Kimberly A. Lawless

Professional Development in Integrating Technology Into Teaching and Learning: Knowns, Unknowns, and Ways to Pursue Better Questions and Answers

The literature base on technology professional development for teachers reveals that there is a long way to go in understanding methods of effective practice with respect to the various impacts of these activities on teaching and learning. In the No Child Left Behind era, with programs like Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology, the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education, and E-rate (the schools and library portion of the Universal Service Fund) that have been targeted as No Demonstrated Results, we need to move to a more systematic study of how technology integration occurs within our schools, what increases its adoption by teachers, and the long-term impacts that these investments have on both teachers and students. In addition to the findings of a comprehensive literature review, this article also articulates a systematic evaluation plan that, if implemented, will likely yield the information needed to better understand these important educational issues.

Understanding Hypertext Navigation through Cluster Analysis.

Hypertext documents are unlike traditional text for not only do they represent a computer-based medium, but also readers can process the hypertext in a nonlinear, random access fashion. The ability to navigate through hypertext sometimes presents individuals with difficulty perhaps because these readers do not possess adequate domain knowledge or interest in the topics encountered. This study was designed to inspect the navigational profiles of participants as they process a hypertext document. Using cluster analysis, three performance profiles emerged: 1) knowledge seekers, 2) feature explorers, and, 3) apathetic hypertext users. Analyses demonstrated that domain knowledge seems to differentiate among the cluster groups. Results indicated that students who are interested in computers and hypertext but who do not possess relevant amounts of domain knowledge aligned with the text material experienced difficulty when trying to comprehend hypertext. Implications for learning, assessment, and teaching are discussed.

What Do You Recommend? Implementation and Analyses of Collaborative Information Filtering of Web Resources for Education.

This article examines results from one pilotstudy and two empirical studies of acollaborative filtering (CF) system applied ineducational settings. CF is a populartechnology in electronic commerce, whichleverages the interests of entire communitiesto provide targeted, personalizedrecommendations of interesting products orresources to individuals. In electroniccommerce, entertainment, and related domains,CF has proven an accurate and reliable tool;yet educational applications remain limited.From analyses of data from these three studies,we believe that CF holds promise in educationnot only for the purposes of helping learnersand educators find useful resources forlearning, but as a means of bringing togetherpeople with similar interests and beliefs, andpossibly as an aid to the learning processitself.

Hypermedia navigation: Profiles of hypermedia users

In this study we explored the use of log files as a window into the process of hypermedia navigation. Although there is a growing body of research addressing theoretical and design issues related to open-ended, non-directive technologies such as hypermedia, relatively few studies have attempted to explain navigational performance. Sixty-six undergraduate students used a multidimensional, computer-based kiosk that could be explored in a nonlinear fashion to find information in response to one of two information-retrieval tasks (simple or complex). Cluster analysis was used to generate performance profiles derived from navigational data captured in log files. Analyses of within-cluster performance profiles, combined with external validation criteria, led to the classification of four different types of navigational performance (models users, disenchanted volunteers, feature explorers, and cyber cartographers). These characterizations were consistent with information-retrieval scores and the external criteria (self-efficacy, perceived utility, and interest). For example, individuals who appeared to take the time to learn the layout of the kiosk also had the highest self-efficacy, while those who used the help screen and watched the most movies had the lowest self-efficacy. Results also demonstrated an interaction between various individual navigational profiles and type of information-retrieval task.

Knowledge, Interest, Recall and Navigation: A Look at Hypertext Processing

This study examines how knowledge and interest affect recall of information from a hypertext environment. Participants were 34 undergraduates enrolled at a college of education in a large western university. Results indicate that domain knowledge significantly predicted both structured and unstructured reading recall of a hypertext. In contrast to patterns found within research on traditional reading environments, interest did not significantly affect recall of hypertext information. Differential navigation patterns emerged in conjunction with varying levels of knowledge and may help to explain these results. The results are discussed in terms of current schema theoretic models of reading comprehension.

Children's Hypertext Navigation Strategies.

Abstract Research investigating the nature of reader’s navigational choices indicates at least three recurring patterns among hypertext users. Each of these patterns is marked by the type and amount of resources visited and the level of text processing that occurs. Conclusions from prior research have highlighted that navigation seems to be a strategy some readers employ better and more efficiently than others. However, the majority of these studies have investigated experienced adult readers. Because navigational choices are made strategically, it stands to reason that children, who have less strategic knowledge with respect to reading, may navigate differently than their adult counterparts. This study was undertaken to identify if similar or different navigational profiles emerge for younger readers of hypertext documents. In addition, knowledge and interest variables were examined to illuminate why differences may or may not occur. Results indicate that both adult and adolescent readers use the same navigational profiles. However, the order of prominence of the profiles differed between the two groups. Differences appear to be linked to the level of exposure to a given domain rather than experience navigating computer environments.

Acquisition of Information Online: Knowledge, Navigation and Learning Outcomes:

Research suggests that the World Wide Web (WWW) represents the intersection of at least two domains: content and technology. This investigation was designed to examine the relationship between prior knowledge and WWW browsing outcomes (i.e., navigation behavior and knowledge gain) within the context of a genetics Web site. Students randomly assigned to a treatment group were given a prereading activity designed to increase their prior knowledge within the domain of genetics. This group demonstrated significantly higher learning outcome scores than students in the control group. The treatment group also spent more time browsing, viewed more multimedia resources, and utilized more in-text embedded links. These results and others are interpreted in terms of instructional decisions and recommendations for future research.

Promoting Positive Academic Dispositions Using a Web-Based PBL Environment: The GlobalEd 2 Project.

Abstract Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional design approach for promoting student learning, understanding and knowledge development in context rich settings. Previous PBL research has primarily focused on face-to-face learning environments, but current technologies afford PBL designers the opportunities to create online, virtual, PBL envi-ronments. The GlobalEd 2 Project is an example of a PBL environment that combines the positive characteristics of both face-to-face and online environments in a 14-week simu -lation of international negotiations of science advisors on global water resource issues. The GlobalEd 2 PBL environment is described examining the impact it has had on middle school students’ interest in future science education experiences, self-efficacy related to writing in science and self-efficacy related to technology use for academic purposes using a pre-test post-test design. Analyses using ANOVAs of gain scores and ANCOVAs of sub-group differences demonstrate a positive impact on the science interest and self-efficacy of 208 middle-grade students from urban and suburban schools.Keywords: problem-based learning, self-efficacy, writing, science interest, global education

Evaluation Across Contexts: Evaluating the Impact of Technology Integration Professional Development Partnerships

Abstract Professional development is a necessary component for effectively integrating technology into classrooms. Unfortunately, the evaluation of technology integration professional development (TIPD) rarely moves beyond participation satisfaction surveys, nor does it reflect the concerns of the multiple stakeholders participating in technology integration efforts. In this article, the authors discuss collaborative models that hold potential for evaluating TIPD partnerships. They advocate for TIPD partners to define a collaborative and holistic vision of success that can guide the evaluation process. The authors discuss three specific collaborative evaluation models, examine key issues associated with implementing them, and analyze how each model has the potential to strengthen and sustain professional development partnerships.

Assessing the use of multiple sources in student essays

The present study explored different approaches for automatically scoring student essays that were written on the basis of multiple texts. Specifically, these approaches were developed to classify whether or not important elements of the texts were present in the essays. The first was a simple pattern-matching approach called “multi-word” that allowed for flexible matching of words and phrases in the sentences. The second technique was latent semantic analysis (LSA), which was used to compare student sentences to original source sentences using its high-dimensional vector-based representation. Finally, the third was a machine-learning technique, support vector machines, which learned a classification scheme from the corpus. The results of the study suggested that the LSA-based system was superior for detecting the presence of explicit content from the texts, but the multi-word pattern-matching approach was better for detecting inferences outside or across texts. These results suggest that the best approach for analyzing essays of this nature should draw upon multiple natural language processing approaches.