Academy Students\u27 and Pre-Service Teachers\u27 Perceptions of the Use of Electronic Technology in Their Personal Life and School Experiences in a Selected Union Conference

Problem. The influx of N-Gen students into the classroom of teachers of earlier generations has created a digital generation gap. This gap has serious consequences for schools. For example, only half of the public school teachers who had computers or the Internet available in their schools use them for classroom instruction. However, today’s students are very technology savvy, feel strongly about the positive value of technology and rely upon technology as an essential and preferred component of every aspect of their lives. It appears that the slow speed at which technology is changing the classroom is providing challenges to educators and students. -- Method. This study used the survey research design method to examine the perceptions towards the use of technology based on the NetDay SpeakUp Day studies. As this study investigated students’ and pre-service teachers’ perceptions of technologies used in and out of the classroom, the survey research design was used to obtain information from students and pre-service teachers. This study gathered information related to the status of technology use by pre-service teachers and by 11th- and 12th-grade students. These research data were collected through surveys of students and pre-service educators. Students were asked to participate through the school principals, and pre-service teachers were asked to participate through their educational training department chairs of their schools of the selected Union of Seventh-day Adventists. -- Results. The first research question asked: “What are the perceptions of high school students’ use of technology and their advanced technological abilities?” Almost all (96.4%) of students in Grades 11-12 consider technology as important for their education. A small group (3.6%) seems to have significantly different views on technology and their education. About half of the students (50.8%) claim to get help with their school work using technology at school more than at place of residence. Less than half (46.1%) said they get help from place of residence. The students report showed that almost half of the students (47.5%) use the computer lab at school more than the classroom computers or the library computers. Few of the students (2.6%) seem not to use computers regularly at school. Research question 2 asked: “What are the perceptions of senior pre-service teachers in their technological abilities?” In response to the question, “Teachers’ who consider themselves well prepared by the school program use technology-related tools to enhance teaching,” more than threequarters (84.0%) indicated (Agree or Strongly Agree) they feel they are prepared to use computer productivity tools, whereas almost three-quarters (72.0%) believe they can handle using integrated technology tools in specific curriculum-related work. About twothirds (68.0%) believe they can handle using integrated technology tools in general curriculum-related work. A little more than half (52.0%) feel they can use instructional technology tools. And less than half (44.0%) believe they can handle using technology instructional tools for management of their classroom or work. Research question 3 asked: “What selected variables contribute to the advanced technological perceptions of students and pre-service teachers?” To answer these questions two linear regressions were run, one for students and one for pre-service teachers. First to determine if a linear regression would be appropriate, a correlation test was run for the students between overall tech-savvy scores and technology variables of the perception of students. Three significant correlations were found as follows: (a) Products used on a regular basis at school, r = .83, (b) products used in all subject areas, r = .58, and (c) experiences in Internet use, r = .84. Based on these strong correlations, I then moved to a linear regression analysis. --Conclusion. What do we know about Adventist high-school students through this study? They are active computer users; they use desktop computers and laptop computers more regularly at their place of residence than at school. They may not have a variety of technology at school but seem to have a variety of technology at their place of residence since they use more computers there than at school. They are perceived to be savvy users with the technology available to them, although they did not have a great range of experience using much of the technology referred to in the survey. They seem to have an interest in knowing how to use the technology at school since they said that not knowing how to use the technology was an obstacle to their productivity. Male students appear to be savvier than female students and this was due to the various out-of-school technologies they were using and/or exposed to. The results from this study reaffirm that there is a need for more training and support in the use of technology integration and interaction in Adventist schools. What do we know now about the preparation and use of technology by preservice teachers because of this study? Pre-service teachers feel that the preparation programs at Adventist colleges are adequately preparing them for use of technology in the classroom but they are still more likely to use computers at their home than at school to do professional preparations. It is important to note that the pre-service teachers in this study did not feel adequately prepared to handle most of the social and security issues in the classroom. Thus teachers’ training programs should include training in computer security issues and how to handle these issues in the computer environment at school. Pre-service teachers desire faster updates of hardware, software, and peripherals. They also want technical support available in their institution. They support a lab that would be open after school and during the weekends for professional practice and preparation for their teaching in the classroom. The pre-service teachers in this study rated their preparation to engage students in learning with technology as relatively weak when compared with other areas. This indicates the need to improve both pre-service and in-service training for technology integration in the learning process

An Economic Comparison of Composted Manure and Commercial Nitrogen with Imperfect Information

The economic feasibility of fertilizing irrigated grain sorghum with compos ted manure is evaluated using net return budgeting and production function analysis. Although the use of compost is technically feasible, the economic analysis indicates that compost does not comprise a large percentage of the nitrogen source in the profit-maximizing combination with commercial fertilizer.Composted manure, commercial nitrogen, net returns budgeting, production function analysis, irrigated grain sorghum, Crop Production/Industries,

Fronts in randomly advected and heterogeneous media and nonuniversality of Burgers turbulence: Theory and numerics

A recently established mathematical equivalence--between weakly perturbed Huygens fronts (e.g., flames in weak turbulence or geometrical-optics wave fronts in slightly nonuniform media) and the inviscid limit of white-noise-driven Burgers turbulence--motivates theoretical and numerical estimates of Burgers-turbulence properties for specific types of white-in-time forcing. Existing mathematical relations between Burgers turbulence and the statistical mechanics of directed polymers, allowing use of the replica method, are exploited to obtain systematic upper bounds on the Burgers energy density, corresponding to the ground-state binding energy of the directed polymer and the speedup of the Huygens front. The results are complementary to previous studies of both Burgers turbulence and directed polymers, which have focused on universal scaling properties instead of forcing-dependent parameters. The upper-bound formula can be heuristically understood in terms of renormalization of a different kind from that previously used in combustion models, and also shows that the burning velocity of an idealized turbulent flame does not diverge with increasing Reynolds number at fixed turbulence intensity, a conclusion that applies even to strong turbulence. Numerical simulations of the one-dimensional inviscid Burgers equation using a Lagrangian finite-element method confirm that the theoretical upper bounds are sharp within about 15% for various forcing spectra (corresponding to various two-dimensional random media). These computations provide a new quantitative test of the replica method. The inferred nonuniversality (spectrum dependence) of the front speedup is of direct importance for combustion modeling.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures, REVTeX 4. Moved some details to appendices, added figure on numerical metho

A Risk Analysis of Converting CRP Acres to a Wheat-Sorghum-Fallow Rotation

This study examines the economic potential of producing a wheat (Triticum aesitivum) and grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) rotation with three different tillage strategies compared to the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in a semi-arid region. This research uses stochastic efficiency with respect to a function (SERF) to determine the preferred management strategies under various risk preferences and utility-weighted certainty equivalent risk premiums. Yields, input rates, and field operations from an experimental field in western Kansas are used to calculate net returns for each tillage strategy. Although current net returns to crop production using reduced tillage and no-tillage strategies are higher than CRP, risk analysis indicates CRP would be the preferred strategy for some risk-averse managers.Conservation Reserve Program, conservation tillage, simulation, sorghum, wheat, risk, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Risk and Uncertainty,

Methods of Manufacture of Swords in Medieval Europe: Illustrated by the Metallography of some Examples

During the Dark Ages in Europe, the manufacture of the swords known as «pattern-welded», flourished. This type first appeared in the third century and disappeared by the tenth century A. D. Their characteristic appearance has drawn attention to them and numerous papers have been published describing their manufacture.No disponible. Consultar resumen en inglés

Alternative tenure choice in the Office Business Center market

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2005.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.In title on t.p. "Officeminium" is followed by the trademark symbol.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-68).The Office Business Center (OBC) is a shared office facility, which is fully equipped, staffed and furnished. Many small business and sole proprietors choose OBC space over traditional leased office space because it alleviates the upfront cost and time required to maintain and manage an effective office infrastructure. Additionally, the persistence of low commercial mortgage interest rates have helped to witness a rise in office space ownership through the growth of the office condominium market- a market which is also dominated by small businesses and sole proprietorships. This thesis investigates the viability of a new real estate product, the Officeminium(TM). The Officeminium(TM) is a hybrid product which combines the ownership tenure of the office condominium and the full service environment of an OBC. The Officeminium(TM) provides a subset of small business owners and small proprietors with a hedge against rent risk and opportunistic agency, while affording office building owners and developers with a means to reduce excess building capacity and potentially increase the value of their real estate asset.by Alan R. Williams.S.M

The Manufacture of Mail in Medieval Europe: A technical note

THE oldest specimen of interlinked mail yet found has been excavated from a 3rd cent. B. C. Celtic grave in Romania, and this was probably developed from protective garments made up of rings threaded onto cords, like netting. A fragment of such a garment has been found in a Hallstatt grave, perhaps of the 8th cent. B. C. in Bohemia. Representations of Roman soldiers prior to the 1st cent. A. D. show them clad in mail-shirts rather than in plate. Mail returned to favour in the straitened economic circumstances of the Migration Period. and. indeed. remained the basis of most personal armour in the Middle Ages until gradually replaced by plate again in the 15th cent.No disponible

The Impact of DSS Use and Information Load on Errors and Decision Quality

This paper uses a laboratory experiment to examine the effect of DSS use on the decision maker‘s error patterns and decision quality. The DSS used in our experiments is the widely used Expert Choice (EC) implementation of the Analytic Hierarchy Process. Perhaps surprisingly, our experiments do not provide general support for the often tacit assumption that the use of a DSS such as EC improves decision quality. Rather, we find that, whereas a DSS can help decision makers develop a better understanding of the essence of a decision problem and can reduce logical errors (especially if the information load is high), it is also susceptible to introducing accidental effects such as mechanical errors. In some cases, as in our study, the accidental errors may outweigh the benefits of using a DSS, leading to lower quality decisions

Maximizing your Personal Virtual Presence

Drawing upon recent research, this article offers practical advice on two key elements of working in virtual settings: managing your digital profile and learning to focus at a distance. The first offers insights on how to create and reinforce a trustworthy identity with people who do not know you well. The second examines how you can overcome barriers to effective collaboration with physically distant others. Both elements attempt to overcome the challenges of being known and present to others in a digital age