published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Authors augment their texts using devices such as bold and italic typeface to signal important information to the reader. These typographical text signals are an example of a signal designed to have some affect on others. However, some signals emerge through the unplanned, indirect, and collective efforts of a group of individuals. Paths emerge in parks without having been designed by anyone. Objects accumulate wear patterns that signal how others have interacted with the object. Books open to important, well studied pages because the spine has worn, for example (Hill, Hollan, Wroblewski, & McCandless, 1992). Digital text and the large-scale collaboration made possible through the internet provide an opportunity to examine how unplanned, collaborative text signals could emerge. A software application was designed, called CoREAD, that enables readers to highlight sections of the text they deem important. In addition, CoREAD adds text signals to the text using font colour, based on the group's collective history and an aggregation function based on self-organising systems. The readers are potentially influenced by the text signals presented by CoREAD but also help to modify these same signals. Importantly, readers only interact with each other indirectly through the text. The design of CoREAD was greatly inspired by the previous work on history-enriched digital objects (Hill & Hollan, 1993) and at a more general level it can be viewed as an example of distributed cognition (Hollan, Hutchins, & Kirsh, 2000). / Forty undergraduate students read two texts on topics from psychology using CoREAD. Students were asked to read each text in order to write a summary of it. After each new student read the text, the text signals were changed to reflect the current group of students. As such, each student read the text with different text signals presented. / The data were analysed for each text to determine if the text signals that emerged were stable and valid representations of the semantic content of the text. As well, the students' summaries were analysed to determine if students who read the text after the text signals had stabilised produced better summaries. Three methods demonstrated that CoREAD was capable of generating stable typographical text signals. The high importance text signals also appeared to capture the semantic content of the texts. For both texts, a summary made of the high signals performed as well as a benchmark summary. The results did not suggest that the stable text signals assisted readers to produce better summaries, however. Readers may not respond to these collaborative text signals as they would to authorial text signals, which previous research has shown to be beneficial (Lorch, 1989). The CoREAD project has demonstrated that readers can produce stable and valid text signals through an unplanned, self-organising process.

This study, through the lens of Activity Theory, focused on the induction and constructivist teaching practices of experienced teachers who were recently hired in a technologically advantaged middle school. Activity Theory was used not only to examine the induction practices but also to focus on constructivist practices with technology. Data sources consisted of using various instruments three of which were used for surveys, 11 interviews were employed to assess goals, and 18 classroom observations were carried out regarding constructivist practices. Findings through Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) analysis revealed under-realized forms of mediation to achieve effective use of ICTs (objective) and the perceptions of collaboration among the teaching staff, specifically with respect to relationships between rules and the division of labor. In effect, this study presents a challenge for CHAT analysis to elaborate the construct of contradictions to include "latent contradictions" which is essential to an expansive learning cycle.

Educators need access to a technology-based instructional model that provides opportunities for students to develop an expanded set of skills, accommodates students' unique learning styles and rates, and which allows teachers flexibility in adapting the model to their own instructional styles. The thesis presents a concise operational definition of Technology Enhancement as it applies to instruction in secondary school classrooms. The definition of Technology Enhancement then forms the basis for developing criteria that can be used to establish and evaluate Technology Enhanced Instruction (TEI) programs in secondary schools. These criteria will also enable educators to ensure the longevity and continuity of the program in their schools, thus maximizing the educational benefits afforded by technology, while minimizing the potential capital costs. Technology will continue to pervade all aspects of educational institutions; educators are faced with the challenge of making effective use of technology and helping students to develop life-long learning skills without discarding established, effective educational strategies.

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An advance in information and communication technology (ICT) is one of the most important forces in reshaping the world economy. So far, research on the role of ICT development in the financial globalization process is very limited. This dissertation is composed of three essays, which aim to fill part of this gap. The first essay explores transmission mechanism between Internet development and foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing economies. The second further investigates why developing economies cannot fully benefit from Internet development and provides policy recommendations. The third studies the relationship among financial integration, ICT and macroeconomic volatility in ten Asian economies. / The first essay examines three potential channels: inventory costs, market entry costs and payment of bribes, through which the Internet attracts FDI. It develops a model to explain the role of the Internet in determining inward FDI, and then empirically tests the hypotheses. The empirical findings show that the Internet development in developing economies attracts multinationals, since it reduces their costs of holding inventories and market entry costs. The Internet is found to reduce corruption, but evidence for their combined effects on FDI is mixed. In addition, this study performs Granger causality test and finds a causal relationship from the Internet to inward FDI stocks, rather than vice versa. / The second essay examines how the Internet---a communication network---which is characterized by the presence of positive and negative externalities affects the locational choice of FDI. A two-stage model is developed: at the first stage, multinational corporations do not cooperate and determine the degree of investment in Internet technologies, whereas, at the second stage, these firms engage in a Cournot quantity competition for a homogenous product. This model predicts that positive Internet externalities stimulate FDI while negative Internet externalities discourage FDI. These hypotheses are tested by the panel data estimation and the system general method of moments (GMM) estimator. The empirical findings provide strong evidence that the presence of negative Internet spillovers in developing countries discourages inward FDI, and the presence of positive Internet externalities in developed economies attracts more FDI. / The third essay looks at ten Asian economies committed to ICT development and financial integration, and presents evidence on whether or not they have experienced greater output fluctuations from 1980 to 2003. A two-country dynamic general equilibrium model is used and ICT is assumed to increase the volume and speed of capital flows. This study's model predicts that economies with a high ICT development or/and a high degree of financial integration exhibit greater output fluctuations in the face of monetary policy shocks, but lower output fluctuations in the face of fiscal policy shocks. The empirical findings estimated by using the panel vector autoregression approach support these predictions.