Re-Seeing Composition: Object Oriented Reflective Teaching Practice

abstract: This dissertation presents reflective teaching practices that draw from an object-oriented rhetorical framework. In it, practices are offered that prompt teachers and students to account for the interdependent relationships between objects and writers. These practices aid in re-envisioning writing as materially situated and leads to more thoughtful collaborations between writers and objects. Through these practices, students gain a more sophisticated understanding of their own writing processes, teachers gain a more nuanced understanding of the outcomes of their pedagogical choices, and administrators gain a clearer vision of how the classroom itself affects curriculum design and implementation. This argument is pursued in several chapters, each presenting a different method for inciting reflection through the consideration of human/object interaction. The first chapter reviews the literature of object oriented rhetorical theory and reflective teaching practice. The second chapter adapts a methodology from the field of Organizational Science called Narrative Network Analysis (NNA) and leads students through a process of identifying and describing human/object interaction within narratives and asks students to represent these relationships visually. As students undertake this task they can more objectively examine their own writing processes. In the third chapter, video ethnographic methodologies are used to observe object oriented rhetoric theory in practice through the interactions of humans and objects in the writing classroom. Through three video essays, clips of footage taken of a writing classroom and its writing objects are selected and juxtaposed to highlight the agency and influence of objects. In chapter four, a tool developed using freely available cloud-based web applications is presented which is termed the “Fitness Tracker for Teaching.” This tool is used to regularly collect, store, and analyze data that students self-report through a daily class survey about their work efforts, their work environment, and their feelings of confidence, productivity, and self-efficacy. The data gathered through this tool provides a more complete understanding of student effort and affect than could be provided by the teacher’s and students’ own memories or perceptions. Together these chapters provide a set of reflective practices that reinforce teaching writing as a process that is affective and embodied and acknowledges and accounts for the rhetorical agency of objects.Dissertation/ThesisChapter 3 Video PresentationDoctoral Dissertation English 201

University teachers' approaches to teaching and their pedagogical use of ICT : A comparative case study of Finland, Japan and India

The purpose of this study was to explore what salient characteristics can be found in some university teachers’ approaches to teaching in Finland, Japan and India, and in what ways university teachers in Finland, India and Japan use ICTs (information and communication technologies) in their own teaching. Furthermore, this study aimed to investigate what ICT applications these same teachers use in their teaching. The data were collected via an electronic survey and interviews. The participants (N=21) were university teachers from Finland (N=8), Japan (N=10) and India (N=3). Their approaches to teaching were explored by applying the ATI (approaches to teaching inventory) and its modified version focusing on the use of ICTs in teaching. The study reported in this paper was a pilot study, thus the results are based on the limited number of respondents. The ATI and ATI_ICT subscales and ICT inventory applied in this study have been confirmed to be valid. The university teachers in Japan and Finland differed in their approaches to teaching: The Finnish teachers scored higher on the CCSF (conceptual change orientated, student-focused) approach to teaching than the Japanese teachers, while the Japanese teachers scored higher on the ITTF information transmitting, teacher-focused) approach to teaching. Two Indian teachers were classified as having a teacher-focused approach to teaching, while the third was classified as having a student-focused approach to teaching. The teachers’ differences in their use of ICTs related more to their disciplinary status than to their cultural background. approaches to teaching; use of ICT in teaching; Japan; Finland; IndiaPeer reviewe

Retelling narrative in 360º videos : Implications for audio description

The aim of this article is to question whether the approach for producing audio description (AD) in 2D films needs to be revisited for 360  narrative videos, a new media format characterized by its immersive capacity. To provide answers, a two-step research methodology was designed. First, an extensive literature review was performed. The data obtained during the first step was then used to design and carry out focus groups. The first part of the article discusses the findings from the literature review, comparing standard narratives with 360  narrative videos. It draws some conclusions for audio describers in relation to AD content selection, a key task in the translation of visuals into words. In the second part of the article, data obtained from the focus groups held with describers and AD users is presented. The results suggest possible approaches to AD for 360  content, such as the use of spatial sound and elements of interaction

Towards a pedagogical framework for construction of historicity: a case of using Wikis among pre-service teachers at Makerere University

This thesis originates from the realization that the pedagogy of history is becoming dangerously obsolete, as it does not always relate to the contemporary needs of 21st century learners, who often find learning history irrelevant to their present situation. This challenge is attributed to, among other reasons, the way history is taught employing largely behaviorist pedagogies with significantly reduced active learner engagement and little alignment to the way today's students learn. Gadamer's historical hermeneutic theory was employed to advocate for a dialogical approach between the past (part) and the present (whole) mediated by Emerging Technologies, specifically Wikis. Thus, the study is guided by three research questions: firstly, how is historicity constructed on the Wiki platform among pre-service teachers at Makerere University? Secondly, how is authenticity of history meanings constructed among pre-service teachers? Thirdly, what design principles guide a pedagogical framework for construction of historicity? A Design Based Research Methodology (DBR), with theoretically informed solutions aligned to the study problem, was used among pre-service teachers enrolled at Makerere University, Uganda, for the period 2013-2016. Consequently, four phases of DBR were employed: identification of the problem by the researcher in collaboration with practitioners; development of solutions informed by existing design principles and technological innovation; iterative cycles of testing and refinement of solutions and finally, reflection to produce design principles and enhance solutions (Reeves, 2006). Data from questionnaires, interviews and observations on the Wiki was gathered and analyzed through a hermeneutic cycle-driven analysis during DBR phase three. Key findings demonstrated that historicity is constructed through dialogical engagements between educator/researcher and students mediated on the Wiki. Authenticity of history meanings is achieved through collaborative editing, reviewing and sharing understandings on a Wiki. The practical contribution of this research lies in the creation of design principles (i.e. connecting with the present, appreciating heritage, dialogue in history, doing history, validating history and applying history) and a pedagogical framework to be used for the construction of historicity mediated by Wikis, while the theoretical contribution lies in the methodological approach of using DBR to systematically implement and operationalize historical hermeneutics theoretical constructs in History Education in the Ugandan context

Learning Wakanda: Assessing the Responses of African-American Children and Their Caregivers toward Concordant Educational Media

Screen-based educational media, as an extension of the schooling process whose history has mirrored brick and mortar institutions, have traditionally espoused narratives of Eurocentricity, shifting relatively recently to multicultural yet simultaneously raceless narratives. While many viewers have learned from and been inspired by these media, the enthusiastic response to the film Black Panther (2018), as demonstrated by financial earnings and sustained social media energy, revealed an intense yearning in the Black community for media positively centering the strengths and successes of Black lives. Launched from the sociocultural fervor for Black concordance in media, and extending concordance into the educational media landscape, this qualitative study sought to assess responses from African-American children, ages 3-8, to educational media concordant to them, and contextualize these responses in recognition of race socialization patterns within the home. Children’s responses to the media ranged from acknowledgment of skin color as well as hair texture and style, to full identification with and enthusiasm for animated protagonists. Caregivers responded positively to the samples while self- reporting varying degrees of race socialization. These responses demonstrated promising potential for identification with concordant educational media based on phenotypic resemblance, particularly for children approximately 8 years of age

SUPPORTING THE COVID FRESHMEN: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF THE TEACHING ASPECTS THAT SUPPORTED THE EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING OF UNDERGRADUATE FRESHMEN DURING COVID-19

Transitioning from high school to higher education is one of the most stressful times in a person’s life. But, for the undergraduate students who were freshmen during the fall of 2020 (in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic), this predictable stress was compounded by additional stressors related to the pandemic. While there were undoubtedly many teaching factors that made learning more difficult during the pandemic, there were also many aspects of teaching that these freshmen found helpful. This exploratory study of secondary data sought to discover which aspects of teaching were most helpful to the COVID Freshmen (the students who transitioned from high school to college in the fall of 2020), a group of students experiencing extreme levels of stress. An examination of student surveys collected during the fall of 2020 indicated that these helpful aspects of teaching could be grouped into six themes: (a) presentation and content delivery, (b) help-seeking and emotional security, (c) comprehension and practice, (d) engagement and social interaction, (e) time-management, organization, and planning, and (f) study habits and memory retention. Furthermore, each of these six themes included two or more teaching aspects that are related to executive functioning, the cognitive processes that guide the behaviors and skills needed for higher order thinking. Undergraduate instructors can use the information about helpful teaching aspects, collected from these highly stressed COVID Freshmen, to inform instructional decisions in their current and future courses

Using 2D Animation with Interactive Elements to Create a Culturally Interesting Web Experience

Despite efforts to introduce Vietnamese culture to a global audience, most Vietnamese folktales and legends stay rooted within the country. When looking for examples of animated or interactive media, related to Vietnamese culture, the results often fall short. This project exists to fill that deficiency and teach aspects of Vietnamese culture through interactive storytelling. This project aimed to retell a culturally significant Vietnamese tale, the Legend of Hoan Kiem Lake, while providing a visually stimulating and interactive web experience to those not familiar with Vietnamese culture. The project also aimed to determine if an interactive website can be more informative through engagement, as opposed to a static web presence. The project utilized Webflow as the bridge to integrate illustration and animation into an interactive web experience. “The Tale of Hoan Kiem Lake” started off as a passion project and remained such until the end