Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. Felipe Korzenny, Florida State University, College of Communication, Dept of Integrated Marketing Communication. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 19, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains v, 55 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.C.I.T.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2006. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on May 24, 2006). Includes bibliographical references.

<p> Leaders remain perpetually connected to their work because of the rapid advancement of information technology. This research, using a qualitative approach, explored how increased connective technology is affecting school leaders with the central question: <i>How is hyperconnectivity experienced by school leaders?</i> Using personal interviews, the lived experiences of fifteen international middle and high school principals with one-to-one student-to-device programs were collected. Raw transcriptions of their experiences were analyzed using the descriptive phenomenological approach as outlined by Giorgi (2009). This approach allowed for the data to be reduced into a single narrative description shared by all participants indicating the essences of their lived experience as hyperconnected school leaders. </p><p> This shared narrative highlighted complex and paradoxical experiences associated with how these school leaders interact with technology. Their experiences indicated that work-life balance for hyperconnected leaders required strong personal boundaries and skillful use of connective technologies. Examples of effective leader development of self and community highlighted, paradoxically, the need to unplug to effectively deploy connected technology within their leadership practice. Conversely, this study also showed how leaders can be controlled by connectivity. They associated their roles as responsible school leaders with perpetual connectivity; in consequence, they fused their work and home lives, experienced increased stress, and struggled with work overload. These results imply that international school principals are impacted by increased connectivity in different ways. Findings from this study indicate those leading hyperconnected schools must pay attention to how connectivity is affecting themselves and members of their school communities. Principals must protect themselves from the increasing demands upon their attention that constant connectivity presents in order to make mental room for the self-reflection and creativity needed to provide novel solutions and approaches towards their leadership work.</p>

<p> This study was designed to involve a variety of research methods, resulting in a mixed methods, case study approach to investigate best teaching practices in an elementary blended learning environment. The research-based evaluation work of Charlotte Danielson was incorporated as the theoretical framework for this research. Differing methods of tablet use were observed in 10 classrooms while data was collected on student engagement. Blended learning is among best teaching practices, though surprisingly, educators in this study were not familiar with blended learning models and techniques. The term "blended learning" in the context of this K-5 study meant utilizing different technology devices as a means to enhance teaching. Many educators are utilizing tablets in their classrooms on a daily basis without adequate professional development. The influx of tablets in America's schools has not been well planned nor have professional development opportunities provided teachers with the necessary training to fully implement and integrate best practice in their classrooms. Findings from this study help fill the gap in elementary level and rural area schools. Results from this research indicate that blended learning tools enrich the elementary school classroom. Tablet usage in this study demonstrated seamless bridging for all levels of academic achievement. Students were observed utilizing metacognitive skills when collaborating with their peers and demonstrating their learning through projects on their tablets. Three themes emerged from the interview data. First, blended learning and the integration of technology as a best practice supports current literature. The second theme involved professional development, including teachers' desire for both building- and district-level support as well as the frequency of professional development, and teacher technology support. And third, the school is the vehicle for teacher collaboration, differentiation for students, and engagement of students.</p>

<p>This qualitative ethnographic study addresses the phenomenon of rapid social media expansion, which creates organizational challenges. Ongoing development of advanced technology products means that effective organizations must be more adaptive and receptive to new approaches and changes in their environment. In a hyper connected society, one where workers are linked through social media&mdash;at work, home, vacation, in a restaurant, or anywhere else&mdash;organizations need to unify their communication systems to leverage the potential that enhanced and collaborative communication can yield (Meister &amp; Willyerd, 2010). </p><p> The research undertaken is directed at obtaining data on levels of social media penetration into organizational learning to analyze how social media use correlates with performance. In addition to identifying types of social media tools being utilized by organizations with formal learning structures, the research focuses on showing the importance of planning and goal-directed structuring in successful leveraging of social media tools in organizational learning. This provides a basis for recommendations for future research on social media use in this area to permit development of techniques for measuring the impact of the technology on learning and learner productivity and refinement of best practices for adoption and implementation of specific social media tools. </p>

<p>Nurse educator perspectives about knowledge, awareness, skills, and attitudes regarding documentation, as a component of health information technology can offer important data on the links between achieving safe and quality patient outcomes. A classic grounded theory approach was used to explore nurse educator faculty perceptions of issues and strategies related to teaching effective patient care documentation. The current problem with teaching nursing documentation among nurse educators surfaced during the interviews with nurse educators and the specific problem was identified in the study from the views of study participants. This study included two main purposes: (a) to explicate the issues and strategies of nurse educators teaching of nursing documentation while transitioning from paper-based to an electronic health record format, and (b) to generate an explanatory theory of teaching nursing documentation and its negative or positive influences of student learning of the competency. In-depth interviews with observation were conducted among sixteen nurse educators from a baccalaureate nursing program. A grounded theory of internalizing accountability emerged as the core variable/core category through classic grounded theory data collection and analysis in a simultaneous fashion. Four sub-categories and components also emerged and include (a) progressing levels, (b) reflecting on conflicting roles of nurse educators, (c) accepting transitioning, and (d) engaging and empowering through leadership. As a result of the analysis of the study findings, conclusions in this study filled the current gap in the literature through development of a new theory of internalizing accountability with future use in undergraduate and graduate nursing education. </p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Murdoch University, 2004. / Thesis submitted to the Division of Arts. Bibliography: leaves 299-316.