Nan B. Adams

Educational Computing Concerns of Postsecondary Faculty.

Abstract This study examines teachers’ concerns related to the integration of technology into teaching practices and compares these concerns with professional and ancillary demographic variables. The study was conducted during the third year of a five-year computer integration innovation cycle. The results identified two groups: nonusers and users midway through the innovation process. Comparison based on academic task area revealed that for the areas Biglan (1973) described as hard and applied particpants exhibited higher-order concerns and higher integration levels than other academic task areas. A correlation existed among attendance of faculty development activities, integration level and higher-order concerns. Ancillary demo-graphic data revealed correlations among gender, age, and teaching experience when compared with concern, integration level, and attendance of faculty development activities. Females, young faculty, and faculty with less teaching experience expressed higher-order concerns and higher computer integration into teaching practices.

Investigating aspects of an emerging digital ethnicity: Development of the Digital Ethnicity Scale (DES)

The Digital Ethnicity Scale (DES), utilizing Longstreet (1978) model of the aspects of ethnicity, was developed to describe the impact human interaction with digital communication technologies is having on cultural development. Longstreets definition of ethnicity focuses on cultural development during the earliest stages of human development, prior to the onset of childrens abstract thinking. The ultimate goal for the development of the Digital Ethnicity Scale is to describe those aspects of digital ethnicity and collect these descriptions along with demographic data to achieve profiles of various digital ethnicities. These digital ethnic profiles may provide insight into the social and educational needs of rapidly changing societal groupings with hopes of providing guidance for future practice. A 5-phase development process, including the development and validation of both Likert-type items and semantic differentials, was conducted with more than 2000 respondents. Both theoretical and practical results of this inquiry are presented.

Digital ethnicity: discussion of a concept and implications for education

Interaction with the rapidly expanding digital technologies for education, work, and play has drastically changed the processes and practices of world populations. As societies evolve in response to these new communication and calculation tools, the need arises to understand the sometimes unique but increasingly common change in cultures. The Digital Ethnicity Scale (DES), utilizing Longstreet’s (1978, Aspects of Ethnicity (New York: Teachers College Press) model of the Aspects of Ethnicity, was developed to describe the emergence of new cultural patterns of behavior that result from the influence of human interaction with digital communication technologies (Adams, DeVaney, and Longstreet (2010) Comput. Hum. Behav. 26(6): 1822–1830). Longstreet’s definition of ethnicity focuses on cultural development during the earliest stages of human development, prior to the onset of children’s abstract thinking. The ultimate goal for the development of the DES is to describe those aspects of digital ethnicity and collect these descriptions along with demographic data to achieve profiles of various digital ethnicities. A discussion of the guiding concept and overview of the development of the DES seeks to present a description of these digital ethnic profiles that may provide insight into the educational needs of rapidly changing societal groupings with hopes of providing guidance for educational practice.