UMD Theses and Dissertations
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
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Item Can STEM Initiatives Be Social Justice Oriented: An Analysis of Urban School Reform Via Smaller Learning Communities(2010) Mete, Ryan Jared; MacDonald, Victoria-Maria; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)STEM is an acronym that stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. STEM academies are theme-based curricula that have gained considerable attention on the national level. The intended outcome of a STEM curriculum is to raise career awareness and increase college and graduate level enrollment in science and engineering in order to ultimately restore the United States' position as a worldwide leader in technological innovation. In 2008, a group of middle school teachers in Maryland designed a STEM academy to address the achievement gap between African American and white students at their school. The founding teachers used a combination of thematic curriculum and structural redesign via a process called "looping" to create a school-within-a-school model that focused on average-performing and at-risk students. This study explores the process these teachers underwent to implement a differentiated STEM program to a diverse student body in an urban middle school.Item Virtualizing the Teacher: The Lived Experience of Teaching within Technology(2009) Whitesel, Cynthia Hoff; Hultgren, Francine H; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This research seeks to heighten pedagogical understanding of the lived experience of teachers who teach online using computer technology. Philosophically based and grounded in hermeneutic phenomenology, it explores the question: What is the lived experience of teaching with/in technology? Using van Manen's Researching Lived Experience (2003) as guide, the researcher seeks to discover existential themes revealed through hermeneutic methodology, a pedagogically grounded research approach to human science research and writing with a focus on lived experience. This research is rendered phenomenological through philosophical texts by Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Emmanuel Levinas, Gaston Bachelard, Edward Casey, and Don Ihde. For a period of eight months in the fall of 2006 and spring of 2007, six teachers from different continents engaged in multiple, in-depth conversations with the researcher about their experiences as online teachers in multiple online programs. The conversations were text-based and took place in an online forum characterized as a discussion board. The conversational text, additional personal reflections, related literature, and philosophic writings intertwine to create a textual interpretation of this experience. Using the metaphor of knots, the researcher explores themes of presence in distance, presence in text, interface presence, teaching identity, the virtual classroom as place, and the role of imagination and flow in unraveling some of the paradoxes of teaching online. The research makes recommendations for preparing teachers for online teaching and for the development of policies relating to course design, interface design, and teaching practices. Pedagogical insights include the effects of teaching with technology on several aspects of online teaching: marginalization of contingent online teachers, technical interests related to virtual curricula, online text, teaching memory, and signature and interface pedagogies. A phenomenological rendering of Moore's (2007) theory of transactional distance explores teacher presence in distance. The researcher offers suggestions for future phenomenological research to explore the meaning of the experiences of contingent teachers, the "best practices" approach to teacher preparation programs, standardized course development models, and media/mediated and non-media/non-mediated teaching identities.Item Digital Libraries in Schools: The Best Practices of National Board Certified Library Media Specialists(2009) Massey, Sheri Anita; Druin, Allison; Weeks, Ann C.; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigated the digital library integration behaviors of school library media specialists (SLMSs) who have achieved certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). A qualitative interview study design was chosen to convert tacit knowledge related to digital library use into explicit knowledge that can be shared with others. The goal of this research was to identify behaviors and techniques that exemplary SLMSs share when using digital libraries to support the curriculum in K-12 schools. The researcher interviewed and collected artifacts from 10 local National Board certified SLMSs and analyzed the resulting transcripts and materials using thematic analysis. A preliminary coding scheme was derived from the NBPTS Library Media technology innovation standard, which requires candidates to demonstrate expertise in providing technology access, teaching effective technology use, engaging learners with technology, and using technology to enhance the curriculum. Themes related to these four areas emerged from the data, as did sub-themes in the form of barriers the SLMSs encountered and strategies they developed to meet the standard. The barriers are discussed using Ertmer's (1999) first- and second-order classifications. The strategies are the SLMSs' best practices. To provide digital library access the SLMSs made themselves and their assistants available to learners; demonstrated mental and resource flexibility when they encountered obstacles; and, implemented creative funding strategies. To teach digital library use they used the research process to help students bridge knowledge learned in various contexts; provided training; remained abreast of digital library innovations; and, offered suggestions to product developers. To maintain engagement with digital libraries they used proven teaching techniques that build on strong instructional design principles. Finally, they relied on collaborative relationships when integrating digital libraries. They increased collaboration by building trust among colleagues; extending their reach beyond the SLMC in person and virtually, diversifying their role within the school, and gathering curriculum information to incorporate information literacy skills into lessons. Key implications: encourage SLMS-teacher collaboration, build a knowledge management system that captures expertise and supports SLMS communication, reconsider blocking social networking tools in schools to bridge the disconnect between students' home and school information-related behaviors.Item Community and Educational Opportunity in the US: The Relative Utility of Technology and Digital Literacy in a Transcultural Community(2008-11-21) Pruitt-Mentle, Davina; Finkelstein, Barbara; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This ethnobiographic study explores the ways in which five low income transmigrants living in an urban Mid-Atlantic transcultural community made use of technology and digital literacy. Specifically, the study focuses on the ways in which participants defined the purpose, importance, and utility of technology and digital literacy in their lives. The stories reveal complex and often heroic efforts to become digitally literate and apply technological learning to their obligations as parents, breadwinners, and community participants in widely dispersed social networks that cross family, community, and national boundaries. Their stories reveal: 1) the desire for digital literacy to participate in our modern society; 2) limitations in concepts of access and equity as currently conceived in scholarly literature; 3) trust as a key component of successful programs; and 4) the importance of technology in sustaining transcultural networks. The voices of the participants reveal that immigrants recognize the need for technology training, not only for jobs, but also to aid and enhance their everyday life. They shared the need for training to include: basic classroom skills instruction for children; learning opportunities for adults; programs that include authentic tasks and design features that consider cost, time and day of the week, location, language options, and word of mouth confirmation regarding the quality of content and trust in instructors and training location. Their search for safety extends to protecting their personal information and children by acquiring cyber safety and security knowledge. This study adds to transcultural scholarly work, and also expands both digital divide and digital inequity literature that only rarely focuses on the relationship between participants and transcultural community constructs. Increasingly, computer based forms of communication are taking the place of letters, telephone and travel to maintain and expand ties to family and friends dispersed throughout the globe. Technology becomes a way to support their transmigrant identities and strengthen the networks of friends and family used to identify places to live and work. Rather than creating a homogeneous global society, technology may actually serve to strengthen national identities across borders.Item Physical Aspects of VLSI Design with a Focus on Three-Dimensional Integrated Circuit Applications(2007-11-27) Dilli, Zeynep; Goldsman, Neil; Electrical Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This work is on three-dimensional integration (3DI), and physical problems and aspects of VLSI design. Miniaturization and highly complex integrated systems in microelectronics have led to the 3DI development as a promising technological approach. 3DI offers numerous advantages: Size, power consumption, hybrid integration etc., with more thermal problems and physical complexity as trade-offs. We open this work by presenting the design and testing of an example 3DI system, to our knowledge the first self-powering system in a three-dimensional SOI technology. The system uses ambient optical energy harvested by a photodiode array and stored in an integrated capacitor. An on-chip metal interconnect network, beyond its designed role, behaves as a parasitic load vulnerable to electromagnetic coupling. We have developed a spatially-dependent, transient Green's Function based method of calculating the response of an interconnect network to noise. This efficient method can model network delays and noise sensitivity, which are involved problems in both planar and especially in 3DICs. Three-dimensional systems are more susceptible to thermal problems, which also affect VLSI with high power densities, of complex systems and under extreme temperatures. We analytically and experimentally investigate thermal effects in ICs. We study the effects of non-uniform, non-isotropic thermal conductivity of the typically complex IC material system, with a simulator we developed including this complexity. Through our simulations, verified by experiments, we propose a method of cooling or directionally heating IC regions. 3DICs are suited for developing wireless sensor networks, commonly referred to as ``smart dust.'' The ideal smart dust node includes RF communication circuits with on-chip passive components. We present an experimental study of on-chip inductors and transformers as integrated passives. We also demonstrate the performance improvement in 3DI with its lower capacitive loads. 3DI technology is just one example of the intense development in today's electronics, which maintains the need for educational methods to assist student recruitment into technology, to prepare students for a demanding technological landscape, and to raise societal awareness of technology. We conclude this work by presenting three electrical engineering curricula we designed and implemented, targeting these needs among others.Item Collaborative Technology For Young Children's Outdoor Education(2007-08-03) Chipman, Leslie Eugene; Druin, Allison; Computer Science; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Children participating in classroom field trips learn first hand in an authentic context. However, activities during these trips are often limited to observation and data collection. Children synthesize their knowledge later, in classroom discussions and in the collaborative construction of a representational artifact. But the classroom is removed from the authentic context in which the knowledge was gained. My research investigated how mobile technology can bridge this gap by supporting and encouraging young children (grades K-4) to collaboratively construct knowledge artifacts, while simultaneously exploring open, educational environments. Three key elements are addressed; creating a concrete connection between digital information and the real world, supporting awareness of collaborative opportunities in an open environment, and promoting face-to-face collaboration. This dissertation details the conception, design, implementation, and evaluation of the Tangible Flags technology; a tangible interface that is developmentally appropriate for children (grades K-4) to embed and access digital information through their physical environment and multi-user tools that support collaboration in open environments. Tangible Flags are simple for children to attach to the environment and promote an awareness of artifact creation and exploration activities because they are visually apparent. An interface that provides an awareness of changes to digital artifacts and enables concurrent and remote access to these artifacts further enhances collaboration. Two studies were conducted to evaluate the concepts of Tangible Flags. A case study was conducted in an authentic outdoor learning environment, a National Park. A second study compares children's use of the Tangible Flags technology to a roughly equivalent paper system. Quantitative and qualitative analysis indicates that children using Tangible Flags participated in more asynchronous collaborative activity and were more engaged than those who did not. It also showed that awareness of peer activity combined with remote and concurrent access to digital artifacts resulted in increased face-to-face collaborative activity and examines the impact of artifact awareness and access on children's focus on the environment. These contributions will be useful to educators, designers of educational environments and researchers in the field of children's educational technology.Item Learning with hypermedia: Examining cognitive, motivational, and contextual factors(2007-04-17) Moos, Daniel Charles; Azevedo, Roger; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Think-aloud, pretest, posttest, and self-efficacy data collected from 85 undergraduates were used to examine factors related to learning with hypermedia. Participants, randomly assigned to either the No Scaffolding (NS) condition or Conceptual Scaffolding (CS) condition, were given 30 minutes to learn about the circulatory system with hypermedia. Participants in the NS condition received an overall learning goal during the hypermedia learning task, while participants in the CS condition received five guiding questions in addition to the same overall learning goal during the hypermedia learning task. There are four findings from this study. First, results from the pretest and posttest indicated that prior domain knowledge significantly predicted both declarative and conceptual knowledge learning outcomes with hypermedia. Second, results from the self-report self-efficacy questionnaire indicated that while self-efficacy significantly fluctuated during learning, the provision of conceptual scaffolds was not related to this fluctuation. Third, results from a think-aloud protocol indicated that self-efficacy significantly predicted monitoring and planning processes, but not strategy use during the hypermedia learning task. Fourth, results from a think-aloud protocol also indicated that self-regulatory processes (particularly processes related to monitoring) significantly predicted conceptual and declarative learning outcomes. Educational and scientific implications are discussed.Item The Role of Social Presence in Online Communities(2006-07-11) Caples, Robert Kelly; Druin, Allison; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Online learning is emerging as a solution for professional staff development in public school systems that are looking for ways to improve the capacity of their teaching staffs. As teachers begin to take more online courses as a way of improving their skills, we must continue to study the dynamics of teaching and learning in an online environment. To that end, there is a need to examine the various factors that affect online courses and professional staff development for teachers. This dissertation explores the role of social presence in an online professional development course for teachers. It focuses on the threaded discussion of 26 teachers enrolled in an online course and compares their self-reported online behaviors with the written discussion threads. The data were analyzed based on a modified version of Garrison, Anderson, and Archer's (2001) indicators of social presence. In addition, this research focused on the written responses of the online moderators to understand the relationship between their responses and the ones provided by the teachers as online community members. Content analysis of the discussion threads revealed that there was a range of social presence in the textual responses of the community members. The results of the study showed that there are levels of social presence in the written communication of the online community. In this research the levels of social presence appeared to be affected by outside influences such as the governing policy of the community itself and the more expansive district-wide policy of the school system. The results also suggested that moderator behaviors in this research had an effect on the policy governing the members of the online community. These results confirm previous research findings that suggest the purpose of the community and the types of questions used in asynchronous discussions can have an effect on the levels of social presence within the online community.Item Communication structures in computer-supported cooperative learning (CSCL) environments for adult learners in distance education(2006-07-12) Verdines, Patricia; Neuman, Delia; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This qualitative study addresses the research question: What is the nature of the instructional communication process sustained by computer-supported cooperative learning (CSCL) environments for adult learners in constructivist distance education? The target audience was adult learners; the constructivist learning paradigm guided the analysis of the teaching/learning interactions and communication events. A course was selected as the unit of analysis by following a theoretical construct sampling strategy. Relevant information selected purposively from the course archive was analyzed using conversation analysis to explore the nature of the instructional communication process (the "macro" level") and content analysis to identify the types of teaching/learning interactions, the types of knowledge and the cognitive processes that occurred in the chosen environment (the "micro" level). The study develops a model that characterizes online conversations as instructional communication events, and establishes a framework for the systematic analysis of online conversations in CSCL environments. At the "macro" level of analysis, the participants' discourse in the synchronous conversations moderated by the instructional team was well-structured and composed of a set of phases - opening, instructional delivery, and closing - as in face-to-face classroom discourse research. In contrast, the unmonitored asynchronous conversations were characterized as ill-structured; only the opening phase or the instructional delivery phases were represented in the discourse. At the "micro" level, extensive and diverse types of interactions occurred in the asynchronous conversations, but fewer types were evident in the synchronous conversations, which were structured by the instructional team to limit active participation to only a few students. These findings suggest that online instructional conversations can be characterized as student-centered, teacher-centered, or a combination of both, according to the type and variety of interactions that occur among participants. The analysis also identified the types of knowledge constructed and shared by students as well as the cognitive activity represented in their discourse, which were characterized as instances of specific learning processes - such as collaborative problem solving and collaborative argumentation - and diverse learning outcomes consistent with the learning goals in the course selected in the study.Item The Effects of Asynchronous Peer Review on University Students' Argumentative Writing(2006-05-02) Tsai, Ya-Chin; Slater, Wayne H.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In contrast to oral response groups, asynchronous peer review (APR) has received relatively little attention in writing research. This study was motivated largely by the question of whether delayed peer commentary relayed by technology could lead writers to revise writing extensively and improve quality. The purpose of this within-subject, quasi-experimental study was to examine the effect of APR on the quality and revision of argumentative writing. A Web-based program, <u>Calibrated Peer Review<sup>TM</sup></u> (CPR), was used to support the peer review process. Two classes, consisting of 22 students and 16 students, volunteered to participate in this study. After taking the pretest, every participant wrote two argumentative essays and completed a survey. For one essay, participants wrote their drafts and revised their essays alone without APR. For the other essay, the participants completed their drafts, participated in the APR activity supported by CPR, and revised their essays. The treatment, i.e., APR, was administered to the two classes in a counter-balanced manner. Repeated-measure MANOVAs were used to gauge changes over time in holistic quality and the primary traits measured by a revised Toulmin model, and revision changes were coded. This study yielded four findings. First, by holistic quality, the final essays post APR were found to outscore the corresponding initial drafts and the revised essays completed without APR. Second, the final essays post APR were found to outscore the corresponding initial drafts in Claim, Data, Opposition, and Refutation and outscored the final essays completed without the treatment in Claim and Opposition. However, Qualifier did not change at all. Third, extensive surface-based and text-based revisions were produced post APR. Without APR, the participants appeared reluctant to revise. Fourth, the guiding questions used to prompt the peer review process and peer commentary were reported to predominate during the revising process. In conclusion, the entire APR process appears to serve as a catalyst for triggering a great number of surface-based and text-based revisions. Accordingly, revision frequency seems to enhance the holistic quality as well as the four primary traits of argumentative writing.