Computer-Assisted Instruction: Enhancements for Language-Learning Applications.

Presently, computer-assisted instruction is in use in many educational venues. Unfortunately, the application of computer-assisted language learning at a distance has virtually been ignored. This is an opportunity that needs to be explored. In order to do so, a number of considerations must be attended to. First, effective monitor display design is critical for the optimal presentation of distance learning material. Second, gender and equity factors that impact computer use must be understood to minimize the detrimental effects they might have on computer-assisted distance learning. Third, the needs of students involved with the particularly-demanding application of distance learning principles of foreign language learning have to be specially explored. This dissertation presents ways to improve monitor display design that are based upon current research findings for data display. In addition, suggestions to minimize the negative impact of gender upon computer use are offered based upon contemporary research conducted in a variety of English-speaking countries. Lastly, the use of computers to study foreign languages at a distance is expounded upon, with a special emphasis on the use of computer-mediated communications (CMC) media such as the Internet. The results of this dissertation research project are clear. First, if students are to take advantage of the distance learning opportunities that computers offer, both software and hardware designers must pay attention to how such variables as color, font choice, and format can help or hamper a student viewing the screen. The presentation of on-screen material has to be carefully considered and skillfully executed. Second, the display of material should also take gender and other equity issues into consideration. For many students using computers to learn foreign languages gender, race, and class considerations can play a significant role. Therefore, software should be designed to avoid sexist stereotypes and to promote user friendliness. Easy-to-read monitor display screens with non-gender biased software can be extremely helpful for learning languages at a distance. But the full potential of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is still unrealized. For example, many opportunities in CNIC for language practice are not being taken either because of expense or logistic limitations

Protocols for Online Teaching of Thucydides: The ‘Final Word’ Case Study

This paper sets out to describe and analyze issues relating to the role of new literacies and technologies in the teaching process. More specifically, the article deals with how the educational design process of Ancient Greek changes through the implementation of technology by using online discussion protocols. These were utilized as a tool for active learning and as an alternative proposal for teaching in the text of Thucydides ‘Epitaphios’ (Funeral Oration of Pericles), in the third grade of Lyceum at an Athens school during the 2013-2014 school year. The significance of this teaching proposal based on two facts: it is compatible with the philosophy that governs the New Curriculum for the lesson of Ancient Greek and secondly the need to modernize the teaching methodology of this lesson taking into account the new technological facts in the context of digital literacy. The reference point was the highlighting of the social and political character of this text and their projections in the contemporary era. The evaluation of the students’ activities showed that students collaborated to a satisfactory degree, approached knowledge constructively, structured and restructured it, while generating their own interpretations, comparisons and conclusions. Keywords: Ancient Greek literature; teaching methods; literacy; New Technologies

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITIES ON TAIWANESE UNDERGRADUATES' EFL GRAMMAR ACHIEVEMENT

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of social media language learning activities with traditional language learning activities on the development of L2 grammatical competence in two English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes at a Taiwanese university. The study was grounded in four bodies of knowledge: (a) the Input-Interaction-Output (IIO) model (Block, 2003); (b) the sociocultural/activity theory (Lantolf, 2000); (c) current L2 grammar learning theory (Ellis, 2006); and (d) computer-assisted language learning (CALL) theory (Levy & Stockwell, 2006). A convenience sample of 84 Taiwanese undergraduate students officially enrolled in the college voluntarily participated in the study. A quasi-experimental pretest/posttest design was utilized. An ANCOVA was conducted to assess whether collaborative social media activities can bring about significantly better outcomes regarding EFL grammar usage. Results indicated that the treatment group significantly outperformed the control group when controlling for pre-existing knowledge. Results also indicated that there was a significant difference in students' time devoted to English grammar activities between the treatment group and the control group in favor of the treatment group. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant relationship between the time spent on wiki sites and students' English grammar achievement gains. The time students in the treatment group spent on grammar activities increased when they used the social media, and they self-reported spending more time on task during free time. Overall, treatment group students' devotion to the social media activities brought about effective peer support and collaborative learning

Enabling Change: Faculty and Student Perceptions of Blended Learning

The philosopher Plato in his Seventh Epistle argued that the technology of writing is an insufficient means of society conveying knowledge and obtaining truth (Neel, 1988). Many insights from his rhetorical works however are etched in history by this technology. As society moves further into the information age, the relevance of blended learning in higher education is taking on greater significance (Garrison & Vaughan, 2008). Higher education institutions are on the verge of another significant paradigm shift in the dissemination of knowledge and truth. Understanding the shift to new computer-mediated means of knowledge delivery through blended learning experiences requires an understanding of the perceptions held by both the instructor and student. This quantitative research study used a survey questionnaire to obtain feedback from faculty and students at a private liberal arts university on their perceptions of the use, frequency, readiness, and satisfaction with web-based technology in a blended learning environment. To obtain greater insight to student and faculty perceptions, quantitative and qualitative data was collected through an online survey distributed to faculty and students during the spring semester of 2016. Descriptive data was analyzed using IBM’s SPSS statistical tool and reported out. Results of this study indicate close agreement of student and faculty on perceptions of satisfaction with the frequency, use, and satisfaction with the web-based tools used in the course of a blended learning class. There is however, a significant difference in the way faculty perceived their preparedness with web-based technology used in the classroom and how students perceived faculty’s preparedness

Towards a knowledge sharing framework based on student questions : the case for a dynamic FAQ environment

Includes bibliographical references.This study investigates the impact of anonymous computer mediated interaction on question-driven knowledge acquisition among students. A growing concern for educational institutions in general and educators in particular has been to augment what students are formally taught and what they informally learn from one another. Anecdotal evidence suggests that students consult one another informally. However, informal consultations suffer from three limitations: a) they are limited to clusters of friends; b) shared information is not retained; c) educators have no access to informal knowledge. My argument is that knowledge shared informally among students is a potential knowledge resource for both students and educators. As a student resource, it allows students to reconstruct their own understanding as they share their knowledge with each other. As an educators' resource, it serves as a diagnostic tool about students' knowledge levels hence identifying areas of misunderstanding or misconceptions

Webs of support and engaged accountability: weaving community and making meaning of learning and teaching in an information age

This dissertation explores political, social, economic, cultural, pedagogical, and technological challenges facing education and educators in the 21 st century. The tensions surrounding educational communication technologies and the debate over the capacity or incapacity of these technologies to facilitate human connection, rather than disconnection, reverberate through each chapter. The first chapter provides a general introduction to the three articles that follow and the fifth chapter provides a general conclusion for the dissertation. The second chapter interrogates definitions and conceptions of community, culture, and communications, and explores the possibilities of creating supportive communities for educators online through computer-mediated communication (CMC). The third chapter investigates learning theories and articulates connections between pedagogical practices and emerging conceptions of authentic, connected, learning communities. The fourth chapter follows the history of technological permutations of boundaries, reconfigurations of social spaces, alterations of senses of time and place, and redefinitions of what counts as knowledge and learning. Throughout this dissertation it is argued that educators must go beyond either-or thinking to facilitate connections and relationships, and to make meaning of teaching and learning in the 21st century. Corporeal as well as online Webs of Support and Engaged Accountability (WoSEA) are proposed as approaches that might help transform schools into the authentic social enterprises that educational theorist John Dewey called schools to become back at the turn of the 20th century

Three essays on likability factors, crowdfunding, and entrepreneurial performance

In this dissertation, I conduct three empirical studies exploring the relation between likability factors, crowdfunding characteristics and entrepreneurial performance. Together these studies integrate aspects of major entrepreneurial likability factors including liking of the entrepreneur (source attractiveness, credibility, personal traits) and liking of the message (verbal content and expression), and components of nonverbal and verbal cues. I apply computer-mediated communication (CMC) and persuasion theories, political and marketing literature to provide a more fine-grained understanding of likability on crowdfunding success. In the first essay, I study how the non-verbal cues of a crowdfunding video influence the crowdfunding success. By employing social presence theory, I argue, hypothesize and test that effective use of non-verbal cues in a pitch video increases funding success. In the second essay, I explore how verbal cues (readability and complexity) and non-verbal cues (smiling and professional attire) interact to influence crowdfunding outcome. Findings of this essay indicate that powerful persuasion results from both expression (verbal cues) and impression (non-verbal cues). The third essay examines the mediating effect of likability between nonverbal, verbal cues and crowdfunding success. According to the likability factors extracted from political and advertising campaign literature, I conclude five main dimensions of likability in crowdfunding context. The results show that message factors are more influential than source factors in affecting crowdfunding outcome. Findings of three essays show that entrepreneurs should be careful to deliver a message which is immediate, simple, informative, humorous, storytelling and less complimentary to their funders. The more their messages are liked, the more likely funders will back their projects, and then the more success their crowdfunding campaign will be

Negotiating a transcultural place in an English as a lingua franca telecollaboration exchange: a mixed methods approach to the analysis of intercultural communicative competence and third space in an online Community of Practice

The study presented in this thesis was designed so as to explore the impact of an ELF (English as a lingua franca) telecollaboration exchange on its participants’ intercultural learning and negotiation of shared spaces and subject positions (Kramsch 2009a). After describing the two groups of students involved in the project - one from the University of Padova (Italy), and one from the University of Innsbruck (Austria) - as well as the tasks, topics and tools that were used to prompt discussion on issues related to culture, identity and representation, the study adopted a mixed methods approach to respond to two research questions. The first of these (RQ1) aimed at searching for evidence of intercultural communicative competence (Byram 1997) in the personal texts that the Italian students had produced over the course of the project: in particular, the primary source of data for this investigation were the participants’ weekly diaries, seen as a valuable and uncontaminated source of information about the students’ feelings and experiences (Pavlenko 2007). The second research question (RQ2) explored the emergence of a transcultural “third space” (Kramsch 1993) among the two groups of participants, as well as the construction of fluid and hybrid subject positions within it. For the purposes of this investigation, all the students’ reflective diaries were taken into account together with their posts to online forums and comments to the exchange activities. Overall, the study presented in this thesis offers a new lens through which to look at the nature of intercultural communicative competence, and provides insights into its strict relationship with third space as it emerges in an online Community of Practice (Lave and Wenger 1991). Furthermore, the study highlights the complexity and variety of subject positions that are activated in online intercultural encounters, and which mirror the transnational and transcultural essence of third space. Finally, the study also suggests the utility of combining qualitative and quantitative research approaches so as to gain deeper and more comprehensive understanding of intercultural learning and negotiating processes