Aligning digital and social inclusion: A study of disadvantaged students and computer access     

Nicola Yelland  Greg Neal 《Education and Information Technologies》2013,18(2):133-149

In this paper we discuss the notion of the digital divide and link it with recent policy designed to promote social inclusion in a project that addressed both issues. Families in low socio economic areas of Australia were given computers and Internet access as part of a project that had as its primary aim to support the participation of disadvantaged families in digital activities at home and in schools. The authors collected data over a period of 3 years that included, pre and post surveys with parents and students, interviews with program facilitators, and focus groups with parents. This paper focuses on selected themes that emerged from the interview and focus group data with the parents and explores the ways in which they perceived having the computer had impacted on their lives and those of their school aged children. This data (surveys, interviews and focus groups) reveals that all family members felt that the ownership of a computer enabled them to feel more confident about their active participation in everyday educational, social and community activities. Parents, teachers and students also reported that owning a computer was important to their lives yet they were not naïve to the fact that they still had a lot to learn in terms of using all the options available to them on the computer. Students noted the increased ease with which they could complete school work and communicate with friends in online contexts and outlined some of the ways in which they used the computer for leisure activities. Parents highlighted the increase in their own digital skill levels and described the ways in which their lives had benefitted from having a computer in the home. Problems associated with connectivity at the beginning of the project, the quality of the machines and inadequate initial training were listed as drawbacks to greater participation. The project represents one attempt to address the digital divide and illustrates how going beyond the dichotomy of a ‘haves’ v ‘have nots’ view of the digital divide is necessary if we want to promote social inclusion.  相似文献   

Design,implementation, and evaluation of a multi-disciplinary professional development program for research mentors     

Jennifer L. Brace  Rachael R. Baiduc  Denise L. Drane  Luke C. Flores  Greg J. Beitel 《Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning》2013,21(4):377-399

ABSTRACT

Undergraduate research experience has been shown to enhance student learning and improve persistence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Researchers studying undergraduate research experiences have largely focused on student outcomes and have seldom investigated the outcomes of graduate and postdoctoral mentors. Here, we report a non-credit, year-long mentor professional development program designed for graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and research staff in STEM. Mentors attended a series of six interactive and discussion-based workshops and mentored first-year undergraduate students in independent summer research projects. We report evaluation findings for three mentor cohorts using a combination of qualitative analysis of mentoring philosophies and quantitative assessment of pre- and post-surveys about mentoring objectives and skills. Results indicate that mentors gained self-efficacy in some objectives and skills. However, many other objectives and skills remained unchanged. We explore possible explanations for the lack of more broad-scale gains across survey items and present ideas for program improvement.  相似文献   

In Their Own Words: A Text Analytics Investigation of College Course Attrition     

Greg V. Michalski 《Community College Journal of Research & Practice》2013,37(9):811-826

Excessive course attrition is costly to both the student and the institution. While most institutions have systems to quantify and report the numbers, far less attention is typically paid to each student’s reason(s) for withdrawal. In this case study, text analytics was used to analyze a large set of open-ended written comments in which students explained their reason(s) for course withdrawal in their own words. The text for all comments was extracted verbatim from the course withdrawals database of Florida State College at Jacksonville, a large, diverse, multicampus institution located in northeast Florida. An initial set of 616 comment records from the beginning of the fall 2010 term was used to develop a preliminary text analytics model. This model revealed 11 major category nodes and successfully classified 96.1% of all withdrawal records into one or more categories. The model was retained and further tested using a second set of 679 records from the spring 2011 term and found to successfully classify 98.7% of the spring records. At the broadest level, withdrawal explanations were found to include both academic and nonacademic student rationales. Leading academic rationales involve course scheduling adjustments, delivery method preference changes (e.g., classroom vs. online), and faculty related reasons. Leading nonacademic rationales include personal issues especially involving job/work, family, financial, and health matters. The limitations of the study along with implications for practice, administrative decision making, and future directions for the expanded use of text analytics in institutional research are discussed.  相似文献   

Notes on Contributors     

Greg Hainge 《Culture, Theory & Critique》2013,54(2):177-178

  相似文献   

Wearable technologies for students with disabilities     

Greg Conderman  Toni Van Laarhoven  Jesse Johnson  Lisa Liberty 《Support for Learning》2021,36(4):664-677

Students with disabilities typically experience academic, social, and behavioural challenges in school. Some of these students also often experience anxiety and stress associated with school situations and events. Wearable technologies are an emerging innovation in the United States that can support students with disabilities during stressful academic or social situations. This article discusses issues associated with wearables, offers questions to consider when considering a wearable device for a student, and describes several wearable technologies for students with disabilities.  相似文献   

Why child maltreatment researchers should include children's disability status in their maltreatment studies     

Kendall-Tackett K  Lyon T  Taliaferro G  Little L 《Child abuse & neglect》2005,29(2):147-151

  相似文献   

A theory of instruction for introductory programming skills     

Benjamin Xie  Dastyni Loksa  Greg L. Nelson  Matthew J. Davidson  Dongsheng Dong  Harrison Kwik 《Computer Science Education》2019,29(2-3):205-253

ABSTRACT

Background and Context: Current introductory instruction fails to identify, structure, and sequence the many skills involved in programming.

Objective: We proposed a theory which identifies four distinct skills that novices learn incrementally. These skills are tracing, writing syntax, comprehending templates (reusable abstractions of programming knowledge), and writing code with templates. We theorized that explicit instruction of these skills decreases cognitive demand.

Method: We conducted an exploratory mixed-methods study and compared students’ exercise completion rates, error rates, ability to explain code, and engagement when learning to program. We compared material that reflects this theory to more traditional material that does not distinguish between skills.

Findings: Teaching skills incrementally resulted in improved completion rate on practice exercises, and decreased error rate and improved understanding of the post-test.

Implications: By structuring programming skills such that they can be taught explicitly and incrementally, we can inform instructional design and improve future research on understanding how novice programmers develop understanding.  相似文献   

Reflective Teachers and Teacher Educators in the Pacific Region: Conversations with us not about us     

Greg Burnett  Govinda Ishwar Lingam 《International Review of Education/Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft/Revue internationale l'éducation》2007,11(5):303-321

This article reports on a study of Pacific primary school teachers’ and university lecturers’ reflections on their involvement in the in-service Bachelor of Education degree programme offered at the regional University of the South Pacific (USP) in Fiji. Two rich sets of data have emerged from this study. Firstly, there are a number of critical reflections by ourselves as teacher educators concerning levels of equitable student access and participation in our degree as it is reconceptualised for distance and flexible delivery to increase levels of teacher professionalism across the Pacific region. Secondly, there has emerged a set of statements from teachers themselves about: teaching and learning; professional development opportunities; and what it means to be a professional educator in the Pacific region. This later data suggests an alternative set of voices in what has largely been a “conversation between us about them” conducted by Ministries of Education, Curriculum Development Units, USP, other educational bodies and the media in the Pacific, but particularly Fiji, about teachers and teachers’ work. Critical reflection upon our own practice as teacher educators and the voices of experienced teachers are particularly pertinent not only as we seek to reshape a degree programme to suit the needs of the region’s primary school teachers but also as “rethinking” debates about the purposes of education in the Pacific region are on-going yet exclusive.  相似文献   

Flexible use of lexical and sublexical information in word recognition     

Greg Decker  Greg B. Simpson  Mark Yates  Lawrence Locker 《Journal of Research in Reading》2003,26(3):280-286

Within the dual‐route framework it is hypothesised that readers exhibit flexibility in their use of lexical and non‐lexical information in word naming. In the present study, participants named high‐ and low‐frequency regular one‐syllable English words embedded within lists of regular or irregular one‐ or two‐syllable English words. A large number of irregular words should bias the reader toward the lexical route, whereas a list consisting exclusively of regular words should allow more efficient use of sublexical information present in the word. Word frequency effects were obtained when the list was dominated by either regular or irregular two‐syllable filler words. Furthermore, there was an interaction between frequency and regularity for the one‐syllable words, indicating that the frequency effect was significantly larger when the fillers were one‐syllable irregular words relative to one‐syllable regular words. These results extend those reported for a shallow orthography, and indicate strategic control over the use of phonological and lexical information in English word recognition.  相似文献   

The struggle to satisfy need: exploring the institutional cues for teaching support staff     

Greg Winslett 《Journal of Higher Education Policy & Management》2016,38(5):534-549

The decision-making around resource allocation in universities is complex. It plays out through the structures of governance and bureaucracy, through interactions with colleagues, workplace cultures and through day-to-day individual work practices. To survive and succeed within this complex environment, teaching support staff need to be sensitive to the cues provided by their institution. This paper focuses on the cues available to teaching support staff within university strategic plans and considers the effects these cues may have on their day-to-day decision-making. The results provide a sample of the competing cues that have an impact on teaching support staff and provide a foundation for a reconsidered approach to university strategic planning.  相似文献