Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This study investigated the extent to which secondary schools utilised online technologies and eLearning within the curriculum. It explored computer technology practices and perceptions of students and teachers as well as the technology development strategies deployed by principals in ten secondary schools. The learning content of each school’s web page was also examined. It was intended that the study’s findings would add to current research about student and teacher computer practices, the integration of ICT with pedagogy and the current state of eLearning practice within schools. The research was conducted using a case study methodology for each of the ten schools and collectively, utilising both quantitative and qualitative approaches. This enabled a holistic interpretation of the data, and was followed by a documentary analysis of the learning content in each school’s web presence. This analysis required the development of a rubric (called the eFactor) which was used to categorise and evaluate each school’s web learning content. The data analysis findings were compared with earlier and current research about computer technology use to identify patterns of similarity and difference between existing research and this study. Similarity was found with students being more frequent users of the Internet than their teachers (Avery et al., 2007) as well as being more adept at using a wider range of computer technology than most of their teachers (Negroponte, 1995; Trinidad et al., 2005).Confirmation too that older members of the teaching staff were more reluctant to use computer technology and less inclined to nominate any educational value for that technology (Cuban, 2001). However, other factors have emerged that may influence school computer technology utilisation and online learning practice. Across the sample of schools, there appeared to be little difference in the nature and extent of female and male student computer use for school-related purposes. One of the most compelling findings was that schools with more comprehensive technology and learning strategies, actively fostered by the school leadership, had the greatest interactive learning presence on their web pages. Schools with the least amount of interactive web presence preferred to focus strategies on achieving technology competence and usually in just one software application. The criteria established for the documentary analysis of each school’s web presence provided a score (the eFactor) allocated to each school according to that school’s use of its webpage for learning. The case study findings were also able to identify common practices and strategies of schools which enabled the establishment of three school groups based on the eFactor being low, medium a or high. The case studies also discriminated between the practices of the schools within each of the groups thereby enabling a clear distinction about the allocations of schools to the three groups. Schools’ adoption of an effective online learning presence requires the development of Information Communications Technology with curriculum pedagogy and is the basis for further research. This study has provided clarification on how Internet learning can be classified thereby enabling a guideline for the development of effective learning tasks. The study has also established a link between the type of technology strategies implemented in a school and the online learning presence of that school. The deployment of multiple technology strategies with pedagogical underpinnings contributes to the diversity of eLearning and the awareness of a wider learning environment.

The overarching goals of this study were twofold: first, to learn how community colleges are preparing students to flourish and contribute to a changing and global economy, and second, how they address those students that do not make it through the community college. Within this context, the researcher elected to perform a case study of Tallahassee Community College (TCC), a college identified as focused on improving student success and empowering students to reach their goals; and, committed to sharing data and information across and throughout the institution. To achieve its ultimate goals, this study had four specific purposes. First, it provided an in-depth account of the development and implementation of the organizational vision and student success (learning and attainment) focus at TCC. Second, the study examined how the use of data provided transparency and redirected the focus of TCC. Third, it examined how TCC’s student learning portal is used by students, faculty, staff, administrators, and the board of trustees. Finally, it considered how the findings may inform policy makers, institutional leaders, and researchers about key factors impacting a student success focus. Taken in concert, the study was designed to provide a contextual framework for implementing an organizational vision focused on improving student success. The study is a qualitative research designed case study informed by quantitative data. The study included TCC serving as the unit of analysis for the entire case, and the student learning portal serving as the unit of analysis for an embedded case study. Qualitative methods employed included documents, archival records, interviews, focus groups, and direct observations. Multiple approaches were used to present the case study including a chronology of key historical events and a categorical or topical format based on an inductive analysis of data. Eight themes emerged as contributing to the work of the student success agenda: 1) leadership style of the president and the board relationship, 2) the vision for student success, 3) transparency and open communications, 4) strategic plan, 5) budget, 6) data and information technology, 7) people and development, and 8) sustainability of the shared vision. / text

L'objet de cette thèse est d'analyser l'émergence d'un objet technique, un portail numérique de produits de formation, en identifiant tous les actants qu'un tel projet a mobilisés et en tentant de saisir la logique de leurs interactions pour en dégager les différentes configurations sociotechniques qui se succèdent, les lois ou les régularités qui les rendent représentatives d'un processus d'innovation technique. À partir d'une enquête de terrain fortement inspirée d'une démarche ethnographique, cette recherche dresse l'inventaire de douze portails numériques qui se sont succédés entre 1998 et 2008 dans les Universités de Grenoble et décrit dans le même mouvement les acteurs, leurs positions (convergentes ou contradictoires), les différents points de vue en présence et les enjeux politiques, techniques, économiques, etc.Empruntant le concept d'objet-frontière pour englober cet ensemble d'environnements numériques successifs et communs à un territoire universitaire, l'étude donne une importance aux objets dans l'action et offre une méthode de compréhension des points d'association et de rupture entre les différents actants mobilisés. L'objectif est de modéliser les interactions qui s'établissent à chaque nouveau « prototype » de portail et qui traduisent des chaînes d'associations (techniques, économiques, politiques et d'utilisation) faisant apparaître différents réseaux.En référence à la théorie de l'acteur-réseau, l'analyse des processus de fabrication des portails consiste à identifier les mécanismes à l'œuvre dans les mouvements générateurs de ces réseaux. Cette sociologie conduit à porter un regard particulier sur le portail, considéré comme la résultante d'une combinaison d'associations entre des actants humains et non-humains. Le portail est alors une mise en forme des relations d'entités hétérogènes sociales et techniques. Pour comprendre ces mécanismes de construction, d'ajustement ou de stabilisation des liens entre les entités du réseau, la démarche consiste, dans un premier temps, en partant de l'historique des douze portails, à transposer l'ensemble des données observées dans un espace topographique (schémas, tableaux) et d'y faire figurer les relations qui se nouent entre les différents actants par la médiation de l'objet technique.Cette mise en scène des douze réseaux, à partir de l'objet technique en tant que point de repère des transformations successives de l'objet-frontière, permet dans un second temps de réaliser une analyse de la structure des réseaux, c'est-à-dire de l'ensemble des données et des agencements entre ces données qui structurent un espace. L'analyse consiste alors à interpréter la structure obtenue pour rendre compte des agencements particuliers. Pour chacun des douze portails, cette recherche met en lumière des structures particulières de réseaux et des propriétés spécifiques de constitution, de déformation et de disparition auxquelles sont soumis ces collectifs hybrides. Le rapprochement itératif et méthodique entre ces structures permet de les classer en trois ensembles distincts : les réseaux autocentrés, les réseaux coopératifs et les réseaux ouverts. Ces derniers révèlent des propriétés spécifiques, notamment : - que la compétition symbolique ou économique est une force structurante du réseau ; – que l'objet technique est un composant dont la plasticité dépend davantage de la structure du réseau que de ses caractéristiques techniques ; – que le potentiel d'action d'une entité (c'est-à-dire sa capacité à créer de la différence au sein du réseau) est lié à sa capacité à établir des associations. L'ensemble de ces propriétés traduit des processus d'innovation qui amènent à questionner le modèle de l'innovation de P. Flichy quant à la distinction des deux cadres dans l'objet-frontière et le modèle de la traduction quant à son principe de symétrie. / The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the emergence of a technical object - a digital portal for training products - by identifying all actors that such a project has mobilized and trying to grasp the logic of their interactions to define the various socio-technical configurations laws or regularities that make them representative of a technical innovation process. From a field survey strongly inspired by an ethnographic approach, this research provides an inventory of twelve digital portals that succeeded between 1998 and 2008 at the Universities of Grenoble while describing actors and their positions (converging or contradictory), the different point of view, and the political, technical and economic stakes.Borrowing from the boundary object concept to include this set of successive digital environments common to a university territory study gives importance to objects in action and provides a method of understanding of the association and breaking points between mobilized actors. The objective is to model the interactions established for each new "prototype" portal, which represent chains of associations (technical, economic, political and usage) thus revealing different networks.With reference to the theory of the actor-network, this analysis of the design process of portals aims to identify the mechanisms at work in generating these networks. This sociology implies taking a particular look at the portal, considered as the result of a combination of associations between human and non-human actors. The portal is there by shaped by the heterogeneous social and technical relationships of the actors who designed it.To understand these mechanisms of construction, adjustment or stabilization of the links between network entities, the approach starts with an historical overview of the twelve portals in order to transpose all of the observed data into a topographical space (diagrams, tables) and to include the relationships established between actants through the mediation of the technical object.This presentation of the twelve networks, which considers the technical object as a landmark of successive transformations of the boundary object, then makes it possible to perform an analysis of the network structure, that is say of the set of data and and how the relationships between this data structure a space. The analysis then consists in interpreting the resulting structure to account for special relationships. For each of the twelve portals, this research highlights specific network structures and specific properties of the constitution, deformation and loss that these hybrid collectives are subject to. The iterative and systematic connection between these structures can be classified into three distinct groups: self-centered networks, collaborative networks and open networks. These groups reveal specific properties, including: - symbolic or economic competition is a structuring force of the network; - the technical object is a component whose plasticity depends more on the structure of the network than on its technical characteristics; - the action potential of an entity (that is to say its ability to create difference within the network) is related to its ability to establish associations.All of these innovation processes lead us to question the P. Flichy model of innovation regarding the distinction of the two boundary object frameworks and in the model of the actor-network in its principle of symmetry.

This study examined the integration of Small Basic as a new technology in computer courses of elementary schools in Turkey and investigated the perceptions of students and teachers of elementary school about the use of Small Basic in their computer courses in terms of its effects on their perceived motivation, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Also, information from teachers about advantages and disadvantages of this technology, and the suggestions of teachers about the use of this technology and the content was gathered. A case study was conducted in the form of an action research / that is, this study used components of case study by action research. The data were collected from 4th and 5th grade students of Plevene Elementary School by using a questionnaire. Also, interviews were conducted with the teachers. Descriptive statistics, frequency distributions and descriptive analysis methods were used to analyze the results. The findings of the study showed that Small Basic is accepted by students and all teachers as a new technology. Also, students and teachers stated that using this technology affected students&#039 / perceived motivation towards computer courses positively. Moreover, the students and the teachers perceived that Small Basic is a useful and easy to use technology. Moreover, it was stated that the students and the teachers are satisfied with advantages of the use of this new technology in their learning environment.