northeastern United States. Piaget's cognitive constructivism, Vygotsky's social constructivism, and Knowles's andragogy constituted the conceptual framework. Using maximum variation sampling, participants were 8 students and 4 faculty for 2 first-year and 2 final-year classes. Data sources were interviews and discussion responses coded using Straus and Corbin's open, axial, and selective coding procedures. Coded data were analyzed using Merriam's cross-case analysis method. The business students displayed the first three phases of knowledge construction: (a) sharing and comparing (b) discovery and exploration, and (c) negotiation of meaning; the technical students progressed to the fourth phase: testing and modification of proposed synthesis. Knowledge construction often occurred in a positive, challenging form of interaction. The professors expressed that gender, VoiceThread media, and discussion content influenced students' learning. These findings contribute to positive social change by informing stronger learning processes that students and teachers can use in their blended learning classes to facilitate collective knowledge construction.

Past literature has shown that nursing programs reported educators were at the novice or beginner level regarding use of technology and that there was a critical need for faculty development. There was a lack of current information on the perspectives of nurse faculty utilizing learning management systems. Learning management systems are being used within nursing education, faculty should be proficient implementing the technology, if not, students and faculty suffer. The purpose of this study was to understand how nursing faculty perceive the use and support for integrated online Learning Management System (LMS) technology, along with levels of self-efficacy, at the institution in which they work. The Bandura self-efficacy conceptual framework was used to explore nursing faculty perspectives on the use of LMS technology. A case study approach was used for this study to aid in identifying the perspective of nursing educators who have utilized LMS technology. Participants included 8 nursing faculty from 3 Southeastern Pennsylvania nursing program. Data sources consisted of online survey questions and telephone interviews. Survey data results were analyzed by means of central tendency. Transcriptions of interviews were analyzed using NVivo software for coding and identification of themes and patterns. The results revealed that nursing faculty did not seem to like their LMS platform; however, the majority of the faculty did consider the LMSs useful in providing materials to students and for posting grades, although faculty stated a desire for additional training and regular workshops on using LMSs. This research can contribute to positive social change by assisting stakeholders in best implementation of LMSs in student instructional practices.

Over one tenth of students in postsecondary education have a documented disability as defined by the Americans with Disability Act. However, faculty and course designers often lack understanding of these students' experiences, which leads to insufficient accommodations. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the experiences of students with physical disabilities (SWD) in online courses. The research was grounded in self-determination theory, which posits 3 basic needs for self-actualization: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This theory in combination with universal design for learning provided a lens for exploring these experiences. Data collection included 8 interviews with postsecondary students with a physical disability. Data were coded using a combination of value codes and organized thematically. Major findings showed that SWD experience barriers in self-regulation, minimizing of their disabilities, pressure to overachieve, specific knowledge of available resources, isolation, and miscommunication. However, through proper online learning, SWD experience benefits in self-regulation, self-pacing, an increasing sense of confidence and pride, stamina, connection to peers, positive discussions, and advocacy for themselves and others. This research has implications for social change as an evidentiary tool for advocacy when exploring the benefits of taking online courses for SWD and as an awareness tool for teachers and other stakeholders in online education who wish to adapt to best practices.

A challenge faced by higher education is whether online orientation that is offered before the start of class can impact academic performance for online students. The purpose of this quantitative research study was to determine if there are significant differences in retention, academic success, and persistence between first time online students who have participated in an online orientation and those who did not participate and if there was a significant difference in retention, academic success, and persistence by gender of first-time online students. The sample for this study was extracted from archived data originating from 433 first-time online undergraduate students at a 2-year technical college in South Carolina. Student retention was measured by midterm grades, academic success as measured by final course grades, and persistence as measured by enrollment in at least 1 online class in subsequent semester. The results of this study indicated a high level of statistical significance in male and female first-time online students with academic success as well as overall persistence in students who successfully completed online orientation with a grade of 80 or better. Additionally, statistical significance was found in relation to male and female first-time online students and retention. These results can support a shared purpose among educational leaders to transform online education into a collaborative learning environment that promotes growth, competence, and a thriving learning community. The results of this study reinforced awareness and understanding among educational leaders at colleges and universities about online orientation and its impact to online students' success.

Despite school leaders' attempts to implement technology designed to provide resources for parent and student use at home, many parents of at-risk children are reluctant to use the learning platforms. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the meaning of human experiences as they related to parents' reluctance to using learning management systems (LMSs). Elements from Rogers's innovation diffusion theory, Davis's technology acceptance model, and Epstein's parent involvement model were combined for the study's conceptual framework. The research questions addressed the challenges parents encounter with learning platforms; parents' experiences with teachers and schools with regard to training, orientation, and using learning platforms; and parents' feelings about establishing a learning institute to support their LMS use. Six parent participants from a small suburban school district in Southeastern United States who self-disclosed that they used LMS less than 3 times per week and had a child that scored at the beginning level of the mandatory state test were purposefully selected for this study. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and analyzed via Moustakas's modified van Kaam method, which uncovered 4 major themes. The findings indicated that parents avoided using LMSs for several reasons, which included parents' lack of knowledge regarding accessing and using LMSs, ineffective orientation practices, lack of technical support, and lack of support for training. This research contributes to the existing body of literature and advances social change by illuminating parents' challenges with implemented technology. School leaders may use the findings to devise strategic plans to facilitate training programs for parents.

Administrators of a New Jersey school district implemented a 1:1 laptop initiative in Grades 6-8 in 2013 to bolster student achievement. An evaluation had not been conducted to ascertain the effectiveness of the initiative. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the 1:1 laptop initiative on student achievement. The conceptual framework for this study was Stufflebeam's context, input, process, and product evaluation model. The focus of the research question was the differences in New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge math scores between students involved in the 1:1 laptop initiative for 1 year and students who were not involved. A quantitative post hoc analysis was used to examine data collected from the state assessment database using a convenience sample of only 6th grade students (n = 109). The students' data on the statewide test revealed a mean difference between the 1:1 group (n = 57) which scored 13 points higher than the control group (n = 52). Results of an independent t test were statistically significant at the p = 0.062 level. A position paper based on study findings includes recommendations to the local board of education to continue the initiative and plan professional development for teachers. Further research should be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the initiative. Investments in technology such as this initiative may result in improved teaching and learning as a positive social change outcome. Being involved in a 1:1 laptop initiative at an early age in school may assist students in becoming literate in the use of technology, which may help them meet their future career goals.

The use of educational digital games as a method of instruction for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics has increased in the past decade. While these games provide successfully implemented interactive and fun interfaces, they are not designed to respond or remedy students’ negative affect towards the game dynamics or their educational content. Therefore, this exploratory study investigated the frequent patterns of student emotional and behavioral response to educational digital games. To unveil the sequential occurrence of these affective states, students were assigned to play the game for nine class sessions. During these sessions, their affective and behavioral response was recorded to uncover possible underlying patterns of affect (particularly confusion, frustration, and boredom) and behavior (disengagement). In addition, these affect and behavior frequency pattern data were combined with students’ gameplay data in order to identify patterns of emotions that led to a better performance in the game. The results provide information on possible affect and behavior patterns that could be used in further research on affect and behavior detection in such open-ended digital game environments. Particularly, the findings show that students experience a considerable amount of confusion, frustration, and boredom. Another finding highlights the need for remediation via embedded help, as the students referred to peer help often during their gameplay. However, possibly because of the low quality of the received help, students seemed to become frustrated or disengaged with the environment. Finally, the findings suggest the importance of the decay rate of confusion; students’ gameplay performance was associated with the length of time students remained confused or frustrated. Overall, these findings show that there are interesting patterns related to students who experience relatively negative emotions during their gameplay.