The importance of attitudes toward technology for pre-service teachers' technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge : comparing structural equation modeling approaches

A large body of literature suggests that attitudes toward technology and its educational use are important determinants of technology acceptance and integration in classrooms. At the same time, teachers' Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) facilitates the meaningful use of technology for educational purposes. Overall, attitudes toward technology and TPACK play a critical role for technology integration and have been in the focus of many empirical studies. Albeit the attention that has been paid to these two concepts, their relation has not been fully understood. The present study contributes to the advancement of this understanding by examining the relations between three core technology attitudes (i.e., general attitudes towards ICT, attitudes towards ICT in education, and ease of use) and TPACK self-efficacy beliefs, based on a sample of N = 688 Flemish pre-service teachers in 18 teacher-training institutions. Using a variety of structural equation modeling approaches, we describe the TPACK-attitudes relations from multiple perspectives and present a substantive-methodological synergism. The analyses revealed that the attitudes toward technology and TPACK self-beliefs were positively related; yet, differences across the attitudes and TPACK dimensions existed, pointing to the delineation of general and educational perspectives on the use of ICE. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Recurrence is Unavoidable in Hand and Wrist Ganglion Cyst Surgery

INTRODUCTION: We aimed to evaluate surgical treatment results of hand and wrist ganglions those seen frequently in clinical practice. METHODS: Patients who were diagnosed with ganglion cysts clinically and radiologically in the hand and wrist region and treated with surgical excision between 2011 and 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. A total of 102 patients, 69 (67.6%) female and 33 (32.4%) male, who had a regular follow-up period of 12 months, had no additional injuries in the hand and wrist region, were included in the study. All cases were evaluated in terms of age, gender, region of ganglion cyst, treatment method and local recurrence. RESULTS: Mean age was 37.73+-9.5 (20-61) years. Local recurrence was seen in 5 (%83.3) patients whom have volar ganglion cyst and 1 (%16.7) in dorsal localized. There was no significant difference in treatment of localization of cysts (p>0.05). In addition, there was significant difference in presence of recurrence (p: 0.005; p<0.05). There was %20.8 local recurrence in volar cysts and it is higher than other localizations, this finding was statistically significant (p<0.05). There wasn't statistically significant difference in ratio of local recurrence (p>0.05). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The reason of high incidence in local recurrence in volar ganglion cysts can be insufficient excision of sac and pedicle of ganglion cyst because of anatomical relations in this region. It can be assumed that, if the surgeon has a high knowledge of anatomy of this area and develop his/her experience in this surgery local recurrence incidence can be decreased

Chemical Additives for Corrosion Control in Desalination Plants

The addition of chemical additives has been considered as a standard operation in water treatment systems. This chapter discusses the chemical additives used for the control of corrosion in desalination systems. Specifically, corrosion inhibitors for various metallurgies, biocides, and oxygen scavengers are covered. The pros and cons of the additive chemicals have been highlighted. The need to utilize green corrosion inhibitors based on plants and ionic liquids materials have been emphasized. This class of materials are environmentally friendly, cheap, and readily available

The transformation of online teaching practice: Tracing successful online teaching in higher education

This dissertation was an in-depth investigation of successful online teaching in the context of higher education. It is presented in nontraditional dissertation format as approved by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Iowa State University. This dissertation includes three publishable journal articles that would represent Chapter 2, 3 and 4 of a traditional dissertation along with introduction and conclusion chapters. This dissertation argues that current standard-driven, technical, and one-size-fits-all approaches to preparing and supporting teachers for online teaching has been insufficient in addressing teachers' needs as they make a transition to online teaching and create a distinctive pedagogy for online learning. Because of these unstable patterns both at the organizational and faculty level, many online learning practices are employed as the replication of traditional classroom environments. Moreover, the research has been limited in terms of bringing teachers' voices into this process, which created a potential to regress them to passive roles. Therefore a critical review was conducted looking at the current literature on online teaching, and formulated a critique of the standards- and competency-driven vision of online teaching from the perspective of transformative learning theory. The study also provided an alternative perspective towards online teacher professional development considering teachers as adult learners, supporting teacher empowerment, promoting critical reflection, and integrating technology into pedagogical inquiry. Considering the importance of bringing teachers' voices to the discussion on online teaching, a multiple case study was conducted to investigate exemplary online teaching within different colleges of a university. Ethnographic interviews were conducted with six teachers who were selected through the nominations of online program coordinators in different colleges. The purpose was to look at the motivational factors that affected teachers' decisions to teach online, successful practices they employed to address the concerns and challenges related to their online teaching, and contextual and support factors that influenced the success of their online teaching. An analysis within each and across the six teacher interviews indicated that teachers reconstructed their teacher roles as they revisited their approaches to understanding the course content, designing and structuring the course, knowing their students, enhancing teacher-student relationships, guiding student learning, increasing teacher presence, conducting course evaluation, and creating an online teacher persona. Additional contextual factors impacted teachers' motivation for online teaching, such as their teaching history, students' profiles, institutional rewards, technology, and pedagogy support. Building on the results of the critical review and multiple case study, a third article additionally presents a framework that can be used as a guide to design, develop, and sustain online teacher support and professional development programs. This framework intends to recognize successful online teaching as the outcome of interaction among many factors at three levels--teaching, community, and organization. Together, these three articles address the issues in the current research and practice on online teaching and propose an alternative view on understanding, preparing, and supporting online teachers by focusing on transformation of teacher persona and empowerment of online teachers through reflective practices and pedagogical inquiry.</p

Lessons Learned on Facilitating Asynchronous Discussions for Online Learning

The strategies used to facilitate online asynchronous discussions are the focus of this article. Previous research studies have investigated instructor-led discussion forums and facilitation strategies used by online tutors and course instructors. This article reports studies conducted to investigate alternative ways to design and facilitate online asynchronous discussions in the context of an online Master program in curriculum and instructional technology at a large university in the United States. Findings showed that online students preferred small group discussions led by their own colleagues in opposition to instructor-led discussions. When taking the lead on facilitating online asynchronous discussions, students use a variety of strategies more conducive to the generation of innovative ideas, authentic conversations and motivation to participate.This article is published as Correia, A. P., & Baran, E. (2010). Lessons learned on facilitating asynchronous discussions for online learning. Educação, Formação & Tecnologias, 3(1), 59–67. </p