As one-to-one laptop environments are becoming more commonplace in the educational system, teachers are often expected to provide a student-centered environment that incorporates 21st century skills in effort to better prepare students for the future. Teaching in this type of environment is a difficult pedagogical shift for classroom educators. The assumption is often made that teachers can make this pedagogical shift just because laptops are provided for all students. The goal was to capture the essence of the lived experiences of fifth grade teachers who will be immersed in the phenomenon of teaching in a student-centered, twenty-first century, one-to-one laptop environment. The overarching research question was: What is the essence of the lived experiences of teachers who are implementing a student-centered, 21st century, one-to-one laptop pilot? Guided by phenomenology using a transcendental approach, data were collected through multiple, in-depth teacher interviews. The research process included identification of the phenomenon; epoché; data collection through 18 interviews with nine fifth-grade teachers; and transcendental phenomenological analysis through reduction, imaginative variation, and syntheses. Reduction involved horizonalization of the data and the development of textural and structural descriptions of the teachers' experiences. In addition, thirty-four codes were identified and reduced to six overarching themes including: looking back, engaged and excited, building a solid foundation, roles have shifted, consider this, and learning the 21st century way. The results will help in the development of effective academic and technology support structures that strengthen a student-centered, 21st century, one-to-one laptop program. The investigation exposed themes of difficulties, strategies, and best practices that teachers experience during the implementation.

As technology continues to change the way society communicates, teachers need to prepare their students for digital literacy and competencies in their adulthood. Specific training is necessary for educators in the appropriate and effective methods for incorporating technologies such as smart phones and hand-held devices. Teachers, who work in international boarding schools, are more effective in their use of technology when they understand the classroom cultural differences and are able to clarify any misconceptions. To determine what experienced teachers find missing in their instruction and what should be included in a teachers' instructional guide, a guide was developed based upon the existing literature; the guide was tested and revised under three conditions. In the first phase, a panel of subject-matter experts reviewed the guide draft to identify the instructional goals and validate the survey instrument. In the second phase, a teacher's workshop was conducted and provided in-depth discussions on how they use technology in the classroom. Teachers shared examples of how culture affected students' use and misuse of technology. In the final phase, observations were conducted as teachers used the lessons and resources in their instruction. The final revision, presented in this document, includes closing comments made by participating teachers. The goal was to develop a digital citizenship guide for teachers in international boarding schools that reflected best practices from the literature and the input from experts and teachers. The results identified the specific skills and competencies that are required to teach students how to communicate in the digital world and become good digital citizens. The culturally diverse student population at the investigation site made it possible to generalize instructional sets that will be of value to teachers everywhere. The guide, developed through the dissertation initiative, provides educators with the knowledge, tools, and examples necessary to teach students how these technologies can be used in a multicultural learning environment. It can be used to address the fundamentals of digital citizenship and provide insight into the role culture plays in the use of technology in education.

The general aim of this study is to better understand aspects of using reference tools for writing and to identify technologies that can assist foreign language writers. The specific purpose of this study is to look closely at how English as a Second Language (ESL) students from Korea use a corpus as a reference tool in conjunction with dictionaries when paraphrasing English newspaper articles. The participants were Korean graduate students with advanced English proficiency (N=10). Their task was to paraphrase an English newspaper article. The results show that purposes for using a concordancing program include collocations, definitions, context, and parts of speech. The subjects looked for a variety of information in a concordancing program, including prepositions, authentic samples, and the context in which the search terms were used. Reasons for using dictionaries include definitions, parts of speech, and sample sentences. The most common strategy was to combine reference tools, while the second most common was to use a specific search word. Subjects who used more than one tool for a search or performed multiple searches were more successful in finding what they were looking for. A concordancing program enabled users to see multiple examples of everyday language use. By using the concordancing program, learners were able to see words that were used most frequently, their patterns, and collocations. Learners took more responsibility for their language learning, as they became researchers in their own right. They gained confidence as L2 writers as they had inside access to linguistic resources. The subjects became more independent and were able to solve their own writing and linguistic problems as they became more aware through the use of authentic texts. In this study, the subjects found the corpora to be useful for sentence-level composition and revision. Overall, the use of reference tools led to an improvement in the accuracy of writing. A concordancing program played an important role in defining the structure and context of English phrases and sentences.

"Interactive fiction" has been used to describe many of today's multimedia products. In reality, there is not a universal understanding of what interactive fiction is or what it should entail. The meaning of "interactive" is often interpreted in different ways. Many stories are considered to be interactive because they are placed on the computer. Meanwhile, such stories may lack most of the essential qualities for good literature. Interaction fiction should be upheld to the same standards as traditional texts. Following this belief, this research covers the underlying theories of interactive fiction, examples of misleading "interactive fiction" studies, and guidelines for design pulled from the fields of writing, children's literature and instructional technology. I have used these guidelines to develop a prototype of interactive fiction, which was be tested and revised in several cycles. First, I revised the prototype based upon reviews by several groups of experts from the areas of instructional technology and childhood education. The prototype was then pilot-tested by two participants from the target market. Based upon the pilot-test results, I revised the prototype. Finally, several participants read the prototype. In this final stage, I observed the participants and conducted interviews with open-ended questions. Using the prototype that was developed according to proposed standards, I was able to gain insight into the target market's perception of interaction fiction. All details of the design and development of the prototype are included in effort to provide guidelines for building future interactive fiction. Additionally, several themes emerged when participants from the target market were observed and interviewed. Among the most prominent were the themes of storybook characters and identifying with those characters. Children in this study were able to identity themselves as the protagonist, making the main character's decisions throughout the story. Further, participants added their own elaborations of the story. In the end, the evidence of this research showed that participants were able to go beyond reading the story. The submersion into to story can be rooted in several existing literacy theories, which are discussed. Lastly, this research provides suggestions for future research, development and implementation of interactive fiction.

Technology integration for today’s classroom has been characterized as insufficient for today’s global society. Teachers need better training programs or professional development specifically focusing on integrating technology into instructional practice. This study examined the technology professional development experiences with regard to educational technology integration to determine how much exposure and level of perceived quality of Technology Professional Development (TPD) received by teachers, the characteristics of TPD, integration levels of technology and perceived readiness for technology integration. An online survey instrument was developed and used to collect data from 100 teachers of grades K-12 from all disciplines: science, math, language arts, fine arts, social science, and multi-grade or multi-discipline classes. Items on the survey included five-point Likert scale measures to establish levels of technology integration and TPD participation. Additionally, a researcher-designed interview protocol collected information from 10 volunteer participants that completed the survey to gather more details about technology TPD experiences, teacher technology self-efficacy and integration of technology into the classroom. The survey results were analyzed using SPSS software. A Pearson’s correlation was computed to evaluate the relationship between TPD and Technology Integration. Results show a positive correlation between the two variables (r = .651, p < 0.01). Overall, the data supported the strong correlation between Technology Professional Development and Technology Integration. The qualitative data were analyzed using the ATLAS.ti program that revealed emerging themes regarding professional development experiences, the perceived levels of technology integration, and perceived changes in self-efficacy The results show that technology was being integrated in instruction and learning at moderate levels in the schools. Qualitative responses supported the statistical results. Participants expressed positive feelings regarding progress of technology integration in the classroom. Concerns regarding technology integration barriers such as lack of time for TPD, quality of TPD and access to devices in the classroom were present and will need to be addressed to ensure technology infusion in the classroom and curriculum. According to the data collected and analysis of the results, this study showed that as a whole, technology professional development is providing a positive guide for the integration of technology into today’s classrooms.

Instructional technologies can be effective tools to foster student engagement, but university faculty may be reluctant to integrate innovative and evidence-based modern learning technologies into instruction. It is important to identify the factors that influence faculty adoption of instructional technologies in the teaching and learning process. Based on Rogers' diffusion of innovation theory, this quantitative, nonexperimental, one-shot cross-sectional survey determined what attributes of innovation (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability) predict the probability of faculty adopting the audience response system (ARS) into instruction. The sample for the study consisted of 201 faculty who have current teaching appointments at a university in the southeastern United States. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to determine the attributes of innovation that predict the probability of faculty adopting the ARS into instruction. The data indicated that the attributes of compatibility and trialability significantly predicted faculty adoption of ARS into instruction. Based on the results of the study, a professional development project that includes 3 full days of training and experiential learning was designed to assist faculty in adopting ARS into instruction. Because the current study only included the faculty at a single local university, future studies are recommended to explore a more holistic view of the problem from different institutions and from other stakeholders who may contribute to the process of instructional technology adoption. The project not only contributes to solving the local problem in ARS adoption, but it is also instrumental in promoting positive social change by fostering evidence-based teaching strategies and innovations that maximize student learning.

Rapid technological advances have created major societal changes, transformed business sectors, and revolutionized enterprises. In contrast, the curricular structure of medical education has remained unchanged for the last 100 years, and, for the most part, medical education has been reluctant to embrace the use of technology. The prevalent pedagogical model is reliant on rote memorization. The conceptual framework that informed this study was the user-centered framework for meaningful gamification. This framework's components are organismic integration theory, situational relevance, situated motivational affordance, and the universal design for learning. This quantitative study focused on key research questions related to identifying whether significant increases occurred over time in cooperative learning, cognitive level, and personal skills 'the dependent variables' when using a gamified learning method-the independent variable. The validated Student Engagement Survey was used to collect data from second-year medical students in a Southern California medical school, with N = 64. A repeated measures MANOVA with follow-up univariate ANOVAs was used, and statistical results indicated that there were significant differences over time in cooperative learning, cognitive level, and personal skills when using gamified learning methods. This research was conducted over a period of 3 months, divided into 3 Time Periods (TP). For all three variables, significant increases were noticed between TP 1 and TP 2, followed by significant decreases between TP 2 and TP 3. These findings pointed to the fact that more studies are needed to better understand whether certain types of gamification implementations are detrimental to student engagement in medical education, or whether more sound design principles ought to be explored to produce effective gamified learning components that could positively impact student engagement in medical education.

The quest to comprehend how cultural differences can impact learning is one of those intriguing challenges that continue to beguile some scholars and educational leaders even at a time that is characterized as globalized. This dissertation is a qualitative case study about teaching to culturally diverse populations and is primarily based on the interviews of seven accountants designated as instructors and the direct observation of those instructors while teaching accounting principles to other accountants. The English language was used despite the fact that all participants, including the instructors, spoke English as a second or third language and came from diverse cultures around the world. It brings to light how an American company (American World Trade or AWT) felt they succeeded in teaching to the diverse population of students though not purposely providing accommodations for the diverse cultural differences in the classroom. During the year 2009, AWT took the materials USU developed around the world and presented conferences in regional offices of Bangkok, Budapest, Santo Domingo, Pretoria, and San Salvador. The pilot study interviews took place at the end of 2009. This study was based on the conference that took place in February 2010 in which 16 of the 70 countries were represented. This dissertation does several things: First, it looks at the cultural dimensions of students and instructors from 16 different countries, in an international setting, and examines if lack of knowledge about cultural dimensions and accommodating for them could interfere with learning. Second, it looks at the strategies and behaviors used by the instructors who were not knowledgeable of cultural dimensions to reveal if they were unconsciously adapting their teaching for the culturally diverse. Third, this study offers an in-depth look at several additional factors, including cultural intelligence (CQ), which could explain their ostensible teaching successes.

Twenty-first century high school students' learning experience in an online setting is no longer limited by a time-constrained schedule, lack of resources, teachers' formalities, and restrictions affecting learning progressions. The list of benefits to the virtual learning experience is vast, however, there are substantial pitfalls and ambiguities that must be resolved. One of the pitfalls for social studies educators is their ability to properly measure whether or not students are gaining prudent civic competences, skills, and dispositions. The mission of social studies education is the acquisition of civic knowledge, but more importantly, the overall development of a lifelong caring, active, and educated citizenry. Yet, online high school social studies instructors are faced with a quandary when attempting to find optimal and indirect techniques toward achieving this end. Through a review of literature, fostering effective discussions in online courses allows students to indirectly learn and practice democratic processes authentically. This current qualitative research study is a discourse analysis that attempts to understand how students' civic identities are constructed and presented through structured, weekly asynchronous discussion forums in five online high school social studies courses in Florida. The examination of students' language-in-use in relation to civic identity construction and/or exhibition is a crucial element for virtual social studies instructors to consider when attempting to understand how young people are civically (and politically) connected to their communities in a digital age; in present times and in the future. This study's four major findings were: (1) students revealed utilitarian and social justice elements within their civic identities; (2) students' showed an eagerness to question and analyze society and the government; (3) the data revealed concrete instances of civic identity exhibition along with civic engagement testimonies; and (4) the interactions that transpired within the discussion forums were a vehicle for civic identity development. The majority of these students did not display an achieved civic identity status due to their lack of an advanced historical and political knowledge base; however, knowledge and skills only comprise a portion of one's civic identity. In addition, results showed that students need to engage in more self-reflection or self-discovery activities, more opportunities to experience an authentic connection with their community through activities like service-learning projects, and more time spent on developing sound 21st century democratic skills. Attention to civic identity construction and enactment as a goal of virtual high school social studies instruction could be a promising target so educators can understand how students see themselves as important members of their communities. Thus, a high school virtual social studies curriculum and course must be empowering; focused on students' self-development while maintaining a rigorous, meaningful, open, and flexible design. Virtual social studies teachers should use numerous pedagogical strategies to empower students to discover and achieve their talents and purposes in life as a tool for accomplishing democratic goals and commitments necessary for our nation's advancement.

Social Software is potentially a disruptive technology in Higher Education, because it proposes changing the instructional paradigm from a formal, structured curriculum based model to a more open, informal, borderless learning model. The purpose of this study was to explore this potential in the context of participating Net Generation students in a technology oriented, laptop based university located in southern Ontario. Net Generation students, are broadly characterized as the first digitally native generation who grew up with information and communication technologies, and that they demand more technology in all aspects of their lives. The study was interested in the efficacy and pedagogical impact of social software technologies to support students’ learning experience. The review of the literature highlighted the paucity of empirical studies examining the utility and value of these software in the higher education environment. This dissertation explored the participating students’ views and attitudes regarding SSW, their behaviours regarding the adoption of these tools in the learning environment, and the effects of SSW in their performance as measured by information literacy test scores and students’ perceptions of their learning. The study used a quantitative method, employing questionnaires and a quasi-experimental design to answer the research questions. A total of eighty students participated, 24 in the treatment group using SSW during the instruction phase, and 56 in the control group, using a Learning Management System (LMS). A pre-test showed a relatively moderate use of SSW technologies among the participants, with the exception of social networking technologies – whose adoption was almost universal. Academic use of these tools was even less pronounced in the pre-test phase. Students showed moderate willingness to employ SSW for the support of their learning. Barriers to the adoption of these technologies were discussed. Study findings could not demonstrate that the use of SSW would lead to different information literacy scores, compared with more established technologies such as the LMS. However, SSW use also formed an undercurrent of student behaviour, and in the aggregate SSW use was associated with different outcomes. The role of factors contributing to these differences, and recommendations for future research are discussed.