Dissertations and theses on technology and L2 LEARNING (2000-2015)

This list has been updated with an eye towards providing working links to actual dissertation texts. Permanent links available free of charge through university databases have been privileged; for-profit enterprises that sell dissertation manuscripts have been listed when universities do not provide for the electronic dissemination of these documents. Manuscripts that are not available by either of these means are nevertheless listed as we hope to provide the most complete coverage of dissertations in the field of CALL that is possible. You will notice that the reference list style is somewhat different than what is suggested by APA. We decided upon a format that includes the name of the institution where the dissertation was completed such that a quick scan of the list reveals where people are studying CALL related themes—and which universities are field leaders in terms of freely distributing dissertations. If you notice that dissertations completed at your institution have not been included, please send us the references, so we can update this list yearly

Investigation of Multiple Recognitions Used for EFL Writing in Authentic Contexts

Recognition technologies had been prevailing and widely used for EFL learning. We investigated the different recognitions used for EFL writing based on image-to-text, translated speech-to-text, and location-to-text recognitions – ITR, TSTR, and LTR. A quasi-experiment was implemented for 12 weeks in a vocational high school with experimental and control groups in two stages. Pre-test, posttests 1 and 2, questionnaires, and interviews were conducted and analyzed. Experimental learners, who wrote writing based on ITR and TSTR, outperformed control learners who wrote that based on TSTR only. Also, the experimental learners, who wore writing based on ITR, TSTR, and LTR, outperformed the control learners who wrote that based on ITR and TSTR. Particularly, LTR was beneficial for identifying controlling ideas and addressing the writing topics. ITR was beneficial for brainstorming and generating more ideas. TSTR was beneficial for yielding and transferring writing contents into words. The multiple recognitions were beneficial for most EFL writers, especially for low-ability language writers. Most writers were interested in describing based on authentic context learning. However, they complained about the low accuracy of LTR and TSTR and the difficulty of ITR texts when writing. Accordingly, the LTR database with various categories of places, the generation of ITR based on the language abilities of learners, and the higher accuracy of TSTR should be strictly considered when applying multiple recognitions for EFL writing

Digital Transformation of Education and Sustainability-Review Based Study

Since 1990, the usage of internet as well as digitization has significantly increased. Digital transformation is the process of using, adoption of digital technology or information technology by an organisation to embed or digitalize products and services. A brief picture of types of learning, educational technology like Artificial intelligence, Metaverse, AR&VR, IoT, how digital transformation enables to meet UN SDG 4 is portrayed in this paper

Supervision of cyber teachers: Examining U.S. based cyber school policy and practice

This study extends the body of knowledge in the field of K-12 teacher supervision through an investigation of contemporary literature on supervision in traditional and cyber schools; an inventory of current cyber school supervisory practices, procedures, policies, needs, and issues; and a review of related supervisory documents. The results of the outreach effort yielded an effective response rate of 9% resulting in an unintended, but important finding, in that a better mechanism is needed for identifying, categorizing and reaching cyber schools. The study supports contemporary beliefs related to the necessity and importance of a quality supervisory program and that multiple considerations and approaches are available. Participating schools report substantially lower teacher to supervisor ratios than the national average and that supervision practices have a positive impact on quality of instruction. Respondents indicate that the principal is primarily responsible for supervision however; many call upon other individuals such as peer mentors, instructional supervisors, and team leaders to assess and support the teacher. Most participating schools incorporate the use of classroom observations using archived data and report that email is most widely used and most useful supervisory tool. Student work/test scores, input from students, teacher self-reflection, and input from parents are reported to be the most widely used sources of data. Professional development needs and a lack of time for supervision are reported to be the biggest supervisory challenges facing cyber school administrators

ACTIVE LEARNING MANIFESTED WITHIN A SYNCHRONOUS ONLINE CLASSROOM

The size and scope of online K-12 education is increasing rapidly. Research to develop a deeper understanding of the benefits of and barriers to delivering instruction via the Internet is limited. Traditionally research has shown that strategies of active learning, which when applied properly in K-12 classrooms, contribute to positive student attitudes towards self and learning and increase academic achievement. From a review of the literature, it was clear that there is limited research on synchronous online classrooms and on the indicators of active learning as they are manifested in synchronous online classrooms. Consequently, the aim of this study was to portray the perspectives of synchronous online teachers towards indicators of active learning. Participants for this study were teachers from a single cyber charter school. The participants responded to an online survey designed to elicit perceptions of important indicators of active learning, barriers to implementation of active learning, and strategies used to engage students in active learning strategies in synchronous online classrooms. A simple descriptive research design was applied to analyze the data. The data show that the most important indicator of effective instruction was teacher preparation required to create engaging learning activities. Teachers perceived all but two of the primary indicators of active learning identified in the literature (time on task and activities that promote collaboration) as “very important” or “extremely important”. Teachers’ perceptions of these primary indicators as not important contradict the literature on active learning. Teachers generally described the role of the student as the greatest barrier to implementing active learning in a synchronous online learning environment while the role of technology was viewed as only marginally distracting. The perceptions of synchronous online teachers align with what is reported in the literature on active learning in traditional classrooms. The results of this study have implications for teacher evaluation, hiring procedures, professional development and future research into active learning within the synchronous classroom

Application of the speech recognition technology in language education

As technology advances and innovative communication products emerge, the interaction between people, globally, changes. Therefore, technology plays a major role in influencing both language and culture. The purpose of this paper is to answer the question of how the speech recognition technology available on the smartphones and tablets can support language learning. The very latest and advanced features of the smartphones such as the speech recognition capabilities were utilised in experimenting with language learning. The languages included French, German, Italian, Japanese and Mandarin. In all cases, the established learning concepts such as learning by guidance were considered. This paper has demonstrated how the latest technologies such as speech recognition can be utilised to produce effective educational materials for immersive language education. It is concluded that Technology can enable a learner to simulate the learning by guidance approach in the absence of the tutor or the opportunity of being in the actual environment

Is Metaverse in education a blessing or a curse: a combined content and bibliometric analysis

The Metaverse has been the centre of attraction for educationists for quite some time. This field got renewed interest with the announcement of social media giant Facebook as it rebranding and positioning it as Meta. While several studies conducted literature reviews to summarize the findings related to the Metaverse in general, no study to the best of our knowledge focused on systematically summarizing the finding related to the Metaverse in education. To cover this gap, this study conducts a systematic literature review of the Metaverse in education. It then applies both content and bibliometric analysis to reveal the research trends, focus, and limitations of this research topic. The obtained findings reveal the research gap in lifelogging applications in educational Metaverse. The findings also show that the design of Metaverse in education has evolved over generations, where generation Z is more targeted with artificial intelligence technologies compared to generation X or Y. In terms of learning scenarios, there have been very few studies focusing on mobile learning, hybrid learning, and micro learning. Additionally, no study focused on using the Metaverse in education for students with disabilities. The findings of this study provide a roadmap of future research directions to be taken into consideration and investigated to enhance the adoption of the Metaverse in education worldwide, as well as to enhance the learning and teaching experiences in the Metaverse

Benefits and Implications of Integrating Technology in EFL Teaching and Learning

This document discloses the significance of technology in today’s English teaching and learning fields. Intended to enhance English teaching procedures, ICT improves English acquisition by allowing teachers and students to organize, plan, and innovate their lessons with greater effectiveness. Nonetheless, ICT also presents a range of problems that institutions, instructors, and students must face. To sum up, ICT is a valuable ally for enhancing English acquisition, but it also needs a number of components in order to be effective.Information and Communications Technology (ICT) may bring to English teaching and learning both benefits and implications. Given the wide range of material available on this topic around the world, top references from authors analyzing ICT in EFL and ELT contexts were selected. These references were qualitatively examined by extracting data from texts, repositories, and academic journals. Diverse studies, mostly in Indonesia, Morocco, Asia, and Colombia, will reveal the consequences of using technology in EFL and ELT contexts, considering the authors’ findings. The monograph is an examination of 40 key sources that were consulted and also emphasizes the use of ICT in EFL and ELT fields. The purpose of this document was not only to highlight the advantages of using technology to teach English, but also some of its potential drawbacks identifying the challenges that teachers, students, and institutions must overcome when implementing ICT in English teaching and learning. In the final analysis, it was concluded that incorporating technology into the classroom may inspire and grab students’ interest. Nevertheless, for technology to be successful in the context of EFL and ELT, it has to be designed, planned, and used with expertise. Keywords: Education in EFL an ELT, Technology for teaching English, Virtual environments, Methodologies for didactics in EFL, Teaching and learning foreign language

Fighting Fire With Fire: The Use of A Multimedia WebQuest in Increasing Middle-School Students’ Understandings of Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying, the use of personal and information and communication technologies to harass or intimidate others, is an increasingly pervasive problem in schools. This mixed- methods study explored the effectiveness of a multimedia WebQuest in teaching 156 middle-school students about the dangers of cyberbullying and examined the role of gender in learning about cyber-harassment. Set within a constructivist framework, the study provides an innovative, technological intervention for cyberbullying education for use with adolescents and is instrumental in reshaping public policy surrounding cyberbullying education and prevention. The dissertation study occurred in two phases. Phase I, WebQuest Construction, was qualitative in nature and employed stakeholder focus groups to assess middle-school students’ knowledge and awareness surrounding cyberbullying. Data from the focus groups informed the construction of the WebQuest. The second phase, Data Collection from Students, was quantitative in nature and was composed of a pre-test, WebQuest treatment, and post-test. Data analyses for Phase II included paired-sample t tests, repeated-measures analyses of variance, and descriptive statistics that focused on three dependent variables, namely awareness, safety, and knowledge. Findings indicated statistically significant increases in awareness and knowledge from the pre-test to post-test among the middle-school aged participants, while the slight increase in safety from pre to post-test was not significant. The findings support the need for school communities to begin engaging in conversation surrounding the best ways to teach students about cyberbullying’s dangers through the use of technology and issue a call for a re-examination of constructivist learning theory