This research is a qualitative study describing the interaction in a two-way video environment. It compares this environment with face-to-face (F2F) and provides descriptive information about instructional activities fostering instructor-student interaction and student-student interaction. The subjects studied were an experienced distance education instructor and his students at host and remote sites. The technical environment included two fully equipped video classrooms on the UMass Video Network, a five interactive system that provides two-way audio and video communication between students and instructor. Data were gathered from analysis of on-site observations, videotaped lessons, student surveys, and instructor interviews. Observation, survey, and interview data are analyzed and reported. The study concludes that this two-way video classroom environment can support interactive learning but not without the instructor's thorough planning, good classroom management skills, and use of a variety of learner-centered activities. It found that effectiveness in the two-way video environment to be very much instructor dependent and describes a thoroughly competent instructor successfully implementing several interactive strategies. It also identifies barriers that would impact interaction in this environment. Host and remote site student perceptions of the quantity and quality of interaction are reported as well as their suggestions for changes. Several other ancillary findings are discussed. Recommendations for possible future studies are offered.

This dissertation examines the impact of technology coaching on teachers' use of technology as a professional and instructional resource in a higher education and public school technology coaching partnership called e-TEAMS. In this project, teachers who had identified themselves as generally "not confident" or "somewhat confident" in their abilities to integrate technology into classroom practice were paired for a semester with e-coaches who were college students possessing up-to-date knowledge of computers and other information technologies, to design and teach lessons that infused computers, the Internet, videos and other technologies into English, mathematics, science, and history teaching. Teachers found that the presence of an e-coach helped them to envision new ways to use technology in teaching. Generally, teachers who used inquiry-based teaching methods tended to incorporate technology into instruction more easily than did teachers who tended to use traditional teaching methods. Teachers noted that e-coaching was a new experience, making the process of working with an e-coach one of new learning through gradual progress with some setbacks.

This dissertation critically examines the life and teaching experiences of four teachers who use multicultural participatory video projects (PVP) to enrich the learning opportunities of their students. Colleagues and former students recommended the teachers for their experience using PVP and multicultural perspectives. The study is based on a theoretical framework grounded in multicultural education as it relates to teacher transformation, technologically assisted learning, and participatory learning theory. A review of the literature of multicultural education makes evident the need for teachers to transform their cultural awareness and perspectives before our schools can become effective multicultural learning environments. This study seeks to document this need, and to highlight PVP as a tool with the potential to catalyze teachers toward this transformation. The major findings of this study are that the use of participatory video project enriches the life-long development of multicultural perspectives for teachers who actively confirm self-identity through expressive life arts. The findings suggest that PVP taps into many aspects of a teacher's life and teaching experience to increase multicultural awareness and provide "fuel" for the transformation process. They also suggest that teacher education and support programs that advocate for issues of diversity and against issues of injustice and inequity in schools advance the use of PVP in their programs and communities to insure increased multicultural awareness through policy and procedural changes. Transforming schools into multicultural learning environments requires education reform that includes supporting teachers to develop multicultural perspectives.

As civilization becomes more dependent on complex technology, education develops increasing importance. Computerized tutoring is a practical mechanism for making advanced education more widely available, especially for ongoing maintenance of skills in the workplace and other situations outside formal institutions of learning. We built a simulation-based intelligent system for teaching medical personnel cardiac resuscitation skills, including a novel mechanism for monitoring student performance and dynamically adapting the simulation to the student's needs, using an expert model of the domain encoded with planning representations. Domain topics were explicitly represented so the system could reason about the student's learning needs and accomplishments, while adapting the simulation context toward states where profitable learning was expected, keeping the student challenged but not overwhelmed. Knowledge of what to teach was separated from knowledge of how to teach, leading to simplified representations that support improved communication between domain and system experts as demonstrated by the fact that a major change in the medical standards adopted during system development was implemented in about a week. The system used planning techniques to make common sense interpretations of unexpected situations while reasoning about simulations of multiple, coordinated agents with distinct roles performing multiple tasks. The system combined techniques from simulation, planning and user modeling in a multimedia tutoring environment, demanding consideration of the different strengths and idiosyncrasies of these components. This approach to integrating domain models, student models, course goals and pedagogical knowledge to create an individualized study plan in a tutoring system is novel and results in improved learning times. An iterative development methodology with formative evaluations of the system involving two classes of medical students helped direct the technology to meet the practical needs of the user community and ensured that the final system was accepted in the target environment. Results of this evaluation support our architecture and development approach. This research contributes to global access to knowledge which, it is hoped, will lead to improved decision making at all levels of civilization, providing for more efficient use of resources, more effective conflict resolution strategies and an overall increase in the satisfaction of critical social goals.

The complexity of robotics and automated systems in manufacturing today requires service technicians to have extensive knowledge and skills. Programs offering educational curricula for robotics and automated systems are primarily available in colleges and universities. These programs, however, lack practical application and do not meet industry requirements. Today, technicians require more skills and practice than theory. Since the vocational education students at the secondary level are trained more in skills and practical application than in theory, it is logical to assume that gaps in the work force could be filled by individuals properly trained in high school. To accomplish that, it was necessary to develop a curriculum that could be taught at the secondary vocational education level. Such a curriculum was not in existence at the outset of this study. The approach to the development of an operable curriculum was based on a survey method of research to collect the necessary data. A 50-item survey instrument was developed and sent to 110 contact persons in industry, who use robots and automated systems for manufacturing their product. The mean for the responses was calculated and a t-test was used to make comparisons between present and anticipated future industry needs. Based on the recommendations of a reviewing board, the results of the analysis were used to develop a suggested curriculum for a four-year program for robotics/automated systems service technicians. The findings indicate that industry requires technicians to have extensive backgrounds that provide positive work ethics, excellent communication skills, high quality standards for workmanship and safety, the ability to establish realistic vocational goals, conscientious awareness of safe practices, leadership skills, and functional math and science skills. Technology skills require strong backgrounds in electronics, blueprint reading, basic electricity, machine tool fundamentals, electro-mechanical devices, and robotic applications. In conclusion, industry requires service employees to have extensive backgrounds in general knowledge skills as well as technology skills. More valuable to the industry than any other technical skill, however, is the ability to analyze systems and solve problems. Oral communication is important for service persons because it often reflects company image and helps future sales.

This study examines the design and development of computer-aided composition (CAC) software and its implications for Composition in general. The aims of the study were to identify the who and how of CAC software design and possibly construct models for CAC software development. In addition, the study sought to identify the forces that impact these development models, determine emerging trends in CAC software development, and explore the implications of those forces and trends for the development models and Composition. The study centers around a series of interviews with five designers of CAC programs, close examination of their programs, and interviews with seven researchers in the field of CAC software development. The findings indicated four representative models for software development. The study describes and compares these four models and then examines three primary impacting forces upon them: technological forces (system architecture, programming languages, hypermedia, networking, CD-ROM, and artificial intelligence); reward and recognition, and funding. The study suggests the ascendancy of cognitively-based development programs. It argues that the pluralism of theoretical and pedagogical approaches to writing currently valued in Composition are threatened by the privileging of cognitively-based CAC efforts and calls upon the field to respond.

This study attempted to shed some light on effectiveness of computer-based mathematics instruction by using meta-analysis to integrate findings from varied studies. Seventy-two studies were collected from published studies, ERIC documents, and dissertations. Effectiveness was measured in terms of math achievement, problem-solving skills, and attitudes toward mathematics/instruction and computers. Overall results indicated that CAI/computer programming had a moderate positive effect on achievement, a slight positive effect on problem-solving skills and attitudes toward mathematics/instruction, and a great positive effect on attitudes toward computers for elementary and secondary students. Specific effects found were: (1) junior high students had higher average effect size in achievement than elementary and senior high students; (2) simulation/gaming CAI had higher effect size in achievement for higher grade students; (3) CAI was most effective for low-ability students' mathematics achievement; (4) students from average and high-income families had higher average effect sizes than students from low-income families; (5) male students learned more with computers than female students in terms of achievement; (6) CAI programs developed by experimenters or teachers had higher average effect size than programs which were commercially developed; (7) computers located in laboratories or in classrooms were equally effective in enhancing student achievement; (8) CAI was effective in improving achievement for both normal students and special students, such as remedial and learning-disadvantaged students; (9) CAI in algebra/arithmetic studying had higher average effect sizes than in geometry; (10) published studies yielded the largest effect size in achievement, and dissertations had the largest effect size in problem-solving skills; (11) Logo programming was more effective in enhancing problem-solving skills than BASIC; and (12) attitudes of male and low-ability students were most positive toward mathematics/instruction. In light of above positive findings of this meta-analysis, educators/teachers may be able to make sound decisions about implementation of CAI/computer programming in mathematics instruction.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-179). / This mixed methods dissertation investigates whether the Matric Mathematics results and enrolments at high schools in the EMDC East zone of Cape Town have been impacted by the availability of computers and mathematical software (as provided by the Khanya Project); how the teachers at one school in Khayelitsha, Cape Town are using the computer as a tool to teach Mathematics, and whether their pedagogy changes between the Mathematics lessons in the conventional classroom and the computer lab. A series of statistical tests (Mann-Whitney U test; independent samples t-test; paired samples t-tests and the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test) were applied to various samples of the 2007 Matric Mathematics data of high schools in the EMDC East, obtained from WCED. What was concluded was that there was no significant difference between the Matric Mathematics results of the schools with the computers and those without; no significant change in the results after the Khanya labs were installed; no significant change in the percentage of pupils that passed Matric Mathematics; and no significant change in Higher Grade Mathematics enrolment rates. The overall conclusion from the quantitative research was thus that no significant differences were brought about by the use of computers in Mathematics in the EMDC East schools. So, what does happen when the computers are being used? This led to qualitative research on whether and how computers impact pedagogy: observations of ten Mathematics lessons in a selective township school in Khayelitsha were undertaken, and transcriptions made. These transcriptions were analysed in order to determine how the teachers were using the computers as a pedagogical tool, and whether their pedagogy varies across different lesson contexts (face-to-face lessons and computer lab lessons). In the case of the former question, it was found that the computers were primarily being used as a drill-and-practise tool for revision purposes; in other words, as though they were electronic textbooks. In order to answer the latter question, each sentence of each teacher was categorised according to an analytical framework in order to determine if there were any variation in semiotic mediation (in other words, teacher talk) between the classroom and the computer lab. Chi-squared tests for independence indicated that there was a significant, moderate to strong association between the location of the lesson and the type of talk; thus there is significant variation in semiotic variation between the two venues and the teachers' pedagogy does vary between the face-to-face classroom and the computer lab. Further chi-squared tests also indicated significant, moderate to strong associations between the location of the lesson and the scale of interaction (class or individual); and between the type of talk and scale of interaction.

The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of the use of microcomputers together with the Language Experience Approach in first-grade classrooms for the teaching of writing. Sample and procedure. The research program involved 111 children from four first-grade classrooms which were chosen on the basis of equivalent socio-economic levels and academic achievement. Three methods of teaching writing were studied: a computer program for word processing, the Language Experience Recorder (LER), concurrent with the Language Experience Approach; the Language Experience Approach (LEA) without computers; and the Basal approach generally used by teachers of the basal reader. Two classrooms were taught with LER, one with LEA and one with Basal. Ten compositions were collected from each child over a period of time from March, 1987 to June, 1987. The first two were evaluated as pretest stories, the last two were evaluated as post-test stories. Four evaluative measures were used to analyze the children's progress: the standardized measure Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS); two computer programs, LER and PC-Style; and a checklist designed by the research. An initial statistical measure, analysis of variance (ANOVA), was used to determine comparability of the groups. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to determine significance between scores obtained by the three groups, and independent t tests were used to determine gains within the groups. Ten hypotheses dealt with such components of writing as story length, specific vocabulary use, work length, meaning units, use of compound and complex sentences, unification, and percent of personal words, and with growth in reading and language ability. Results. While all groups gained in writing proficiency, the LEA group made the most gains, scoring high in number of words, meaning units, use of compound and complex sentences, unification, and on the language section of the CTBS. The Basal group scored high on specific vocabulary, average word length and reading on the CTBS. The LER group scored high in use of personal words. The rank order of each group for each measure was relatively stable for the duration of the project. Because length of time spent in writing in individual classrooms and consistency of editing assistance were not controlled, the results of scores between groups were not comparable. However, gains within groups provided significant data and revealed growth in all groups on a majority of the components tested. One-to-one editing sessions with the classroom teacher may have had the greatest influence on first-grade writers. The consistency of one editor with expertise in positive criticism appeared to result in longer, richer and more cohesive compositions. The computer was found to be a valid instrument for teaching writing in first grade, as well as for increasing interest in writing and enhancing children's self-esteem.

The advantages that computer adaptive testing offers over linear tests have been well documented. The Computer Adaptive Test (CAT) design is more efficient than the Linear test design as fewer items are needed to estimate an examinee's proficiency to a desired level of precision. In the ideal situation, a CAT will result in examinees answering different number of items according to the stopping rule employed. Unfortunately, the realities of testing conditions have necessitated the imposition of time and minimum test length limits on CATs. Such constraints might place a burden on the CAT test taker resulting in aberrant response behaviors by some examinees. Occurrence of such response patterns results in inaccurate estimation of examinee proficiency levels. This study examined the effects of test lengths, time limits and the interaction of these factors with the examinee proficiency levels on the occurrence of aberrant response patterns. The focus of the study was on the aberrant behaviors caused by rushed guessing due to restrictive time limits. Four different testing scenarios were examined; fixed length performance tests with and without content constraints, fixed length mastery tests and variable length mastery tests without content constraints. For each of these testing scenarios, the effect of two test lengths, five different timing conditions and the interaction between these factors with three ability levels on ability estimation were examined. For fixed and variable length mastery tests, decision accuracy was also looked at in addition to the estimation accuracy. Several indices were used to evaluate the estimation and decision accuracy for different testing conditions. The results showed that changing time limits had a significant impact on the occurrence of aberrant response patterns conditional on ability. Increasing test length had negligible if not negative effect on ability estimation when rushed guessing occured. In case of performance testing high ability examinees while in classification testing middle ability examinees suffered the most. The decision accuracy was considerably affected in case of variable length classification tests.