The purpose of this study was to explore graduate student perceptions of use and the ease of use of multi-modal tablets to access electronic course materials, and the perceived differences based on students’ gender, age, college of enrollment, and previous experience. This study used the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology to identify the constructs that may explain a graduate student’s intention to use a multi-modal tablet in graduate course work. This study administered the UTAUT to 224 graduate students from four different colleges at a regional university. The models developed from the UTAUT explained 80% of the variability in Behavioral Intention values and 55% of the reported Use values. The results of the study showed that only Performance Expectancy, Social Influence, Hedonic Motivation, and Habit showed significance in explaining Behavioral Intention. Performance Expectancy, Hedonic Motivation, and Habit also showed moderately strong to strong correlations with Behavioral Intention. The regression analysis revealed a positive significant relationship with reported Use and Habit and reported Use and Behavioral Intention. Habit and Behavioral Intention both had strong correlations with reported Use. Habit affects the relationship of Performance Expectancy and Behavioral Intention. Habit, Price Value, or Hedonic Motivation did not have a significant affect on the relationship between Behavioral Intention and Effort Expectancy or Behavioral Intention and Social Influence. When trying to explain a graduate student’s intention to use a multi-modal tablet, only Performance Expectancy, Habit, Social Influence, Hedonic Motivation, and Previous Experience appeared to sufficiently explain whether a student intends to adopt the device. Across age groups, intention to use the tablet device does not vary by age in this study. There were no differences in Behavioral Intention among groups by college enrollment. Individuals with more experience using a tablet, as measured in years, have a higher predicted intention to use the tablet in the future than individuals with no previous experience using a tablet. Individuals with 5 or more years using a multi-modal tablet have a higher intention to use the device than those with less than 3 years experience. The results of this study support the concept that Habit is the strongest predictor of Use in the framework.

The explosive adoption rate of cell phones over the past few years has increased the desire for advertising agencies to explore mobile as an advertising channel. Over 90% of Americans own a cell phone, which opens a new channel for advertising agencies to reach consumers. The traditional advertising channels include print, television, radio, and most recently, the Internet. This professional report explores the importance and utilization of mobile as an advertising channel in advertising agencies media plans for their clients. / text

This study takes a cultural studies approach to investigating the ways in which the articulation of vernacular creativity with digital technologies and the networked cultural public sphere might constitute sites of cultural citizenship. In the thesis, the concept of 'vernacular creativity' describes the everyday practices of material and symbolic creativity, such as storytelling and photography, that both predate digital culture and are remediated by it in particular ways. The first part of thesis, covering Chapters 2 and 3, develops a theoretical framework and cultural history of vernacular creativity in new media contexts. Chapter 2 introduces the idea of vernacular creativity and connects it to cultural studies approaches to participatory media and cultural citizenship. Chapter 3 theorises and historicises the relationships among vernacular creativity, technological innovation and new media literacy, drawing on social constructionist approaches to technology, and discussing concrete examples. The first of these examples is the mass amateurisation of photography in the first half of the twentieth century, as represented by the monopoly of popular photography by Kodak in the United States and beyond. The second is the domestication of personal computing in the second half of the twentieth century, culminating in a discussion of the Apple brand and the construction of an ideal 'creative consumer'. The second part of the thesis, covering Chapters 4 and 5, is devoted to the investigation of two major case studies drawn from contemporary new media contexts. The first of these case studies is the photosharing network flickr.com, and the second is the Digital Storytelling movement, structured around collaborative offline workshops in which participants create short multimedia works based on their biographies and personal images. These case studies are used to explore the ways vernacular creativity is being remediated in contemporary new media contexts, the socio-technical shaping of participation in digital culture, and the implications for cultural citizenship. In Chapter 6, the thesis concludes by suggesting some further implications of the research findings for cultural and media studies approaches to the relations of cultural production and the politics of popular culture.

Recent studies have shown that the social context in which people play digital multiplayer games has an effect on their experience. Whether co-players are in the same location (―co-located‖) or in different locations (―mediated‖) changes how they interact with the game and with one another. We set out to explore how these complex psychological dynamics played out in a collaborative multiplayer game, since most of the research to date has been focused on competitive gameplay scenarios. To this end, we designed a two-player puzzle-based gaming apparatus called COLAB, implementing specific features that have been proven to foster collaboration and preclude competition between players. The independent variable was player location; the dependent variable was game experience, as measured by the Social Presence in Gaming Questionnaire and the Game Experience Questionnaire, two comprehensive self-report instruments. We found a significant difference in the game experiences of players collaborating in the same location versus players collaborating in different locations. Specifically, co-located players of the collaborative game experienced significantly higher scores for negative experience than mediated players did, while mediated players experienced significantly higher levels of three key game-experience measures: positive affect, immersion, and flow.

This report discusses how non-profit organizations can utilize mobile phone technology to reach supporters and inspire them to both act and give. The significance of this report and topic lies in the opportunity for non-profit organizations to understand how people are interacting with messages on their mobile devices. The research found within, serves as a reference for non-profits to utilize when planning and implementing mobile phone marketing campaigns. / text