Thesis (Ph. D.)--Syracuse University, 2005. / "Publication number AAT 3194016."

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Syracuse University, 2005. / "Publication number AAT 3194024."

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-150).

Theses (Ed. D.)--Marshall University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Includes abstract. Document formatted into pages: contains x, 217 pages. Includes vitae. Bibliography: p. 159-170.

Thesis (M.Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-90). Also available in electronic version.

Thesis (Ed.D.) -- Central Connecticut State University, 2007. / Thesis advisor: Karen Beyard. "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-126). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ed.D.) -- Central Connecticut State University, 2007. / Thesis advisor: Karen Beyard. "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-163). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lewis & Clark College, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 140-150).

<p> Teachers who are called upon to teach in a virtual high school environment require preparation and support as well as an effective professional development process to help them adapt to a different educational dynamic. The virtual school reality demands that educators do more than transfer traditional classroom pedagogy and learn the various functionalities of the technologies utilized in the delivery process. Research shows that conventional professional development programs have had limited effectiveness in altering teachers&rsquo; classroom practice especially for online educators, and that ideally modeling the desired outcomes within the process itself has been most effective. While current research also calls for improved professional development for online instructors, the characteristics of such a professional development program are not fully-explored or characterized, and failure to define these characteristics increases the probability that online instructors will continue to arrive inadequately prepared. This qualitative research that is in the form of a narrative inquiry identified and analyzed the essential components of a professional training program for online teachers who were subsequently expected to modify their online classroom practice. The key participants in the case study were the administrators and teachers of a virtual high school in the province of Quebec and all of the participants were former classroom teachers who have been employed by the LEARN Virtual School. The findings of this study focused on identifying key components of a professional development program that incorporated key principles of social constructivism and the impact the program had on the online teachers&rsquo; practice. The study highlights the importance of active learning, collaboration, and metacognition in any program for teachers transitioning to the virtual environment and that teachers benefit enormously from modeling for one another.</p>

It is possible to discern a class of Computer-Based Discovery Learning Environments which centre on novel, concept rich,simulated objects and which include simple but general functions with which the objects may be manipulated. This thesis provides a history of this class of environments, which we call objectworlds, and we also give them a strict definition. We describe Gravitas, a new objectworld we have built, which allows learners to work with objects that behave like gravitating masses moving in a two dimensional space. Gravitas contains a powerful programmable interface to the objects, in the form of a set of Logo commands, and a functionally equivalent but easier to use graphical interface which is controlled by the mouse. We show that the combination of interfaces helps learners to explore the world of these objects more effectively. We contrast the educational experiences learners are afforded by objectworlds with those offered by two closely related kinds of Discovery Learning Environment: Simulations and Modelling Systems. We also describe a psychological framework which provides a useful way of thinking about the construction of computer simulated objects for discovery learning applications.