The purpose of this quantitative research study was to investigate the integration of technology in undergraduate courses by faculty at private colleges and universities. Integration of technology is using technology as an instructional tool to improve teaching and learning (Clayton-Pedersen & O’Neill, 2005; Wilson & Hayes, 2000; Woodbridge, 2004). Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) 7 principles for good practice in undergraduate education provided the theoretical framework for this research. The researcher conducted a survey of full-time faculty at 21 private colleges and universities in Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The results of the study indicated that faculty use technology significantly to communicate high expectations to students and to support diverse talents and ways of learning. However, faculty reported that they do not use technology significantly for the other 5 principles: to support student-faculty contact, promote cooperation and reciprocity among students, promote active learning, provide prompt feedback, and promote time on task. Analysis of the data indicated that female faculty use technology significantly more than male faculty for all 7 principles. Findings regarding age indicated that faculty who are 40-59 use technology significantly more than faculty under 40 to support prompt feedback, time on task, and diverse talents and ways of learning. No significant differences existed between other age groups regarding these 3 principles. No significant differences existed between any age groups regarding use of technology to promote student-faculty contact, encourage reciprocity and cooperation, promote active learning, and communicate high expectations. The results of this study extend the current knowledge about faculty use of technology to advance good practice in undergraduate education. Additionally, the results provide information about differences in use of technology by faculty based on gender and age. These findings may inform institutional policies and practices with regard to implementing a systemic approach to teaching with technology.

Differences in race, ethnicity, gender, and age have shaped the most diverse workforce in recent years and have also influenced the workplace learning environment. Variability in age created several generations that presented an instructional challenge in the workplace for trainers who have not recognized and understood generational differences. The purpose of this study was to investigate how employees in 4 generations differed with respect to attitudes toward instructional approaches using technology in the workplace classroom. A theoretical framework incorporating Knowles' learning theory of andragogy guided this study, which used survey research methods within a quantitative design. The sample of 731 city employees from various departments completed the Media and Technology Usage and Attitudes Scales administered through an online survey tool. One-way ANOVA indicated that only on the Positive Attitudes Toward Technology scale, scores of the oldest generation, the Traditionalists, were significantly less positive than those of the 3 younger generations (Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials) who did not differ significantly from each other. Research findings led to the conclusion that some differences existed in generational attitudes toward instructional approaches. Based on this conclusion, a 3-day leadership workshop was created, which includes recommendations for a customized approach to instructing the generations. Implications for social change include the potential for organizations to modify instruction to correspond with attitudinal differences of the generations and allow organizations in all industries to take proactive steps for workforce changes in learning.

This research looks at the use of PowerPoint as an instructional tool for teaching English language learners (ELL) who studied in a language program at a state university in the Pacific Northwest. The purpose of the research was to discover and to explore the perceptions of PowerPoint supported teaching and learning that were held by the students, the instructors, and the student researcher. PowerPoint is one of the most commonly used technologies in classrooms, and its projection on screens has become a fundamental part of many students' daily routine. The basic design of this research study is based on Stringer's (2004) action research model, which operates on a repeated circle of reflecting, planning, acting and observing. This action research was generated by all participants, guided by instructors, and monitored by the planned objectives of the study's outcomes. A constructivist approach was used to understand the process of teaching and learning with PowerPoint, and feedback (questionnaires, interviews, and personal communications) was collected from the students in order to help instructors and the student researcher to determine the students' needs. There are four main sets of data in this study—data from students' questionnaires, from students' interviews, from instructors' interviews, and from the student researcher's classroom observations. Students were given questionnaires at the ends of weeks two to ten, and two students from each class were selected to be interviewed. Instructors were interviewed both at the beginning and at the end of the term. The student researcher observed all classes starting week two, and wrote notes which were included as part of the data. / Graduation date: 2012

Providing instruction using different instructional delivery methods allows the learner to absorb content in a way that fits the individual learner. Today’s students have grown up immersed in digital technology. However, many higher education faculty are still not speaking the same digital language as their students. The issue may be that the pedagogical and epistemological beliefs of faculty who are “digital immigrants” affect the teaching methods used in the higher education classroom today. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore design college faculty perceptions of the adoption of virtual world technology into the classroom. Diffusion and adoption theories, adoption models, and patterns of adoption provided a conceptual framework for this study. This mixed methods study collected data through a survey and post-survey interviews administered to faculty of 21 design colleges. The quantitative survey instrument included questions about the usage of technology, including virtual world technology, in the higher education classroom. A total of 309 faculty completed the survey. Descriptive statistics, including frequencies, means, and standard deviations were used in the analysis. A correlation analysis was performed to determine if there was a relationship between selected variables and the survey responses. Post-survey semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 faculty participants who volunteered for the interviews after participating in the survey. In this study, I used the constant comparative open coding hybrid method for the interview analysis. The specific research question posed in this study was: What are the perceptions of design college faculty regarding the use of virtual world technology in their courses? Guiding questions included: (a) What are faculty perceptions about virtual world technology that potentially affect its adoption into the classroom? (b) What are faculty perceptions of the affordances of using virtual world technology in the classroom? (c) What are faculty perceptions of the challenges of using virtual world technology in the classroom? In general, the results of this study indicate that while higher education faculty perceive that virtual world technology has the potential to be a useful teaching tool in the classroom, the faculty also perceive that they do not have the essential software and hardware support from their colleges to adopt this type of technology as a teaching tool in their courses.

In spite of the popularity of technologies that facilitate distance learning, institutions still educate students who gather together in shared physical spaces. But now even these traditional settings for learning are more collaborative and technology-rich environments. Qualitative methods in the sociolinguistic tradition allowed me to attend carefully to the vocal and non-vocal interactions of students engaged in a computer supported collaborative authoring assignment. Three research questions guided my inquiry: 1) In what ways did students negotiate roles and responsibilities?; 2) In what ways did students negotiate access to their assignment?; and 3) what was the nature of discourse in computer supported collaborative authoring? I conducted microanalysis of the communication in online discussions and face-to-face discourse throughout an entire semester of one graduate level course entitled The Psychology of Teachers and Teaching. My data revealed that the online discussion forum, physical proximity to the computer during face-to-face collaboration and instructor influence shaped the students’ roles and responsibilities as well as their entry into the assignment. I propose a model illustrating how students negotiate entry into computer supported collaborative authoring assignments and discuss its implications for teaching and learning. / text

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that contribute to online collaboration in a web-based course by investigating the impact and the potential of an online learning environment in terms of both the students&#039 / and instructor&rsquo / s perceptions about learner benefits, learner support, motivation, computer mediated communication, and group work. A mixed methods case study design was thought to be appropriate to match the purpose of the study, thus a combination of components normally found in descriptive, case study and qualitative research was used to analyze the data. The study was conducted in the context of &ldquo / CSIT444-Online Web Design&rdquo / , an online course offered by the Institute of Distance Education of East Mediterranean University (EMU) in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. This course was designed and developed by the instructor working at the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology of the Middle East Technical University located in Ankara and carrying out the classes for this course as online for the students at EMU. The participants were the instructor and 209 vocational education last year students, who participated in the course for three successive semesters, at the School of Computing &amp / Technology. In order to explore the perceptions of the students, they were asked to complete a questionnaire at the end of the each semester. Of the 209 participants 175 students ranked their agreement on each twenty eight five-point Likert-type item and 129 of them wrote also their comments about their online learning experience by answering the open-ended item in the questionnaire. Several interviews were conducted with the instructor using the informal conversational interview approach to explore his perceptions through his reflections on his online teaching experience in the web-based course. The perceptual student responses from the questionnaire were analyzed quantitatively. The responses to the open-ended item in the questionnaire and informal interviews were evaluated qualitatively to find out the emerging themes. In addition, the online learning environment offered in the web-based course was examined by using the instructional design framework. This study concluded that both the students and the instructor perceived the online collaborative learning/ experience positively by reporting that it was a beneficial and motivating experience with the availability of group work, CMC, and adequate support structure. Several specific factors that contributed to collaboration via CMC in the web-based course were identified under seven major topics. By considering these factors, it is hoped that the results will yield better solutions in terms of providing meaningful online learning experiences.

Only an Afrikaans abstract is available. Die astronomiese ontwikkeling van informasie kommunikasie tegnologie (IKT) hou verreikende gevolge in vir elke lewensfeer in die twintigste eeu. Spesifiek op die terrein van produksie en oordrag van kennis, twee kernfunksies van hoer onderwys, hou IKT nie net ‘n bedreiging in vir die tradisionele wyse waarop hierdie kernfunksies vervul word nie, maar bied ook moontlik die uitdagings van toegang, koste, buigsaamheid en kwaliteit waarmee universiteite gekonfronteer word. Waar die toepassing van tegnologie in afstandsonderrig reeds help om bogenoemde uitdagings aan te spreek, is dieselfde resultate meer ontwykend in tradisionele residensiële universiteite soos Rhodes Universiteit. Verder is universiteite meer geneë om IKT in navorsing en administratiewe prosesse te gebruik, as in onderrig en leer. Hierdie opstel fokus dus op die behoeftes en verwagtings van onderrigpersoneel aan Rhodes Universiteit om IKT te gebruik om die onderig-en-leerproses te verryk. Die rasionaal vir die gebruik van IKT fokus op die veranderende omgewing waarin hoër onderwys fungeer, die veranderende konsepte van kennis en kennisproduksie, en die oënskynlike potensiaal van IKT om onderwys te verbeter. Daarteenoor word die wyse waarop IKT gebruik word bespreek teen die agtergrond van voorvereistes vir suksesvolle integrasie en praktiese toepassings van tegnologie in onderrig en leer. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Curriculum Studies / Unrestricted

The central focus of the present study was to examine the relationship between student personal factors (i.e., gender, race, academic performance, career awareness, and socio-economic factors) and the perceptions of secondary school students regarding vocational education. In recent years, traditional vocational programs have not done well throughout the nation. Enrollment within vocational education has dropped to approximately 10%, while enrollment in college preparation courses has increased to over 50%. The subjects of this study were secondary school students enrolled in the Duval County Public School system. The research was conducted using a two-part survey instrument containing 24 demographic questions and 76 questions related to vocational education. The survey instrument was subjected to content validity analysis by a panel of experts from various universities. Additionally, a validation panel, consisting of 12 vocational education teacher interns, critiqued the instrument. This study was helpful in illuminating the contradictions in commonly held perceptions of vocational educators, guidance counselors, school administrators and political decision makers towards secondary students and their declining interest in vocational education. Five hypotheses were tested relative to the relationship between student personal factors and perceptions of vocational education. The five hypotheses sampled were statistically significant, and R squared values indicate that an appreciable amount of variation in perceptions can be accounted for by student background. Demographic factors are related to students' perceptions of vocational education, with socio-economic status most appreciable among the several predictors.

This research was designed to investigate the behavioral intention of a sample of teachers to develop curriculum based projects that require students to use technology. This research employed a quantitative study design of an educational version of the Universal Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model. The UTAUT model was expanded to include factors from the Theory of Planned Behavior, and Social Cognitive Theory. The sample was composed of 251 private school teachers in Florida who completed an on-line survey instrument based upon the UTAUT model. The results were analyzed with confirmatory factor analysis that identified several factors that contributed to the behavioral intention of the teachers to integrate technology. In the final factor analysis, Social Influences, Effort Expectancy, and Anxiety all proved to be very strong factors. Attitude, Performance Expectancy, and Facilitating Conditions were moderate to strong factors in this final analysis. The relationships between the identified factors were determined through the development of a path model using partial least squares analysis. The constructs having the strongest relationship with Behavioral Intention, and hence, having a stronger effect were Attitude (β=.775, p < .001), Performance Expectancy (β=.698, p < .001), and Effort Expectancy (β=.667, p < .001). The structural model also supported that Behavioral Intention is strongly related to actual Use (β=.561, p < .001). The construct of Facilitating Conditions had a weak and negative relationship with Use (β=.-131, p =.16).The moderating effects of several attributes were also tested. While there were several notable affects only the presence of a curriculum guide proved to have a statistically significant influence. The present study contributes to behavioral intention research by confirmation of the model and providing a new context for the adapted UTAUT (Venkatesh et al., 2003) that was developed for a teacher acceptance and use of technology in an educational setting. Several implications for practice are offered in addition to further directions for research in this area. The approach to technology adoption requires an understanding of how leaders of an organization, as well as individual teachers, approach technology use.

This retrospective, qualitative case study examined the complexities of leadership in a community college setting under a single, long-term president. Six critical events were identified by 16 key informants as a basis for reflection on their views of the 23-year presidency of Dr. William Seeker at Florida Keys Community College. The researcher found a highly participatory leadership model and a college that functions in a less hierarchical manner than is traditionally encountered in community colleges. The study further revealed that the president of Florida Keys Community College expanded the role of president by giving priority to the construction of a positive and productive learning culture, honoring local resources, both tangible and intangible. The driving force behind the institution throughout this 23 year period was the development of human capital. A philosophy of approaching tough decisions swiftly and deliberately while maintaining a sense of inclusion in the decision making process is a hallmark of this presidency. A better understanding of the role of the president is necessary for present and future leaders of community colleges, for the Boards of Trustees who act as policy makers, and for state legislators. Indeed, anyone who leads a public organization that must be responsive to local community needs and to a local governing board can gain valuable insights from this examination of one community college presidency.