Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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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 give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item "We just learned from each other": ESOL pre-service teachers learning to use digital tools across coursework and student teaching(2020) Durham, Carmen; Martin-Beltrán, Melinda; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Educators can use digital tools to meet emergent bilingual students’ unique needs (e.g., Andrei, 2017; Liu, Navarrete, & Wivagg, 2014; Lund, 2008). However, language teachers generally feel unprepared to use technology with students even though many use digital tools in their daily lives (e.g., Dooly, 2009; Kessler, 2006). Research can further examine how to prepare teachers to leverage technology to support emergent bilingual learners. In this study, I used ethnographic methods to explore six pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) experiences learning about and using digital tools in ways intended to support emergent bilingual students. I interviewed the PSTs and observed their participation across student teaching and a concurrent practicum course. I analyzed these data through the lens of cultural-historical activity theory (Engeström, 2001; Yamagata-Lynch, 2010) to examine how PSTs navigated dynamic, interacting activity systems. I also drew on polyfocality to conceptualize learners’ attention on multiple physical and virtual resources during interactions. Findings revealed that the PSTs’ participation in teacher education was characterized by a shared responsibility where all the PSTs, their teacher educator, and mentor teachers contributed new digital tools and polyfocally co-constructed knowledge about the possibilities for classroom technology implementation. The shared responsibility and polyfocal co-construction of knowledge afforded the PSTs opportunities to learn in the moment, and many described their learning as “playing around.” It also afforded PSTs opportunities to reflect on their future practice and evaluate new technologies. Within student teaching, the PSTs sanctioned specific digital tools, but their emergent bilingual students deliberately made choices about technologies that would support their learning about self-chosen topics. Because of the ever-evolving nature of educational technology and students’ complex uses of multiple digital tools simultaneously, teachers must be prepared to continually explore new technologies, critically analyze their benefits, and use them in ways that afford their emergent bilingual students opportunities to make independent choices.Item UNPROVEN INNOVATION: IPADS IN K-12 ENVIRONMENTS(2015) Robinson, Meri Elizabeth; Davis, Thomas E; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Nationally, the education sector spends more than 5 billion dollars annually on digital tools, “yet seldom are technology solutions factored into any viable equation for improving student academic achievement” (Moersch, 2014, p. ix). Consider the following case in point: In July 2014, Apple announced that in just 3 years, the company had sold more than13 million iPads to educational institutions worldwide (Cavanagh, 2014). Put into perspective, that represents more than 5.2 billion dollars spent by the education industry to purchase iPads, which is the equivalent of the annual salaries of 89,655 teachers (“High School Teacher: Salary,” 2014). Despite such vast expenditures, there have been very few attempts to evaluate the efficacy of these digital tools on improving academic achievement. This research involved a quantitative data review of participant (student and teacher) survey data to explore one of the country’s largest K-12 iPad implementation undertakings in an effort to identify (a) best practices and (b) lessons learned from implementing the iPad into K-12 educational environments. It should be noted that the school system forming the basis of this research already had administered and collated the surveys used in this study.Item ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY USE AMONG SECONDARY SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS IN A PRIVATE SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS WITH SPECIFIC LEARNING DISABILITIES: TYPES, LEVELS OF USE AND REPORTED BARRIERS.(2015) Constantinescu, Carmen; McLaughlin, Margaret; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Special education teachers are expected to integrate assistive technology (AT) for students with disabilities per Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). However, the legal mandates do not provide clear guidelines regarding the type, the frequency, and the purpose for which AT can be used and, often, the decision of AT integration is left up to teachers and members of Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) teams who may or may not have complete knowledge of the AT implementation strategies. This research study provides an overview of how teachers of different content areas in a technology-rich self-contained secondary program for students with learning disabilities implemented AT in their daily instruction. Teacher reports and observations reflected discrepancies in how teachers may perceive their teaching with AT and revealed that, in spite of having access to a variety of technologies, there continues to be a focus on using low and medium AT (less complex technology). Specific factors (barriers) that influenced the integration of technology for students with learning disabilities are also investigated and described.Item Testing the Digital Divide: Does Access to High-QUality Use of Technology in Schools Affect Student Achievement?(2012) Talley, Gregory Keith; Hawley, Willis D.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigates the relationship between access, use of technology and student achievement in public middle schools in Maryland. The objective of this study was to determine whether a digital divide (differences in access and utilization of technology based on student characteristics of race, socioeconomic status, and gender) exists among schools, and whether those differences relate to mathematics and reading achievement. More specifically, the study uses school data on technology access, students' instructional uses of technology, and teacher technology proficiency from the 2007 Maryland Technology Inventory. This study analyzes student demographic data and assessment results from the 2007 Maryland School Assessments in reading and mathematics obtained from the Maryland State Department of Education. The data analyses use descriptive and multivariate statistics to determine the existence of digital divides and their effects on reading and mathematics achievement. Analysis of these data described patterns of technology access and use in order to determine whether differences in access and use resulted in a digital divide. Differences in access and use were then examined to determine their impact on reading and mathematics achievement levels. The research design relied on descriptive and multivariate statistics to analyze access and use and their relationship to academic achievement. Findings indicated that digital divides exist in the student-to-computer ratio and the number of teachers with classroom computers, and digital access was positively associated with eighth-grade mathematics and reading proficiency scores. However, student classroom computer ratios were negatively associated with achievement, controlling for other factors. Digital divides in students' use of technology for publishing text, organizing information, and communicating information were identified, with access to technology for these tasks/skills and positively associated with mathematics and reading scores, but connecting language to words had a negative impact. Teachers' use of technology for creating instructional materials had a positive impact on reading scores but a negative impact on mathematics achievement, when the researcher controlled for other factors. Findings suggest that differences exist in several areas of technology access and use when considering student characteristics of race, socioeconomic status, and gender. This study contributes to existing research on the effects of technology on instruction and informs state and local policy on instructional technology implementation and practice.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 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.