A Guiding Vision for Fluid Learning: The Future of Education and Training

Position paper by the Digital Media Collaboratory (DMC) of the IC² Institute at The University of Texas at Austin. The authors envision learning systems as a ubiquitous public utility and propose an architecture to accomplish it. The paper includes a description of DMC research activities in 2003.IC2 Institut

Reflections on the first year of integrity hour: An online community of practice for academic integrity

Integrity Hour first convened in March 2020, in response to the rapid pivot to emergency remote teaching during COVID-19. After a year, this online community of practice (CoP) is still going strong. We collectively reflect on how the first year of Integrity Hour has informed our understanding of how to uphold and enact academic integrity and impacted how we work with students, support our colleagues, and make decisions

Masters Project: Shifting Towards Equity in Environmental Education Through Personal Transformation, Deep Listening, and Centering Relationships

This capstone project allowed me to better understand the challenges and struggles in the creation of equitable, relevant, and inclusive learning opportunities for youth within the field of environmental education in Maine. My work centered on exploring ways to work towards dismantling systems of oppression within the field of environmental education by focusing on connecting providers and by laying a foundation that could bring people together in order to design curriculum that is representative and responsive to the cultures and communities in which it is being taught. Although the COVID-19 pandemic forced a shift in some of the processes and practices of my project, the core question remained: What work needs to be done in order to build compassionate and sustainable communities where all life has the ability to thrive? The pandemic allowed me to more fully integrating the personal and internal work into this process, by incorporating methods and processes that allowed me to analyze and research how I show up in communities, how I embody my learning, and how I root, anchor, and find balance in my values, methods, and relations during times of uncertainty and grief all while engaging with projects aimed at systemic change

Chinese and North American Culture: a New Perspective in Linguistics Studies

We explored the two cultures in the two countries. There has been discussed on Chinese culture and North American culture. Chinese language, ceramics, architecture, music, dance, literature, martial arts, cuisine, visual arts, philosophy, business etiquette, religion, politics, and history have global influence, while its traditions and festivals are also celebrated, instilled, and practiced by people around the world. The culture of North America refers to the arts and other manifestations of human activities and achievements from the continent of North America. The American way of life or simply the American way is the unique lifestyle of the people of the United States of America. It refers to a nationalist ethos that adheres to the principle of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

Lessons Learned: Teaching Latinx Teacher Candidates Through Digital Literacy and Community Service Learning

The authors focus on digital literacy and community service learning (CSL) strategies from research of Latinx undergraduate teacher candidates (TCs) engaged with technology in CSL courses. The qualitative studies have taken place in a tutorial agency and university classrooms in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, one of the most economically-strapped U.S. regions. The 60 participants were Bussert-Webb’s TCs in Summer 2016 and Summer 2017 (n=28) and Lewis’s TCs in Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 courses (n=32). Data sources include participant observations, surveys, focus groups, lessons, and reflections. Using social justice and New Literacies frameworks and thematic data analysis, the authors discuss four concepts that have influenced their practices: 1) risk-taking is more important than our digital expertise, 2) digital literacy connects to social justice contexts, 3) TCs engage in authentic technology experiences, and 4) technology-infused CSL is provided. Implications relate to closing a three-tier digital divide among Latinx teachers and youth

AFFIRMING RESPECT AND KINDNESS WITHIN A CLASSROOM COMMUNITY THROUGH DISCUSSION AND MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE

The purpose of this research was to investigate how students in a third-grade classroom can engage with multicultural texts and learn about cultures that are different from their own. Furthermore, it investigated the impact of multicultural literature on respect and kindness in a classroom community. Throughout the four-week study, students read twelve different multicultural texts and engaged in classroom discussions during Morning Meeting. Students participated in group discussions expressing their ideas, thoughts, feelings, and beliefs related to the context of the books read. The strategies used for this qualitative research were questionnaires, teacher observations, and whole group and small group discussions. Finally, analysis of the data revealed several themes related to kindness and respect. Students fostered connections with other students and showed acceptance of diverse cultures. Other revealed themes included, cultural identity, empathy, bridging school and home life through the use of the Funds of Knowledge survey (Gonzalez, Moll, and Amantito, 2005) to gain a deeper understanding of student cultural background and the need to integrate multicultural literature into established curriculum across content areas. The implications for educators include exposing students to multicultural literature combined with a scaffolded discussion to further students\u27 knowledge and understanding of the diversity within the world around them

Toward Culturally Responsive Online Pedagogy: Practices of Selected Secondary Online Teachers

Proponents of K-12 online learning claim that it can provide more equitable learning opportunities by offering access to courses that might not otherwise be available to students, and by providing personalized learning experiences. Despite the growth of online learning in K-12 public schools, very little is known about what constitutes good online teaching. The purpose of this interpretivist investigation was to learn about some of the ways in which culturally responsive teaching can occur online. This study focused on the practices of four full-time online high school teachers. Using the methods of grounded theory research, I analyzed data generated through observations of online courses, interviews with teachers, and teacher-written narratives in order to learn how four instructors practiced culturally responsive online pedagogy in one state-supported online program. Results indicated that the teachers engaged in frequent and ongoing dialogue with their students. The teachers used multiple strategies to get to know their students, to build class community, to adapt instruction to students’ learning needs and preferences, and to make learning relevant. Teachers also discussed contextual factors (e.g., program structure and student enrollment) that impacted their practice. However, some characteristics of culturally responsive pedagogy, including infusing students’ cultures into the curriculum and helping students to challenge power and hegemony, did not emerge. A discussion of these results includes potential implications for educational leaders at the state, district, and program levels, as well as recommendations for future research on culturally responsive online pedagogy (CROP)

Unraveling My Sweater: Reflections of White Student Affairs Practitioners Committed to Social Justice

College student demographics are shifting campuses to a more racially diverse student population while the racial homogeneity of practitioners remains overwhelmingly White. Research shows disparities in campus climate and sense of belonging between White students and students who are Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC). Literature confirms that racial representation of faculty and staff have a strong influence on the experiences of BIPOC students, and that White practitioners have a duty to address their own racial identity within their work in order to contribute to inclusive institutions committed to strengthening equitable access to higher education. Using Culturally Responsive Practices (CRP) as a framework, this dissertation uses reflective narrative analysis to examine the ways White student affairs professionals articulate the effects of their whiteness on their campus interactions with racially diverse students and colleagues. Interview participants were solicited through professional network referrals based on a strict set of criteria including that they must identify as white, identify as being committed to social justice, work at a Historically White College or University in the greater Twin Cities area, work within a student affairs functional area with contact to new students on campus, and fit within a pre-set range of professional experience. Findings provided rich evidence of the socialized racialization of White practitioners leading to an internalization of White supremacist characteristics influencing professional practices. Findings also depicted strong ways professionals actively resist White normativity through professional practices. This research confirms the need for White practitioners to participate in the vulnerable work of racial self-awareness in order to support equitable student success on campus. Additionally, campus leaders, professional organizations, and graduate preparation programs must model a commitment to social justice and racial self-awareness, provide purposeful professional development, and promote campus policies that align campus mission and values to address campus climate and belonging across different racial groups. Future research could focus on applying CRP to examine the influence of other privileged social identities on the work of student affairs practitioners, or expanding on whiteness through a larger participant pool

Fostering Emerging Online Learner Persistence In Teacher Candidates: The Role Of Online Discussions

As the popularity of online learning continues to grow, so do concerns about online student success. This study aims to contribute to the continuous improvement of online learning and improve outcomes for a distinct group of online learners. Utilizing social presence, the expectancy-value theory of motivation, and capitalizing on innovative technologies, I advance a new framework that expands online discussions for emerging online learners, undergraduates enrolled in online and on-campus courses, and the predominant consumer of online courses. The emerging online learners in this study were also prospective teachers (n=80) enrolled in a teacher preparation course at a small midwestern liberal arts college. The teacher candidates participated in two different online discussions using multimodal asynchronous and synchronous technologies and then completed a questionnaire with both Likert scale and open-ended items about their experiences. The results validate this novel framework for this group of teacher candidates and demonstrate (1) both types of discussions tend to support social presence, (2) outside of the factor of convenience; students value synchronous discussions over asynchronous discussions for the connection with peers that supports their learning, and (3) there are positive associations between social presence and values. The recommendations I share call for teacher educators to use a blended model of online discussion design that includes both asynchronous and synchronous opportunities. While the results of this study may not be generalizable in the traditional sense, they do have implications for the design of online discussions in other fields

Innovating Language Education: An NMC Horizon Project Strategic Brief

The NMC is a leading educational technology organization. A main outcome of the collaboration between the Language Flagship Technology Innovation Center and the NMC was this publication, which highlights recommendations that emerged from discussions of major trends, challenges, and technology developments by experts and practitioners in language technologies in higher education. Innovating Language Education identifies main trends and areas of interest and constitutes a rich resource that includes key definitions and proofs of concept