The Instructional Technology Resource Teacher: A Descriptive Case Study of Deployment, Use, and Perceptions

This case study describes one professional development approach to support technology integration at all public schools in one large county in central Virginia. Using data obtained from daily time logs, the frequency of Instructional Technology Resource Teacher (ITRT) use by classroom teachers was analyzed. Descriptive statistics were used to describe overall percentage of ITRT use, the various types of professional development requested by teachers, the consistency of those activities over time, and if the frequencies of activities varied as a function of school level, Title I status at the elementary level, or subject area taught by teachers at the secondary level. Qualitative data was collected via focus group interviews of the involved ITRTs, and an exploratory attempt to understand the reasons behind their use was made. Data indicated that ITRTs were used 52% of the time offered with 5% variation over 3 years. Across school levels, ITRT time was used more at the secondary level and use varied no more than 9% over time. Google Apps for Education and web-based programs represented 73% of the training requests. Over time, fluctuations in the number of requests for assistance with different applications were explained by contextual factors. Elementary schools classified as Title I accounted for 23% of the total time elementary ITRTs were used. At the secondary level, teachers of science and language arts requested ITRT assistance more often. ITRTs made sense of these results by identifying first order barriers as more influential than second order barriers. Of these, access barriers were the most frequently cited barrier by the ITRTs followed by subject culture, institution, assessment, attitude and beliefs, and knowledge and skills. Elementary ITRTs cited more instances of barriers than secondary. Recommendations for practice and future research were made

Assessing technology literacy: The Case for an authentic, project-based learning approach

This whitepaper takes a comprehensive look at the research, policies, and practices of technology literacy in K-12 settings in the United States. It builds a research-based case for the central importance of doing as part of technology literacy, meaning more than just being able to answer canned questions on a test. It also explores the current approaches to develop meaningful assessment of student technology literacy at a national, state, and local level, including TechYES

A STUDY OF THE ANTIPEPSIN ACTIVITY OF MAJOR ANTACID COMPOUNDS

Pepsin activity was maximum at pH 2.2-2.6 and became minimal at pH4. Sodium, calcium, magnesium, aluminum, and aluminum chlorohydrate cations had no significant effect on pepsin activity. Rapidly reacting antacid compounds--sodium bicarbonate, calcium carbonate, and magnesium hydroxide--could exist in gastric fluids as soluble ions and would not have a specific antipepsin effect. Aluminum hydroxide reacts slower and would be partially present in the gastrointestinal tract as a colloid. Gibbsite and boehmite, nonacid-reactive oxyaluminas, absorb pepsin, and the extent was pH dependent, maximum at pH3. Boehmite has a higher binding capacity due to its larger surface area. Partial desorption by phosphate indicated strong binding forces, multidentate ligand exchange supplemented by hydrogen bonding and van der Waals forces. Pepsin adsorbed was quantified by carbon-nitrogen microanalysis and spectroscopy. Pepsin absorbed on gibbsite and boehmite had significantly lower activity than soluble pepsin. Infrared and desorbed pepsin activity studies indicated that pepsin was not denatured on the surface. Infrared studies suggested possible conformational changes in adsorbed pepsin resulting in reduced acitivity. Activity of pepsin adsorbed on gibbsite was equivalent against either hemoglobin or N-acetyl-L-phenylalanyl-L-3,5-di-iodotyrosine. Pepsin adsorbed on boehmite produced similar results to pepsin adsorbed on gibbsite for the dipeptide but had a significantly lower activity using hemoglobin. This greater reduction in activity was due to differences in adsorbent morphology. SEM and TEM showed gibbsite to have a smooth surface and boehmite to be a porous material. Steric occlusion of the active site was believed to lower the activity of pepsin adsorbed on gibbsite. Besides steric occlusion, steric exclusion and diffusional resistance of hemoglobin due to the porous network caused the lower activity of pepsin adsorbed on boehmite. Physiological phosphate concentrations did not substantially affect pepsin adsorption indicating applicability to biological systems. Pepsin decreased the acid neutralization rate of aluminum hydroxide gels by adsorbing and retarding proton-gel interaction. An ideal antacid product should contain (1) an acid reactive component to neutralize gastric acid and raise gastric pH and (2) a nonacid reactive component to adsorb pepsin providing a specific antipepsin effect and also adsorb other irritants

Multimodal Imaging Follow-up of a Thrombosed Developmental Venous Anomaly: CT, CT Angiography and Digital Subtraction Angiography

We report a rare case of thrombosed developmental venous anomaly (DVA) in a 31-year old male with hemorrhagic cerebral venous infarction at the initial clinical presentation. In this case, sequential CT, CT angiography and digital subtraction angiography demonstrated thrombotic obstruction of the venous drainage from DVA, its progressive recanalization and temporal evolution of the affected brain parenchyma. The relevant previous literatures were reviewed and summarized