This thesis explores the challenges and potential of technology integration in current ship management practices. While technology advancements were designed to be contributing to minimising task complexity, issues such as fatigue, increased administrative burden and technology assisted accidents still plague the industry. In spite of the clearly recognisable benefits of using modern technology in the management of ships, in practice its application appears lacking by a considerable margin. The main driver of the study was to appreciate the cause of this disparity. The study first reviewed a wide body of literature on issues involving the use of technology which included academic literature with empirical evidences and theoretical explanations of implementation of technology at work. With the help of the extant knowledge this research embarked on providing an explanation to the gap that existed in the application of technology in the shipping industry. By taking a case study approach the thesis looked into the induction and integration of technology in the management and operation of ships that primarily interfaced closely between the ship and its management unit on shore. Three companies with mutually diverse management setup were studied. The fourth case comprised of purposefully selected senior members of ships’ staff. The analysis of the data revealed that the manifestation of the gap in technology implementation is caused by deeper influences at work in the shipping industry. The un-optimised technology integration results in the seafarer, who is the keystone to the technology application, becoming a victim of the circumstances. The technology that was intended to ease operations and burdens ends up in controlling him, even leaving him under-resourced and causing fatigue.This was not an unintended outcome but the result of weak regulatory practices, short-term capital outlook and weakened labour practices in the shipping industry all caused by wider social and economic developments affecting not just this industry but businesses globally. The impact of such influences was however more acute in this industry resulting in such extreme consequence. By bringing to light the limited application of some fundamental principles of human-systems integration, this study has attempted to expand the boundaries of research on the subject and contributed to the holistic understanding of the various underlying factors that influence technology integration in ship management processes.

Elementary teachers at a school in the southeastern United States received iPads and iPad training to improve teaching and learning in the content subject areas. Despite the iPad training provided by district technology personnel, teachers expressed a need for more content-specific training. Teachers need adequate and appropriate professional development to assist in preparing integrated computer-based technology instruction to increase student academic achievement. The purpose of this qualitative bounded case study was to explore the descriptions of 10 purposely selected 4th and 5th grade teachers who used iPads in content subjects and 1 instructional technology facilitator who provided district iPad training regarding the district's iPad professional development and implementation in instruction. The theoretical support for this study was the technological pedagogical content knowledge framework that provided an interaction among technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge. Data were collected from face-to-face interviews and lesson plans. Inductive analysis was used with hand coding to discover themes. Teachers recognized the need for ongoing professional development and collaboration with colleagues to create content-specific iPad integrated lessons. Based on these findings, a project was designed to provide teachers with a 3-day professional development to include modeled lessons, collaboration with colleagues, a shared Google Drive folder, and a schedule for ongoing professional development. These endeavors may promote positive social change by providing ongoing content-specific iPad professional development for elementary teachers that could improve computer-based technology instruction and student learning in content subject areas.

In this thesis, I describe research on teachers' experiences with learner-centered technology. Specifically, this research investigated teachers' experiences with adoption of the learner-centered tools available from Imagine Learning, an online elementary school literacy program. This thesis includes an extended literature review describing learner-centered classrooms, technology integration, and models of technology adoption, followed by a journal-ready article that describes teachers' experiences throughout the process of adopting Imagine Learning. Finally, I provide a description my experiences throughout this project as well as a proposal for future areas of study.

Elementary teachers at a school in the southeastern United States received iPads and iPad training to improve teaching and learning in the content subject areas. Despite the iPad training provided by district technology personnel, teachers expressed a need for more content-specific training. Teachers need adequate and appropriate professional development to assist in preparing integrated computer-based technology instruction to increase student academic achievement. The purpose of this qualitative bounded case study was to explore the descriptions of 10 purposely selected 4th and 5th grade teachers who used iPads in content subjects and 1 instructional technology facilitator who provided district iPad training regarding the district's iPad professional development and implementation in instruction. The theoretical support for this study was the technological pedagogical content knowledge framework that provided an interaction among technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge. Data were collected from face-to-face interviews and lesson plans. Inductive analysis was used with hand coding to discover themes. Teachers recognized the need for ongoing professional development and collaboration with colleagues to create content-specific iPad integrated lessons. Based on these findings, a project was designed to provide teachers with a 3-day professional development to include modeled lessons, collaboration with colleagues, a shared Google Drive folder, and a schedule for ongoing professional development. These endeavors may promote positive social change by providing ongoing content-specific iPad professional development for elementary teachers that could improve computer-based technology instruction and student learning in content subject areas.

The purpose of this study was to determine if agriscience teacher integration of instructional technology was related to student achievement. Knowledge of these correlations will assist teacher educators in offering more appropriate professional development opportunities for agriscience teachers. This information will also assist secondary schools in making decisions regarding technology purchases for agriscience departments. Instructional technology researchers have worked since the 1960s to gain a better understanding of the role that instructional technology plays in student achievement. Many researchers have found that instructional technology influences student learning. In the early 1980s Richard Clark published controversial findings that media has no influence on student learning. These conflicting findings led to the development of this study. A survey was developed to collect information on the level at which teachers integrate technology into their instruction. The instrument was pilot tested, and a reliability measure of .95 was found for the 42 items measuring the technology skills of teachers. Section three of the instrument had a reliability of .93 for the nine items that were used to measure teacher integration of technolo gy. Teachers' demographics, teachers' technology integration skill levels, teachers' administrative use of technology skill levels, and teachers' technology integration levels were collected from a random sample of 150 agriscience teachers in Texas. Student achievement was measured using the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test. Student data were collected on 10th grade students in classes taught by the 150 teachers selected to participate in the study. The Texas Education Agency provided all TAAS data in a single data file. The primary student variables used in the study to quantify math, reading, and writing achievement were the total number of multiple choice items correct for each of these three subject areas. A low positive correlation was found between student achievement in math and teacher instructional technology integration level (.14). Negligible positive correlations (r < .10) were found between teacher instructional technology integration level and student achievement on the writing portions and reading portions of the TAAS.

Many researchers have been critical of teachers failure to implement computer use effectively in the classroom. In order to question the role that pedagogical issues may play in the success of the implementation process, this study looks at the beliefs of professional developers who are responsible for helping K-12 teachers learn to teach with computers. Five professional developers from Saskatchewan were asked to describe their professional practice by focusing on what they thought effective use of computers was and how they thought their beliefs affected their practice. The heart of the study was the story of the professional developers experiences and the way in which their practices evolved over time to meet needs they saw.<p>The professional developers were a diverse group of former teachers. They had taught in a wide variety of settings and for varied lengths of time. They were purposefully selected for involvement in provincial initiatives and providing professional development around computers in their home divisions. The participants shared their experiences through an informal semi-structured interview and follow up questions. The transcripts of the conversations comprised the data, and their examples, statements of belief, and experiences formed the basis for the interpretation of the results.<p>The findings revealed that the professional developers identified both first and second order barriers to the use of computers in classrooms. Each person described a transition from traditional professional development practice to a personal style with the deliberate addition of pedagogical emphasis. They concluded that the current practice of teaching with computers generally did not meet their definition of effective and emphasized the need to question why computers are being used the way they are.<p>The findings from this study indicate that the professional developers believed their pedagogy and practice as professional developers to be intertwined. They also confirmed Cooplas (2004) argument that pedagogy is the critical first element for effective teaching with computers. From the prospective of the participants, pedagogy, not technology defines how effective the process of integration is in K-12 classrooms.

Many researchers have been critical of teachers failure to implement computer use effectively in the classroom. In order to question the role that pedagogical issues may play in the success of the implementation process, this study looks at the beliefs of professional developers who are responsible for helping K-12 teachers learn to teach with computers. Five professional developers from Saskatchewan were asked to describe their professional practice by focusing on what they thought effective use of computers was and how they thought their beliefs affected their practice. The heart of the study was the story of the professional developers experiences and the way in which their practices evolved over time to meet needs they saw.<p>The professional developers were a diverse group of former teachers. They had taught in a wide variety of settings and for varied lengths of time. They were purposefully selected for involvement in provincial initiatives and providing professional development around computers in their home divisions. The participants shared their experiences through an informal semi-structured interview and follow up questions. The transcripts of the conversations comprised the data, and their examples, statements of belief, and experiences formed the basis for the interpretation of the results.<p>The findings revealed that the professional developers identified both first and second order barriers to the use of computers in classrooms. Each person described a transition from traditional professional development practice to a personal style with the deliberate addition of pedagogical emphasis. They concluded that the current practice of teaching with computers generally did not meet their definition of effective and emphasized the need to question why computers are being used the way they are.<p>The findings from this study indicate that the professional developers believed their pedagogy and practice as professional developers to be intertwined. They also confirmed Cooplas (2004) argument that pedagogy is the critical first element for effective teaching with computers. From the prospective of the participants, pedagogy, not technology defines how effective the process of integration is in K-12 classrooms.

This interpretive critical inquiry was aimed at coming to understand the experiences of faculty at research universities who teach using educational technology in the present academic capitalism era, and how these experiences affect their job satisfaction. The study was carried out in the South Central region of the US at two research universities—University A and University B—of one university system. Purposive sampling was used to select 10 tenured faculty members as study participants. The data collection included ethnographic interviews, participant observations, and document analyses and occurred over an 8-month period between April and December 2007. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) approach to content analysis. Based on the themes and subthemes that emerged, the experiences of teaching using educational technology seemed to yield positive end results that served as rationales. However, the participants did experience obstacles such as time constraints, steep learning curves, technical problems, and various pedagogical challenges. Those who seemed least burdened appeared to be those with the most departmental support. The participants’ experiences portrayed the professorship in the research university as an independent and autonomous position with a heavy work load and constant juggling of different tasks. The path to successful promotion and tenure appeared to be clearly marked by guidelines that require research productivity through external funds, an instance of academic capitalism. Teaching appeared to be secondary or tertiary in importance. Conflicts seemed to exist between the faculty and administrators in the utilities of teaching using educational technologies in terms of mismatched rationales or motivations, and therefore, mismatched outcome expectations. The majority of the participants appeared to be very satisfied with their jobs. Even so, all ten stated they had turnover intentions to leave University A or B at one point or another in the past, although perhaps not the professoriate. Many said teaching using educational technology was personally satisfying. The conclusion includes implications to students, faculty, research universities, and HRD; recommendations for future research; and three working hypotheses.

The purpose of this study was to determine if agriscience teacher integration of instructional technology was related to student achievement. Knowledge of these correlations will assist teacher educators in offering more appropriate professional development opportunities for agriscience teachers. This information will also assist secondary schools in making decisions regarding technology purchases for agriscience departments. Instructional technology researchers have worked since the 1960s to gain a better understanding of the role that instructional technology plays in student achievement. Many researchers have found that instructional technology influences student learning. In the early 1980s Richard Clark published controversial findings that media has no influence on student learning. These conflicting findings led to the development of this study. A survey was developed to collect information on the level at which teachers integrate technology into their instruction. The instrument was pilot tested, and a reliability measure of .95 was found for the 42 items measuring the technology skills of teachers. Section three of the instrument had a reliability of .93 for the nine items that were used to measure teacher integration of technolo gy. Teachers' demographics, teachers' technology integration skill levels, teachers' administrative use of technology skill levels, and teachers' technology integration levels were collected from a random sample of 150 agriscience teachers in Texas. Student achievement was measured using the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test. Student data were collected on 10th grade students in classes taught by the 150 teachers selected to participate in the study. The Texas Education Agency provided all TAAS data in a single data file. The primary student variables used in the study to quantify math, reading, and writing achievement were the total number of multiple choice items correct for each of these three subject areas. A low positive correlation was found between student achievement in math and teacher instructional technology integration level (.14). Negligible positive correlations (r < .10) were found between teacher instructional technology integration level and student achievement on the writing portions and reading portions of the TAAS.

This study aimed to understand the relationship between (a) student teachers' conceptions of classroom technology use and digital equity and (b) the teacher education programs in which they study. This mixed method study occurred during the spring semester of 2012. Forty-one student teachers enrolled in two different university teacher certification programs completed an online survey in regards to their technology attitude and beliefs, technology knowledge and skills, technology support and infrastructure, and digital equity perceptions near their graduation date. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 of the participants to allow for student teachers to expand upon their conceptions of classroom technology use and their understanding of digital equity. The study found that student teachers in both programs were inclined to integrate technology in their future classrooms, but were lacking in experiences of student-centric, faculty modeling of technology integration within their subject, content areas. In regard to digital equity, student teachers that completed a formal educational technology course had a more complex and conscious conception of digital equity and its impact on the classroom than student teachers lacking a formal educational technology course. Discussion focuses on (a) persistent traditionalist power and pedagogy, (b) lack of content-based modeling, (c) dodging digital equity, (d) varying digital equity conceptions, and (e) persistent societal inequalities within these two teacher education programs. I then introduce 'critical transformative technology integration' (CTTI), which needs to be established in teacher education. CTTI provides students with opportunities for contextually and culturally relevant integration of technology into subject-content areas. Additionally, CTTI considers existing power relations, and aims to empower action and change. Student teachers possessing an understanding of technology integration and an awareness of digital equity will be better equipped to offer CTTI in their future classrooms. By providing all PK-12 students with opportunities for CTTI, teachers can reduce classroom digital inequities. To empower future teachers with the knowledge, skills, and conceptions necessary for CTTI, teacher education programs must consider their approach to technology integration and the development of digital equity. / text