According to the National Center for Education Statistics, even though 97% of classrooms have at least one instructional computer available, only 40% of teachers in public schools (including elementary and secondary) report using computers in the classroom often. My project aims to illustrate the barriers that are keeping K-12 teachers from integrating technology in their classrooms, such as the lack of availability for training, teacher’s lack of knowledge or schooling, or a lack of IT support. It also discusses possible solutions to the problem, such as teacher training and better resources. By assessing the Level of Technology Integration, or LoTi, we can learn how much or how often a teacher is using technology in a classroom. My project consists of conducting a research study that will aim to reinforce the hypothesis that the LoTi in K- 12 schools is lower than expected, considering the availability of computers and technology. By learning the severity of the obstacles teachers face, we can work on possible solutions. The findings of this study were that teachers face barriers that inhibit them from implementing technology no matter what type of school environment they are in. These barriers come from lack of time, access, but most strongly from the self-efficacy of the teachers. Teachers need professional development and training to develop their skills and confidence, which will positively impact students, the school, and the overall education system.

In this dissertation, the creation and iterative improvement of an open badge system for an undergraduate preservice educational technology course is examined through 3 journal-ready articles. In article 1, we detail the design, development and implementation of the badge system and demonstrate how an open badge system could help meet the challenges facing the course. Several future design implications are identified, including how to scale the badge system while maintaining quality control and how to achieve financial sustainability. Future research implications include determining if awarding badges provide students with additional motivation and what employers perceptions of badges might be. Article 2 examines how undergraduate instructional design assistants (IDAs) could be used to affordably scale our badge system. External reviews determined that IDAs can create badge rubrics at a similar level as instructors, allowing us to create far more badges than we could without their help. IDAs also reported that the experience benefitted them by giving them increased technology skills and room for professional growth. While most of the IDAs were excited about the benefits of open badges, none chose to share their badges with prospective employers, largely due to concerns about how to display them or about whether principals would understand their value. In article 3, we look at employers perceptions of open badges. We emailed 1 of 2 forms of a survey to 577 principals and assistant principals in 5 school districts. Form A used wording about digital badges while form B used the term microcredentials. We compared the results of the surveys using the Mann-Whitney U test and the sign test. We also qualitatively examined the results of the open-ended questions using constant comparison analysis. We found that using the term microcredential instead of the term digital badge does not have a significant effect on employers perceptions on open badges. However, providing a small amount of instruction regarding the affordances of open badges does produce a statistically significant difference in the perceived value of open badges. Employers see the most value in achievement and capability badges. Most employers believed badges would be useful in the hiring process, but many worried about the challenge of having too much data. Finally, we found that many employers think that badges could be useful in professional development.

This purpose of this study examined the effectiveness in technology integration among Texas educator preparation pathways and identified successful approaches in developing the technology competencies of preservice teachers. Existing data collected by the Texas Education Agency's Exit Survey by preservice teachers completing an educator preparation program was used to conduct a quantitative study. Data was imported into SPSS to conduct statistical analysis. The findings are discussed and recommendations for future research are provided to inform future development of technology integration in educator preparation programs.

Project CHILD (Changing How Instruction for Learning is Delivered) provides an avenue for educational change using a triangulated approach. Using data from the Florida Department of Education, this research studies the Project CHILD learning approach on preparing students for success on portions of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) using results from fifteen charter schools in the state of Florida, seven participating in Project CHILD and eight non-participating charter schools for the 2008-2009 school-year. Dispersion statistics such as range and standard deviation as well as independent t tests are computed to compare the percentage of students in grades three to five scoring levels 3 and higher on the reading and mathematics portions, and fourth grade students scoring a 3.5 or higher on the writing assessment of the FCAT. Project CHILD schools had smaller ranges and standard deviations in the majority of the comparisons. Descriptively, this suggests that students in the Project CHILD schools are performing closer to the school average. There were no statistically significance differences between the Project CHILD schools and non-Project CHILD schools for grade level comparisons, nor on any grade level aggregate outcomes (i.e., grades 3-5 school FCAT reading, mathematics, or writing mean). However moderate effect sizes were seen for reading in grade four and writing assessments in grade four. The non-statistically significant findings were likely due to low power, and the moderate effect sizes suggest evidence of practical significance.

This study determined whether the measures implemented to address barriers to technology infusion changed the technology use patterns of teachers at a middle school. The research question was: Will middle school teachers infuse technology in teaching when the barriers of a lack of time, tools, training, and support are addressed? Document analysis of lesson plans and educational technologist (ET) logs was conducted to analyze the change in the teachers? teaching practices. Interviews were conducted to gather information about the participant?s perceptions of the project and their involvement in using technology in teaching. Observations were conducted to determine whether changes occurred in teaching practices and to confirm information provided by the teachers. Data analysis revealed that the provision of resources did make a difference in teaching practices. Three of the five core teachers changed their teaching practices; two teachers? teaching practices did not change because they faced second order as well as first order barriers to technology integration. Recommendations for practice included (a) leaving the ET at Covington in his ET position and investing in the funding the ET position at the other schools in the district, (b) utilizing the expertise of the core teachers to provide technology training and support for teachers in the district, (c) selecting persons with a strong technology vision who are willing to practice their vision as well as translate their vision into teacher use of technology in instruction. Recommendations for further research were that follow up studies be conducted that (a) determine whether there was a continuation in the integration of technology in teaching after the project no longer operates in the school setting, (b) determine whether the school continued with the model of providing time, tools, training, and support for teachers to integrate technology into their teaching, (c) determine whether the school district implements these measures in other schools, (d) seek to gain a more in-depth understanding of the reasons that teachers fail to integrate technology into teaching when the first order barriers to technology integration have been removed, and (e) address the issue of technology use for instructional purposes and its effects on students? willingness to participate in the learning process.

The purpose of this study was to examine female faculty members’ use of computer technologies, their attitudes toward computers, the factors that best predict their attitudes toward computers, and the barriers that limit their use of computer technologies in girls’ colleges in Dammam and Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Also, this study examined how female faculty members’ attitudes and use of computer technologies differ according to their demographic characteristics. 206 female faculty members participated in this study, and only 197 usable questionnaires were analyzed and used in this study. Descriptive statistics, a one-way ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis were conducted to analyze the data. The findings of this study revealed that female faculty members had positive attitudes toward using computer technologies. Also, the results indicated that female faculty members had high levels of use of 3 common computer applications: e-mail, word processing, and the Internet. Furthermore, findings revealed that the barriers that significantly limit faculty members’ use of technology were lack of technical support, lack of effective training, lack of equipment and infrastructure, and lack of administrative support. The results revealed that the demographic variables that had an influence on female faculty members’ attitudes toward using computers were age, years of experience with computer technologies, subject taught, academic degree, access to a computer at the office, access to the Internet at the office, computer skill levels, and English language proficiency. The findings indicated that the demographic variables that had an impact on female faculty members’ use of computer technologies were age, teaching experience, years of experience with computer technologies, subject taught, access to the Internet at home, computer skill levels, and English language proficiency. The factors that best predict female faculty members’ attitudes toward computers were reduced course quality, lack of time, lack of collegial support, and lack of self confidence. This study presents several conclusions and recommendations to improve female faculty members’ use of computer technologies at girls’ colleges. Female faculty members need technical support services unit, more training, available equipments and infrastructure, more administrative support, and release time for learning about computer technologies to increase their use of computer technologies.

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