Glenda Scales

Student learning behaviors promoted with instructional technology

This study examines the use of collaborative instructional technology among engineering undergraduates at a Research I university and discusses the relationship of student use to desired educational outcomes. Specifically, trends in student use of the Tablet PC and related features over a four year period will be discussed. Frequency of student use of the collaborative features within engineering courses and the subsequent relationship to gains in desired learning outcomes will be reviewed. Discussion focuses on how the results are being used to form initiatives to encourage student and faculty use. Administrators and faculty at other institutions that are involved in initiatives related to instructional technology or those interested in pedagogical approaches that use technology to encourage collaboration between peers as well as between instructors and students can use the results from this study to help inform projects at their own colleges and universities.

Deploying tablet PCs in an engineering education environment

Tablet PCs are one of the newest innovations in the computing and communications world and have the potential for significantly improving the way in which faculty members teach and the many different processes and mechanisms involved in student learning. After much discussion and experimentation, the Virginia Tech College of Engineering decided to require that all incoming freshmen own their own tablet PC starting in the fall of 2006. This paper describes the process by which the college arrived at this decision as well as the expected benefits of this initiative. We also discuss the various processes involved in implementing the requirement program including faculty and staff training, development of the necessary support infrastructure, establishment of working relationships with hardware and software vendors needed to support this pioneering venture, and the assessment activities that will take place to measure the effectiveness of the overall process and its demonstrable changes in the way in which faculty teach and students learn. Mechanisms for scaling and adopting the processes used here at Virginia Tech will be suggested to the audience.

African-American Middle School Girls: Influences on Attitudes toward Computer Science

The number of women in computing is significantly lower than the number of men in the discipline, with African-American women making up an even smaller segment of this population. Related literature accredits this phenomenon to multiple sources, including background, stereotypes, discrimination, a lack of self-confidence, and a lack of self-efficacy. However, a majority of the literature fails to represent African-American females in research studies. The purpose of this study is to understand the factors that influence the attitudes of African-American middle school girls toward computer science. The results reveal that the African-American middle school girls in the sample generally have negative attitudes toward computer science. However, after participating in a computer science intervention, perceptions become more positive due to four factors: engaging in the intervention, the intervention content domain, the facilitation of performance accomplishments, and participant characteristics.

Understanding the attitudes of African American middle school girls toward computer science

The number of women in computing is significantly low compared to the number of men in the discipline, with African American women making up an even smaller segment of this population. Related literature accredits this phenomenon to multiple sources, including background, stereotypes, discrimination, self-confidence, and a lack of self-efficacy or belief in ones capabilities. However, a majority of the literature fails to represent African American females in research studies. The research presented in this paper used a mixed methods approach to understand the attitudes of African American middle school girls toward computer science and investigated the factors that influence these attitudes. The results show that African American middle school girls generally have negative attitudes toward computer science. However, after participating in a computer science intervention, perceptions toward computer science become more positive. The results also reveal that four factors influence the attitudes of African American middle school girls toward computer science, such as the participation in an intervention, the intervention content domain, the facilitation of performance accomplishments, and participant characteristics like socioeconomic status, mothers education, school grades, and the use of smart phones and video game consoles at home.

Work in progress — Transitioning an established engineering distance learning program infrastructure to an on-line instructional setting

For over 25 years the Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program consortium has used distance learning technologies to deliver courses to qualified working professionals and on-campus graduate students. In recent years, the programs courses have been delivered using interactive video conferencing, a solution that has proven to be increasingly limiting. This paper will highlight the motivations for moving the primary delivery mode of the program to on-line delivery of courses to the computer desktop. It will also summarize key points of discussion from a June 2009 workshop held to introduce faculty to key pedagogical elements of online instruction. Discussions at the workshop highlighted how recent developments in information technology have made the delivery of substantive, interactive online courses feasible. Given that engineering faculty are most familiar with traditional classroom-based instruction and learning, the workshop sought to raise faculty awareness about how equally effective pedagogy can be accomplished in an online instructional environment, using appropriate technology in teaching solutions. Particularly, the workshop sought to convey to those in attendance that effective engineering pedagogy can occur in an online instructional environment.

Developing innovative thinking among engineering undergraduates: Examining the role of slate enabled technology

This paper reports the planned implementation for a NSF sponsored study that is being undertaken to examine whether effective use of instructional technology, specifically slate enabled technology, has an impact on the innovative thinking skills among engineering undergraduates enrolled in large lecture classes. The methodology used in this study a quasi-experimental mixed method approach utilizing a control and treatment group. Findings from the planned study can be used to improve innovative thinking skills through effective pedagogical approaches which may include employment of various forms of slate enabled instructional technology.

Work in progress — A framework for assessing the impact of instructional technology on the nature of teaching and learning

If innovative approaches in educational environments are going to be considered for more widespread adoption, assessment methods need to be employed that demonstrate the efficacy of those approaches related to student learning. Various forms of instructional technology have been utilized within the undergraduate curriculum to enhance educational environments and as that technology rapidly advances, it is necessary to consider in what ways that technology brings about desired changes in the pedagogy employed and student engagement with course content. This paper describes the assessment methods currently being employed at a Research I university that are designed to examine the effectiveness of an undergraduate Tablet PC laptop requirement as it relates to systematic change in the nature of undergraduate teaching and learning.

Work in progress - can the Tablet PC provide “new opportunities to learn?”

With the advent of the information age, engineering educators have struggled to change pedagogical practice to prepare students for the pace and complexity of the world ahead. Constructivist instructional methods are particularly promising because they explicitly promote active evaluation of information and higher-order thinking, and encourage faculty to act as a facilitator of student learning. The Tablet PC is a potentially valuable tool in this instructional environment because of its wide-ranging functionality. In the present study, we examine the unfolding effects of a large-scale tablet-based deployment at a R1 college of Engineering. We employ pre and post measures to evaluate studentspsila: (1) attitudes toward technology, (2) technology use, and (3) metacognitive strategies and motivation. Initial results also show some significant cognitive effects in courses using the Tablet. With course implementations underway that make fuller use of Tablet capacities we anticipate more positive learning outcomes.