This is a case of technological change as it took place in Jefferson Middle School over eight years. It is a study of how a school moved from the abstract level of visioning and planning to the concrete level of action and implementation. Through interviews, historical documents, and reflection a story is told using a building trade metaphor of how the work environment, governance, and learning evolved under the leadership of a new principal as an instructional technology plan was implemented. A lens metaphor was used to view culture, change process, leadership, and reform and frame the guiding questions and conclusions. The culture was transformed by empowering staff members to act and involving them in decision making. A change in the use of instructional technology occurred because staff members shared ideas; participated in visioning, planning, and training; and used the services of an "outside expert". Leadership roles such as "supporter," "innovator," and "expert" were dispersed among staff members. The staff was involved in building level reform as they identified and solved problems. This case may be helpful to practitioners implementing change. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study is to identify the perceptions of selected high school principals regarding their use of technology and technology related professional development. The design of the study is based on the phenomenological study approach in which the lived experiences of a small number of people is investigated (Rossman & Rallis, 2003). This study used a qualitative methodology in which the researcher conducted interviews of nine current high school principals in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Using the qualitative method of interviewing allowed the individuals to completely describe their personal feelings and beliefs towards technology professional development. Personal responses tend to provide increased detail and reasoning for practices and experiences, and provides a way for researchers to understand the meaning of the participant's behavior (Seidman, 2006). Investigating the technology use and the technology related professional development of selected high school principals in the Commonwealth of Virginia provides further insight into the technology needs of current high school principals as well as the technology related professional development that makes their jobs more efficient. Six findings were identified from this research study, including: (a) participating high school principals use technology on average twenty three to twenty-six hours per week, including the weekends; (b) participating high school principals use technology for administrative uses such as staying in communication with the school community, and analyzing data in order to review student attendance and performance on standardized assessments; (c) participating high school principals use technology for instructional uses such as modeling instructional technology to the faculty and staff and being familiar with the same instructional technology that is being used in the classroom (d) participating high school principals in the Commonwealth of Virginia receive technology related training if it is the same technology that is being used in the classrooms of their respective buildings; (e) participating high school principals feel it was important to participate in some type of technology related professional development; and (f) participating high school principals feel that technology related professional development was necessary in order to have a better understanding of financing technology, learning about hardware and software, and relaying the importance of staying "current" in technology. This study contains several implications for future educational leaders. The implications are that school and division leaders should recognize the importance of (a) including in the job description the expectation that high school principals use technology; (b) providing professional development for using technology to review instructional data, and maintain contact with the school community; (c) providing professional development for instructional technology so that principals will be considered the instructional technology leaders for their respective buildings; (d) high school principals having knowledge of the instructional technology that is being used within classrooms, and be able to model it for the faculty and school community; (e) high school principals participating in technology related professional development in order to complete their administrative and instructional responsibilities; and (f) developing technology professional development plans that describe the financial responsibility of technology within a school, and provide specific details on the importance of the selection of hardware and software. / Ed. D.

Classroom Response Systems (CRS) are devices that are relatively inexpensive and easy to use, yet allow full and anonymous participation by students while providing immediate feedback to instructors. These devices have shown promise as a tool to increase engagement in learners, an outcome that would be particularly useful among middle level learners. This study assessed the ability of CRSs to promote content among suburban, middle level students in science class, and it is the first known study of CRSs that used an alternating treatments design to improve the reliability of the findings. The study also assessed the acceptability of the technology. Quiz results did not support claims that that students learn more when using CRSs, but acceptability responses indicated that students preferred CRSs to traditional questioning practices, that students perceived their learning as greater when using CRSs, and that students felt somewhat lower levels of anxiety when using CRSs for review. / School of Education / Instructional Technology (EdDIT) / EdD / Dissertation

Teachers’ beliefs have been identified as a barrier to classroom technology integration. School leadership support that reduces or removes integration barriers can assist teachers in the move from traditional teaching beliefs and practices towards successful classroom technology integration. This mixed methods study investigated beliefs of school leaders and teacher participants concerning support factors that affect technology integration from a mid-sized suburban public school system in the southeastern United States. The quantitative phase of this study included 556 school leaders and teachers. The quantitative survey Beliefs about Teaching with Technology (BATT) measured the school leaders and teachers’ beliefs concerning support factors that affect technology integration. A MANOVA was used to identify significant differences between the two groups and to select the extreme cases for the second phase of the study. An extreme case was defined as one in which the school leaders and teachers had a statistically different view of the beliefs about teaching with technology. Significance was found at the p = .001 level in all categories of beliefs investigated. This qualitative phase of the study included participants from three extreme case schools. Interviews with key informants further explored the differences in beliefs between three leaders and nine teachers and identified differing perspectives between their beliefs about factors that support technology integration in their schools. These interviews also provided descriptions of behaviors related to individuals’ beliefs about these factors. The constant comparative model was used for interview analysis. If classroom technology integration is to be successful, leaders and teachers in a school should possess similar beliefs about the availability and nature of the school-based support, resources, professional development, vision, and incentives necessary to encourage change within a school environment. This study identified the existence of differences in such beliefs between these two groups in one school system, a necessary step before conducting further research on the impact these differences in beliefs could have on individuals’ behaviors related to the successful integration of technology into classroom instruction.

Despite large investment by higher education institutions in technology for faculty and student use, instructional technology is not being integrated into instructions in the higher education institutions including medical education institutions. While diffusion of instructional technologies has been reached a saturation pint with early adopters of technology, it has remained limited among mainstream faculty. This investigation explored instructional technology patterns and characteristics of medical school faculty as well as contributing factors to IT adoption. The primary focus was to explore differences between early adopting faculty and mainstream faculty based on Rogers&amp / #8217 / diffusion of innovations and adopter categories theories. A mix-method research design, a quantitative methodology(survey) in conjunction with qualitative methodology(in-dept interviews) was employed for the purpose of gathering data about characteristics and adoption patterns of medical school faculty who are early adopting and mainstream. A hundred and fifty-five teaching faculty from basic science and clinical science disciplines at a Faculty of Medicine in a state university completed the survey. In-dept interviews were conducted with faculty who are early adopting and mainstream. The findings provided an evidence for similarities between adoption patterns of medical school faculty and other higher education faculty / relatively new tools associated with instruction were not adopted by majority of the faculty. As expected, some differences were found between early adopters and mainstream faculty in terms of individual characteristics, adoption patterns, perceived barriers and incentives to adoption and preferred methods of learning about technology and support. Implications of the findings for instructional technology policy and plans were reported.

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Throughout the last 30 years, there has been a movement to use computer technology in schools to enhance teaching and learning. In recent years, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has mandated that states have a long range strategic educational technology plan that describes the many facets of their technology integration efforts (2002). However, at this time research indicates that technology integration in classrooms is still low tech and infrequent (Cuban, 2001; NCES, 2005a). The purpose of this quantitative study was to gain insight into a teacher's use of computer technology with students in K-5 general education public school classrooms across the state of Virginia. Eleven independent variables (e.g., teaching philosophy, professional development, hardware proficiency, software proficiency) and 2 dependent variables (i.e., frequency and application of technology integration) were selected based on a review of literature and input from educators. A questionnaire, designed to measure variables, was field tested for validity and reliability then administrated to teachers. The population of the study was approximately 16,500 K-5 general education public school teachers from the state of Virginia with active e-mail addresses in the Market Data Retrieval (MDR) database. A systematic sample of 1,400 K-5 teachers was selected from the MDR database. Teachers' responses rendered 313 usable questionnaires. Analysis of the data revealed that the majority of independent variables (8), with the exception of 3 independent variables (i.e., technical support, student to computer ratio, technology integration support), yielded significant correlations with the dependent variable frequency of technology integration. Whereas, all independent variables (10), with the exception of technical support, yielded significant correlations with the dependent variable application of technology integration. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to determine whether the 11 independent variables were significant predictors of variation in the dependent variables (frequency and application of integration). The results of both regression analyses rendered significant models for the prediction of variation in frequency and application of integration (R2= .16, R2=.39), respectively. The researcher concluded that the predicted variance (R2= .16) of regression model 1 was too small to be considered a viable model for the predication of variation in frequency. Whereas, regression model 2 predicted a greater level of variance (R2=.39), thus it was considered a good predictor of variation in the application of technology integration. Three of the 11 independent variables (i.e., software availability, teaching philosophy, and software proficiency) were among the variables that were significant predictors of variance in the application of technology integration. The strongest predictor was software availability followed by teaching philosophy and software proficiency. Teachers who reported moderate to low variety in the application of technology integration also reported moderate access to software, moderately low software proficiency, and use of instructional practices that were consistent with constructivism. / Ph. D.

Previous studies on humor in education have focused on the use of humor embedded in the presentation of content material. Some research, however, suggests that humor is an effective tool for increasing divergent thinking and information acquisition if the humor is given prior to the presentation of content material. This study used an experimental design to test if humor given prior to content presentation was more effective in helping students understand and remember information and enjoy the presentation than a control group treatment. Statistical tests did not support either hypothesis. / Ph. D.

This study explores the use of a multimedia survey instrument which includes an integrated treatment in the context of a one semester human sexuality course. The instrument was created to assess and affect student attitudes and to improve data collection and analysis options. A literature review on attitudes, attitude assessment, and applications of technology to the affective domain introduces the discussion. Developed by a team of three university researchers, the survey instrument was created as a stand-alone application using Macromedia Authorware® multimedia authoring system. The instrument was administered to 210 students in a university education technology laboratory via CD-ROM with data collected across the campus network to two remote servers. Due to problems within specific response sets, 21 users' responses were removed from the data set, leaving an N of 189 respondents in the analyzed data. The application was administered to the students twice, once early and once late in the semester. Each use included demographic data acquisition and two iterations of a 24-item survey instrument with audiovisual and reflective response treatment between them. There were also repines sections on truth of responses and evaluations of the multimedia instrument. The final interactions were opportunities for free text responses with no prompting on content. The four sets of responses to the 24-item survey comprised pretest/posttest data for six pairings of scores across time. The 24-item survey was explored for the effects of both the multimedia/reflective response treatment and of the human sexuality course on student attitudes. Statistical analysis showed no significant differences in scores among the four iterations of the survey. Further exploration indicated that there were some significant changes for specific survey items. This document examines the relationship among the elements of the survey and the free responses from the users for further illumination of the quantitative results. Five possible elements that may have affected the survey's outcome are considered in light of the respondents' text input. Themes that emerged from the free responses were identified and explored for possible improvements of multimedia applications for integrated information delivery and data gathering. Conclusions are discussed and suggestions are made for further study regarding the template on which the application under study was built and regarding other similar multimedia instruments. These include extensions into other disciplines and other types of delivery media. Because of the exploratory nature of this study, very little can be stated conclusively. The users' reactions to and engagement with the multimedia instrument in this context do suggest broader avenues for such applications. For the moment, this medium seems to present a useful range of options to designers and researchers. / Ph. D.

The advent of technology has put a number of institutions in a state of reform (Wolcott, 1997). In fact, it was predicted that technology would completely transform higher education by the end of the twentieth century (Sculley, 1989). Aside from the demographic make-up of the majority of current students (Howe & Strauss, 2000), moving away from the traditional lecture-format to one with the integration of instructional technology can enhance the teaching/learning environment (Bolger & Sprow, 2002). However, instructional technology has still not been completely integrated into the higher education curriculum and students reported that only about 20 % of instructors were found to use technology effectively ("How Students Rate Instructors' Use of Information Technology in Courses", 2011). Educators continue to face a number of barriers to adoption and many institutions are still investigating ways to provide a more effective learning and teaching environment using efficient use of instructional technology. This research used the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech as a test bed and conducted a set of three studies following a mixed methodology. The first study elicited both quantitative and qualitative data from faculty members who used instructional technology in the classroom. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships between organizational culture, usability, and instructional technology acceptance and found a significant, positive relationship between usability and instructional technology acceptance, and a positive relationship between organizational culture and instructional technology acceptance. The second study gained more insight into the relationship by collecting qualitative data in the form of focus group interviews. Results of Study 2 indicated that collaborative and innovative organizational cultures, coupled with instructional technologies that have low learnability, high efficiency, high effectiveness, and high satisfaction can facilitate instructional technology acceptance. Based on the results, a set of recommendations to facilitate instructional technology acceptance were developed. The third and final study consisted of a summative evaluation of the recommendations by a panel of experts using the Delphi technique. The overall outcome of this research effort was the development of recommendations and guidelines to facilitate instructional technology acceptance and the description of a comprehensive framework for effective instructional technology use. / Ph. D.