Thesis advisor: Lillie Richardson Albert / Currently, one of the most popular technology initiatives used in schools to prepare information- and technology-literate students is one-to-one laptop programs. However, limited research studies have investigated factors involved in laptop programs' integration process in schools from various participant perspectives by specifically focusing on ELL students and their needs. Through an ecological lens, this study investigated a one-to-one laptop program integrated into ESL classrooms in an urban middle school, which sustained the program for 6 years. The study included multiple perspectives of various school community members to capture an accurate account of factors necessary for the program's implementation and continuation. This study used a qualitative, single-case research design with exploratory purposes to investigate the multi-level nature of a one-to-one laptop program. Ecology was used as a lens to interpret data and show the relations between living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) factors in the program. In-depth data was collected through interviews, classroom observations, field notes, and archives. Collected data were analyzed through constructivist grounded theory using open, axial, and selective coding. The study demonstrated that multiple factors interact with each other and impact the laptop initiative in ESL classrooms. These factors and their interaction were visually represented as a conceptual model. Factors identified in findings were discussed under three main themes: financial, technical and leadership factors. Findings related to financial factors indicated that technical issues increased over the years due to the financial problems, which influenced the instructional use of laptops unfavorably and amplified doubts about the future of the program. Results related to leadership highlighted the importance of having multiple leaderships and allowing the participation of various school members in the decision making process. Results also showed that the federal mandates on achievement influenced the laptop program by changing the vision of the school from teaching with technology to improving instruction and achievement scores on standardized tests. Finally, findings emphasized the importance of including ESL leadership in the laptop program from the very beginning to adjust it to the needs of ESL students. Implications for teachers, administrators, educational researchers, policy makers, and future research are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

BakgrundVi har undersökt projektet One Laptop per Child vilket är datorprojekt startat i USA med syfte att förse elever i utvecklingsländer med varsin dator i undervisningen. Sedan år 2000 har Rwanda påbörjat en tydlig satsning för landets utveckling. IKT har en stor roll ochgenomsyrar alla officiella dokument, från regering till läroplaner. I officiella dokument från OLPC figurerar uttrycket Learning by doing, vilket är starkt förknippat med John Dewey och hans pedagogiska tankar. Forskningen kring datorer i skolan och antalet datorer per elev är oenig, men gemensamt för den forskning vi har tagit del av är att skolor som arbetar med datorer avkrävs en tydlig struktur kring upplägget.SyfteSyftet med vår studie är att ta reda på hur elever och lärare i en klass, som ingår i projektet One Laptop per Child, i Rwandas huvudstad Kigali förhåller sig till och använder sig av datorn i undervisningen.MetodVi har genomfört en kvalitativ studie med inspiration från etnografin där vi har använt oss av observationer och intervjuer vid insamlandet av data. Före vår studie tog vi kontakt med ansvariga inom OLPC Rwanda, så kallade gatekeepers, som hjälpte oss att genomföra vår studie på plats i Kigali.ResultatLärarna använde datorn vid steg-för-steg instruktioner i helklass och när eleverna behövde hjälp. Detsamma gäller elev-lärarna men de använde också datorn vid lektionsintroduktioner. Eleverna använde datorn främst vid enskilt arbete för att skapa animationer och utbyta idéer. Datorn framställs ur lärarnas synvinkel som ett kunskapshöjande verktyg som tränar elevernaatt bland annat kommunicera och dela med sig av kunskap. / Program: Lärarutbildningen

Parents are important to the success of the one-to-one computing programs that are becoming more commonplace in secondary classrooms. Parents' opinions can influence the success of these programs or doom them to failure; however, little is known regarding parents' attitudes about these programs. To understand parental attitudes toward a one-to-one laptop program, this qualitative exploratory case study used Rogers's diffusions of innovations theory on how new ideas and technologies spread. Participants included 11 parents of students attending 2 urban secondary schools with similar demographics in the southwestern United States. Data were collected through focus group sessions, follow-up interviews, and relevant documents. Data were analyzed through qualitative content analysis and coding. Findings revealed that parents loved the one-to-one laptop program, saw technology to be a right of all students, thought that the district-managed laptops were used more for academic rather than educational purposes due to content filters and other restrictions, and believed that a central school-wide technology support system available to all stakeholders, including parents, was critical to the success of the one-to-one laptop program and approval by parents. This study may create positive social change by providing new insights and beneficial tips to educational organizations looking to use one-to-one laptop programs most effectively.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att ge exempel på hur personliga datorer kan upplevas av eleveroch lärare på gymnasienivå. Metoderna som används är intervju med elever och lärare samtanalys av styrdokument och tidigare forskning inom området. I dag vill man från regeringsoch skolverkets håll förstärka skolans roll som förmedlare av kunskap inom IT-området. Dettalas om digitalkompetens, en färdighet man menar är nödvändig för att idag och i framtidenkunna verka i samhället. Att utrusta elever och lärare med personliga datorer i så kallade entill-en projekt är något som den senaste tiden vunnit mark. I Umeå väljer man hösten 2008och framåt att ge samtliga elever som börjar studera vid någon av de kommunala skolornatillgång till sådana datorer inom vad man benämner som elevdataprojektet. I denna studieintervjuar jag elever och lärare från en av de skolorna i kommunen.Både elever och lärare är i huvudsak positivt inställda till att få tillgång till och arbeta medpersonliga datorer. Lärarna ser bland annat fördelar i kunna anpassa lärandet till enskildaelever, att datorn förenklar inlämningar och spridning av information, att man nu lättare fårtillgång till information/material och att elever i behov av särskilt stöd har stora fördelar.Bland nackdelarna nämns bland annat okoncentration under lektionen att elever med godadatorkunskaper får större fördelar än andra och att personliga datorer ställer krav på elevernaseget ansvar. Eleverna menar att datorn låter gör det lättare att fåt tag på information, att manarbetar effektivare, att det är roligt att arbeta med en personlig dator. Nackdelar man uppleverär bland annat okoncentration under lektionerna, att datorn är tung att bära omkring och attelever med god datorkunskap har större fördelar än andra.Slutsatser som dras är bland annat att lärarens användande och integrerande av datorerna iundervisningen hur stor inverkan på upplevda fördelar och nackdelar samt att den ökadeokoncentrationen bör problematiseras då det i slutändan är osäkert om vad som är ökadokoncentration och vad som synliggjord okoncentration.

One of the largest product categories within all the electronic products is portable ­computers, also known as notebooks, is slowly replacing stationary computers and is ­predicted to be the mainstream choice in the near future. But the current state of ­notebook shows these products are not accommodated for an effective large scale ­recycling process. As the notebooks are becoming more compact, its inner ­structures have become more complicated. Permanently fastening methods, multi-material ­compositions and many other factors contribute to an ineffective, expensive and tedious recycling process. The goal of the project treated in this report was to investigate the possibilities of a simplified structure adapted for an effective disassembly and recycling process. And to develop a conceptual notebook adapted for the stated purpose. The project resulted in a conceptual notebook named Sixten with an enhanced and ­simplified inner structure. All permanently fastening methods was replaced by ­detachable locking and securing devices. The number of tools required for dismantling was reduced, as the usage of screws. The variation of materials used in the notebook, with ­electrical components apart, is low. These materials, ABS plastics and aluminum were chosen based on their recyclable and processing possibilities. But also because of the durability and desired mechanical properties the structure required. The limited number of materials used in Sixten makes it environmentally beneficial since every material ­requires its own specific recycling process, and by reducing the number of materials energy can be saved on using only a few recycling methods. Sixten fulfills the principals of design for disassembly as a notebook that is easy to ­disassemble in comparison with notebooks on the market today. The disassembly time has been reduced, from the 45 minutes which may be required to fully disassemble a conventional notebook, down to an estimated disassembly time of 6 minutes, which is the time Sixten requires. It is in this short disassembly time where the economic benefits of Sixten lie.

I min undersökning studerar jag elevernas interaktion face-to-face på raster där den bärbara datorn finns med. Syftet är att undersöka hur den bärbara datorn påverkar interaktionen mellan eleverna på raster. Mina frågeställningar är hur och när elever är socialt responsiva respektive asocialt responslösa på raster samt hur elevernas interaktionsritualer ser ut?   Jag har använt en kvalitativ metod för att kunna besvara mitt syfte och mina frågeställningar. Jag intervjuade fem elever i årskurs ett på en gymnasieskola i Karlstad och genomförde tre observationstillfällen.   Studien visar att den egna datorn både kan ses som en tillgång och hinder på raster för elever på gymnasiet vid interaktion. Många av eleverna använder datorerna för att visa varandra saker som de sen diskuterar kring. Den sociala responsiviteten visade sig tydligt vid dessa tillfällen. Datorn som en gemensam symbol och en gemensam aktivitet verkade vara en betydelsefull interaktionsritual för eleverna. Vid andra tillfällen verkade datorn istället vara ett hinder för interaktionen. Eleven uppträdde då passivt i interaktionen och deltog i mindre utsträckning eller inte alls. De blev asocialt responslösa. Interaktionsritualen blev i dessa fall misslyckad.   Nyckelord: Bärbar dator, raster, social responsivitet, asocial responslöshet, interaktionsritualer / In this study I examine pupils´ face-to-face interaction when the laptop is there. The purpose is to see how the laptop impacts the interaction between students at breaks. My research questions are how and when pupils are social responsive respectively asocial responseless and also what the rituals of interactions look like.   I have used a qualitative method to answer my purpose and questions. I interviewed five pupils in year one of upper secondary school in Karlstad and also conducted three observations.   The study shows that the laptop is an impediment but also an asset in the interaction between students at breaks. Many pupils use their laptops to show each other things which could start a discussion. Social interaction was very evident at these moments. The laptop as a symbol and a common activity seemed to be an important interaction of ritual for the pupils. At other occasions the laptop seemed to be an impediment for the interaction. The pupils then became passive and participated less or not at all. He or she became asocial responseless. The interacion ritual then failed.   Keywords: Laptop, breaks, social response, asocial responseless, interaction ritual

Technological advancement, as well as consumer demands, has motivated the miniaturization of electronic/mechanical systems and increase of device power and performance. The notebook computer is not an exception, and innovative thermal management solutions must be employed to compensate for the increased heat dissipation in the space-constrained enclosures. The majority of current cooling systems in laptop computers rely on heat pipes attached to a remote heat exchanger with micro-fans providing forced convection to reject heat to the ambient, however this technique can not accommodate the increasing heat fluxes in the confined laptop enclosure. In this study, a two-phase closed loop cooling system is designed and tested for a laptop computer. The cooling system consists of an evaporator structure containing boiling structures connected to a compact condenser with mini fans providing external forced convection. A pump is also incorporated to assist the return of the condensate back to the evaporator. The cooling system is characterized by a parametric study which determines the effects of volume fill ratio of coolant, initial system pressure, and pump flow rate on the thermal performance of the closed loop. Experimental data shows the optimum parametric values which can dissipate 25 W of chip power with a chip temperature maintained at 95C. Numerical analysis provides additional data to further enhance the heat dissipation from the external air-cooled side of the condenser by studying the effects of ventilation and air flow rate across the system. Thermal management of mobile systems must be considered during the early design phases, and this research shows the feasibility of implementing of a two-phase cooling system to dissipate 25 W in a laptop computer.

In this thesis, we propose a new bandwidth-enhancement method of using a parasitic open slot to achieve a wide lower band for the internal laptop computer antenna with a small size to cover the GSM850/900 operation and a wide upper band to cover the GSM1800/1900/UMTS operation as well. The occupied antenna volume is only 48 ¡Ñ 10 ¡Ñ 3.5 mm^3 above the top edge of the display ground. For practical application, we analyze the effects of the antenna position, nearby metal plate, shielding metal plate, keyboard ground, FR4 substrate, and the size of display ground on the performance of the WWAN antenna. In addition, effects of the user¡¦s whole-body on the proposed antenna are also analyzed. Owing to the user¡¦s whole-body being mainly lossy materials, a decrease in the antenna¡¦s radiation efficiency is observed when the user¡¦s whole-body is in close proximity to the WWAN laptop computer antenna.

For applications of wireless communication of the fourth generation (4G LTE), the technique of using a printed parallel-resonant spiral strip for bandwidth enhancement of a small-size planar laptop computer (especially the thin Ultrabook) antenna for the LTE operation is first presented. The antenna is printed on a thin FR4 substrate of small size 45 x 9 mm2 with a simple uniplanar structure which is promising for Ultrabook application. Based on the proposed antenna structure, its application for MIMO operation to achieve enhanced isolation is also analyzed in this thesis. Different from the works for the relatively much smaller ground plane conditions such as in the mobile phones, the effect of different size of the supporting conductive plate of the upper corner of the Ultrabook is discussed for the isolation issue of the MIMO antennas. Finally, the technique of isolation improvement in the LTE700 band for the MIMO operation in the Ultrabook is presented.

When the conventional mobile communication antennas embedded in the laptop computers, it is difficult to achieve enough bandwidths or a larger antenna size is required for covering the GSM/DCS operation. To overcome this problem, three new mobile communication internal antennas, having multi-band operation capability and suitable to be embedded in the laptop computers are proposed. At first, we introduce a monopole antenna with a shorted parasitic element. This antenna can provide wide bandwidths to cover GSM900, DCS, PCS, and UMTS operations. Then, in order to additionally achieve the GSM850 operation to form the penta-band operation, we present a wideband monopole antenna with a shorted structure. Finally, we propose an open-loop antenna with a shorted parasitic element. The antenna occupies a smaller volume and is capable of providing wide bandwidths to cover GSM850, GSM900, DCS, PCS, and UMTS operations. Detailed antenna designs and experimental results are presented and discussed.