The theory of proto-Luke in relation to the Fourth Gospel

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston Universit

Real Middle School Teachers

Effective middle school teachers are more than the sum total of their educational beliefs and practices. They are whole persons whose lives reflect receptivity to growth, treasured relationships, and the intertwining of their personal and professional lives. This article uses the children’s classic, The Velveteen Rabbit, as a metaphor to describe effective middle school teachers

To Adopt or Not to Adopt - That is the Question

The area of adoption and diffusion has had a strong pro-innovation bias (Brancheau and Wetherbe 1990; Parthasarathy and Bhattacherjee 1998; Ram 1987; Venkatesh and Brown 2001). This bias has resulted in somewhat of a neglect of the area of non-adoption. Existing theories including TAM (Davis 1989) and the innovation diffusion theory (Rogers 1983) provide critical insights into technology usage. However, the factors that facilitate technology adoption are not necessarily the same as those affecting non-adoption. This paper examines the non-adoption phenomenon and presents the case that the category of non-adopts refers to a complex subset of individuals. Characterizing resistance as either active or passive provides a framework for further analysis into the non-adoption phenomenon. Ultimately, the issue of non-adoption is just as critical as that of adoption

Effective Middle School Teachers : Becoming Real

Problem. This study looks at four effective middle school teachers\u27 stories in order to understand the experiences and beliefs which impact their choice to use developmentally responsive classroom practices. There is general agreement in the literature concerning characteristics of effective middle school teachers, but little has been done to understand what influences these teachers to teach the way they do. Method. A qualitative case study design was used for this study. Two male and two female middle school teachers were observed and interviewed during the course of 1 school year. Each teacher\u27s life experiences, classroom practices, and beliefs are described in narrative form. An analysis of the four teachers\u27 practices and beliefs was conducted using the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development\u27s Turning Points (1989) and the National Middle School Association\u27s This We Believe (1995). Further analysis of similarities and differences in the teachers\u27 lives led to the emergence of other themes. Results. The four teachers\u27 classroom practices and beliefs matched the descriptions of developmentally appropriate practices in Turning Points and This We Believe. Further analysis of similarities and differences in the teachers\u27 lives led to the emergence of other themes. Conclusions. The concept of Real as portrayed in The Velveteen Rabbit describes the lives of the four middle school teachers who participated in this study. These teachers love and give of themselves freely to others. They have experienced growing pains, but choose to look beyond the discomfort and allow it to mold and shape their lives. Though they are Real and recognize the contributions they are making to others, they continue to open themselves up to continued growth

IT Strategy and Economic Sustainability: Formulating a 21st Century Paradigm

The resource-based view (RBV) has been widely adopted as the theoretical code for harnessing the strategic contributions of information technology (IT). However, mere ownership of resources, as prescribed by this body of theory, is no guarantee of competitiveness. Furthermore, RBV does not convey the wider concerns of social and environmental sustainability that many leading corporations now accept as pressing responsibilities of the 21st Century. We propose a relevant extension to the RBV as a strategic paradigm. It begins with the argument that the tenets of sustainability translate commercially into a customercentric strategy of lean production. In this context, the Value Chain concept could be an important mediator for ensuring the most profitable IT investments, while promoting green economic practices. We tested our model using a sample of third party logistics firms, with supportive results

An Exploratory Analysis of E-Government Development in the Caribbean

Digital divide is, despite all efforts in research and practice, a matter of fact in most societies. In search for specific strategies to promote digital inclusion, one has to ask for what are the specific reasons and factors behind the problem. Here, the field of E-Government features several particular characteristics, including high privacy and security demands or high complexity of administrative processes, which might hinder the societal inclusiveness of such electronic public service delivery. Addressing the question of what could be possible explanations for a lack of inclusiveness in E-Government, we develop an E-Government-inclusion-gap-model and conduct a quantitative analysis of statistical data on E-Government usage in Germany, taking into account specific social digital divide groups, such as senior citizens, people with low education or people without employment. Here, we contrast E-Government usage with E-Commerce and internet usage. Specific inclusion gaps in E-Government and their underlying issues are analysed and specific recommendations given

Survival of the Fittest: Online Accountability in Complex Organizational Populations

Online accountability is increasingly becoming a critical issue in contemporary debates over creating more open and transparent organizations. Broadly defined, online accountability refers to the extent that an organization discloses financial and performance data on the organization’s Website, and the level of stakeholder interaction supported by the organization’s Website. Online accountability is positively correlated with outcome metrics such as organizational success, increased charitable contributions, and enhanced public trust. However, our understanding of the determinants of online accountability is limited. Informed by organizational ecology theory, this research-in-progress seeks to enhance our understanding of this key issue by developing and testing a model of the determinants of online accountability. Our preliminary analysis of secondary data on a regional population of 653 organizations in the Northeast United States revealed that only 12.09% of the organizations have implemented online accountability. We argue that organizations that fail to implement online accountability measures can negatively impact their chances of survival in complex and uncertain environments

Familiarity with Big Data, Privacy Concerns, and Self-disclosure Accuracy in Social Networking Websites: An APCO Model

Social networking websites have not only become the most prevalent communication tools in today’s digital age but also one of the top big data sources. Big data advocates promote the promising benefits of big data applications to both users and practitioners. However, public polls show evidence of heightened privacy concerns among Internet and social media users. We review the privacy literature based on protection motivation theory and the theory of planned behavior to develop an APCO model that incorporates novel factors that reflect users’ familiarity with big data. Our results, which we obtained from using a cross-sectional survey design and structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques, support most of our proposed hypotheses. Specifically, we found that that awareness of big data had a negative impact on and awareness of big data implications had a positive impact on privacy concerns. In turn, privacy concerns impacted self-disclosure concerns positively and self-disclosure accuracy negatively. We also considered other antecedents of privacy concerns and tested other alternative models to examine the mediating role of privacy concerns, to control for demographic variables, and to investigate different roles of the trust construct. Finally, we discuss the results of our findings and the theoretical and practical implications