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Educational
Research Exchange
ERE
| Papers | |
Interventions and Effect Size: A Step toward Developing Technology Tools That Work |
Robert
Hancock |
Can
Created Realities Improve Discourse beyond |
Greg
Jones (gjones@coefs.coe.unt.edu) |
Using Self-Report Instruments to Measure Teacher Technology Integration Skill |
Garry
Mayes (mayes@unt.edu) |
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Cultural and Contextual Differences in Student’s Dispositions Toward Technology and Learning |
Cesáreo
Morales |
Perceptions of Preservice Educators, Inservice Educators, and Professional Development Personnel Regarding Effective Methods for Learning Technology Integration Skills |
Linda
M. Robinson and Gerald Knezek (lindam@unt.edu) |
CT3 as an Index of Knowledge Domain Structure: Distributions for Order Analysis and Information Hierarchies |
Rebecca
Swartz Horn (rswartz@hotmail.com) |
Interventions
and Effect Size: A Step toward Developing Technology Tools That Work
Robert
Hancock
Recently, Dr. Gerald Knezek created a simplified environmental model for student learning in a Will, Skill, Tool Model of Technology Integration (Knezek, Christensen, Shoho, & Hancock, 2001). This paper deals with the expansion of the basic model to give an idea of the interplay between teacher, student, and technology which meta-analysis indicates is consistent with constructivist learning models. Specifically, this paper looks at person-machine interaction in terms of teacher and technology tool as the basis of pedagogy and student and technology tool as the basis of learning style.
Can
Created Realities Improve Discourse beyond Web-based Instruction?
Greg Jones
My current research is examining the potential of 3D virtual environments to deliver on-line courses as compared to current web-based approaches.
As more universities and homes gain access to faster Internet connection and cheaper/higher-performance computer systems, each community seeks new methods to utilize the informational bandwidth they find available for educational purposes (Jones, 2001). Universities are seeking ways to use online tools to deliver instruction to expand their capabilities to reach these new student populations (Daniel, 1998; Katz, 1999). Increasingly, these learners are requesting that universities supply them with the means to engage in formal learning via distance or distributed technologies (Otchet, 1998). These students can be provided with distributed learning because of the decreasing cost of personal computer technology and increasing accessibility to the Internet while at the same time institutional infrastructures are expanding to provide course delivery using the Internet.
One of the most popular delivery system for Internet-based distributed/ distance learning is the World Wide Web and it has received widespread acceptance by universities. However, satisfaction with the Web for purposes of learning and creating on-line communities has not been as strong as proponents may have hoped (Hill, 2001). One explanation for dissatisfaction with distance delivered courses relates to a lack of community in non face-to-face delivery methods. DeVries and Wheeler (1996) discuss the lack of face-to-face contact as a major barrier for distance education materials that lack interactivity. Dissatisfaction with courses can have several consequences, among them: students dropping out of a course and students not taking distance delivered courses in the future (Hill, 2001). While broadband Internet access has great potential for delivering better interactive interfaces to distant learners, many people in inner cities and isolated rural areas are failing to acquire the new broadband technology as rapidly as their more affluent neighbors. This digital divide means that these less connected students must continue to use potentially less effective delivery mechanisms. On-line 3D collaborative environments (created realities) have the potential to deliver extended interaction among students and between the instructors similar to video conferencing (retransmitted reality), while using bandwidth closer to that of web pages (28.8Kbps-56Kbps).
Using
Self-Report Instruments to Measure Teacher Technology Integration Skills
Garry Mayes
Measuring the technology integration skills of teachers is an essential aspect of implementing technology-rich curricular and instructional enhancements to K-12 educational delivery. Evaluating technology integration skills of teachers, however, entails the expense, in time and personnel, of utilizing external observers to measure the true technology use by the educators. Well-validated instruments of self-report skills and attitudes are an alternative to using external observers. As a pilot study to a proposed dissertation, students in a section of a teacher preservice technology course are administered a battery of surveys where they self-report on their technology skills and attitudes. The surveys will be administered again at the close of the course, and the results will be compared with external measures of assessment, specifically a final, comprehensive project in the course, and the overall course grade. The results of this pilot study will be cross-validated with a sample drawn from teachers in a large, technology-using school district in the North Texas area, utilizing the same self-report instruments, and a set of use-of technology observational instruments to be filled in by external evaluators.
Cultural
and Contextual Differences in Student’s Dispositions Toward Technology and
Learning
Cesáreo Morales
Young students are frequently believed to be uniformly enthusiastic about technology, regardless of context and cultural roots. Nevertheless, studies have shown cultural similarities in students’ dispositions and attitudes toward the computer and school, and also extensive regional differences within a nation. The results presented in this paper address these issues within and across two different cultures: Mexico and the United States. Starting in 1999, surveys on student’s preferences over four psychological objects (using a computer, watching tv, reading, and writing) have been conducted with middle school students from the countryside of Mexico, Mexico City, San Antonio, Laredo, and the Dallas Metroplex. Using rank order analysis for paired comparisons over the four psychological objects, preliminary results presented in this paper show similar trends as well as regional differences within and across countries. Discussion will focus on cultural and contextual constraints for the preferences, although the relevance of other factors such as gender, age and access is also recognized.
Perceptions
of Preservice Educators, Inservice Educators, and Professional Development
Personnel Regarding Effective Methods for Learning Technology Integration
Skills
Linda M. Robinson
This study examined educators’ preferences for learning technology integration skills in order to provide the education community with justifiable data concerning the need for educator training alternatives. A survey was distributed to compare preservice educators, inservice educators, and professional development personnel’s perceived effectiveness of eight training methods. All groups were measured for similarities and differences in preferences on credit classes, workshops, open computer labs, technology personnel support, peer support, online help, printed documentation, and trial and error. In addition, those training preferences were cross-referenced with age, training hours, and the locus of control personality factor. This study indicated that the most effective training methods were technical support, peer support, and credit courses. The least effective training methods were online help, printed documentation, workshops, and computer labs. Age, amount of training hours, and locus of control score did not provide as much information as did educator type when predicting training preference.
CT3 as an Index of
Knowledge Domain Structure: Distributions for Order Analysis and Information
Hierarchies
Rebecca Swartz Horn
The problem with which this study is concerned is articulating all possible CT3 and KR21 reliability measures for every case of a 5x5 binary matrix (32,996,500 possible matrices). The study has three purposes. The first purpose is to calculate CT3 for every matrix and compare the results to the proposed optimum range of .3 to .5. The second purpose is to compare the results from the calculation of KR21 and CT3 reliability measures. The third purpose is to calculate CT3 and KR21 on every strand of a class test whose item set has been reduced using the difficulty strata identified by Order Analysis. The study was conducted by writing a computer program to articulate all possible 5x5 matrices. The program also calculated CT3 and KR21 reliability measures for each matrix. The non parametric technique of levels were used to reduce the item set from 22 to 9 items. All possible strands or chains of these items were identified so that both reliabilty measures (CT3 and KR21) could be calculated. One major finding of this study indicates that .3 to .5 is a desirable range for CT3 (cumulative p=.86 to p=.98) if cumulative frequencies are measured. A second major finding is that the KR21 reliability measure produced an invalid result more than half the time. The last major finding is that CT3, rescaled to range between 0 and 1, supports De Vellis’ guidelines for reliability measures. The major conclusion is that CT3 is a better measure of reliability since it considers both inter- and intra-item variances.
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