A Study of Minnesota Elementary Principals’ Perceptions on 1:1 Technology Implementation

Abstract According to the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institute the rapid advancement in technology today requires students to attain a broader set of competencies to be successful than in the past (Winthrop, McGivney, Williams, & Shankar, 2016). To achieve these higher standards, education must take “new approaches that can reach children who have not yet been reached” to attain higher student learning outcomes (Winthrop et al., 2016). School leadership matters when a school or school district is considering a technology initiative (Anderson & Dexter, 2005) and principals must be increasingly involved in the project to model and support implementation (Anthony & Patravanich, 2014; Stuart, Mills, & Remus, 2009). “A growing body of evidence has suggested that we are in the midst of a global learning crisis. Pedagogical practices and curricula used in schools are ill equipped to allow children to learn the skills they will need for the future. If education systems in their current form fail to improve learning outcomes, it is because the design of the way education is delivered itself is flawed. In a failed system, incremental improvements are insufficient to bring about the transformational shifts to curriculum and pedagogy needed to get better results.” (Winthrop et al., 2016) The 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) depicts Minnesota’s achievement levels relatively unchanged from the 2015 NAEP results, however, Minnesota continues to have one of the largest achievement gaps in the nation (NAEP, 2017). Minnesota school districts are infusing technology into classrooms to address learning disparities, and in 2016 the State of Minnesota reported that 55% of Minnesota schools had operationalized some level of a 1:1 technology initiative. The purpose of the study was to examine the perceptions of a sampling of Minnesota elementary principals on the extent, value and quality of their involvement in the implementation of their school districts’ 1:1 technology initiatives. Further, the study intended to ascertain the sample group principals’ perceived preparedness to provide leadership and training to their schools’ teaching staffs, (including staff employed one or more years following implementation,) regarding their school districts’ 1:1 technology initiatives

The importance of the carboxyl portion of the Apx toxins of actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae in eliciting toxin-neutralizing antibodies

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae is the organism responsible for porcine pleuropneumonia. The primary virulence factors of A. pleuropneumoniae are three secreted Apx toxins. Apx I and II are cytolytic and hemolytic, while Apx III is only cytolytic. The Apx toxins are pore-forming toxins that promote bacterial multiplication by harming phagocytes infiltrating the respiratory tract of infected swine. Apx-mediated phagocyte damage further intensifies the inflammatory tissue damage associated with porcine pleuropneumonia. The Apx toxins are members of a group of toxins known as RTX toxins. Another RTX toxin previously worked with in this laboratory is the leukotoxin of Pasteurella haemoltyica, which is known to be a primary virulence factor involved in pneumonic pasteurellosis. Several functional domains of the Apx toxins and other RTX toxins have been identified. The carboxyl region containing the repeat domain was of particular interest. This study attempted to answer some preliminary questions about the Apx toxins in relation to work previously done with P. haemolytica leukotoxin in this laboratory. This information will allow future work with the Apx toxins in this laboratory to be more focused on particular aspects of the proteins. The first objective of this study was to examine cross-recognition between the Apx toxins and leukotoxin. This was done by using murine mAbs; ltx-2, ltx-4, and ltx-35, known to neutralize leukotoxin, as well as different samples of rabbit antisera generated against GST-fused peptides of the carboxyl one-third of the IktA, Apx lA, and Apx IIA genes, respectively. Monoclonal antibodies did not cross-react with the Apx toxins. However, rabbit antisera samples did cross-react between the Apx toxins and leukotoxin. The second objective was to evaluate the ability of fusion proteins, containing peptides of the carboxyl portion of Apx I and Apx II, respectively, to elicit anti-Apx toxin antibodies as well as Apx toxin-neutralizing antibodies. Results from these experiments showed that Apx toxin-reactive antibodies can be stimulated by the peptides used, as well as toxin-neutralizing antibodies. The results support earlier reports that the hemolytic and cytotoxic activities of the Apx toxins are independent of each other, as well. This study also confirms previous work from this laboratory showing the importance of the carboxyl portion of the RTX toxins in eliciting toxin-neutralizing antibodies, as well as the finding that post-translational modification of RTX toxin proteins is not required for recognition nor for the capability of the proteins to generate toxin-neutralizing antibodies

Beyond the One-Shot: Intensive Workshops as a Platform for Engaging the Library in Digital Humanities.

This article explores how librarian participation as instructors in week-long intensive classes—a common workshop format in Digital Humanities (DH)—can advance a variety of library objectives, while also uniquely supporting the DH community. Intensive workshops fall between the one-shot session and credit course formats more commonly found in library instruction. Drawing on case studies from Geographic Information Systems (GIS) instruction at DH institutes at the University of California Berkeley and Purdue University, the authors explore the origins of librarian involvement, course topics, pedagogy, and library services. Based on their instruction experiences in the DH summer institutes and student surveys, the authors argue that intensive instruction workshops provide a good potential platform for library involvement in Digital Humanities

Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Attitudes Toward Mental Health Nursing

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to describe undergraduate nursing students’ attitudes toward mental health nursing and how these attitudes influenced their professional career choices in mental health nursing. Design: A descriptive, online survey was utilized to examine students’ perceptions of mental health nursing. A total of 229 junior and senior nursing students were recruited from eight nursing colleges in Midwestern United States to participate in this survey. Results: Students of different ages, genders, ethnicities, and nursing programs did not report significantly different perceptions of: (a) knowledge of mental illness; (b) negative stereotypes; (c) interest in mental health nursing as a future career; and (d), and beliefs that psychiatric nurses provide a valuable contribution to consumers and the community. Negative stereotypes were significantly different between students who had mental health nursing preparation either in class (p = 0.0147) or in clinical practice (p = 0.0018) and students who had not. There were significant differences in anxiety about mental illness between students who had classes on mental health nursing (p = .0005), clinical experience (p = 0.0035), and work experience in the mental health field (p = 0.0012). Significant differences in an interest in a future career in mental health nursing emerged between students with and without prior mental health experience and between students with and without an interest in an externship program with p-values of 0.0012 and \u3c 0.0001, respectively. Conclusions: The more exposure that students have to mental health nursing through clinical experiences, theory classes, and previous work in the field, the more prepared they feel about caring for persons with mental health issues

ePortfolio Taxonomy

This ePortfolio High-Impact Practice Taxonomy seeks to clearly define the features of ePortfolios as a high-impact practice in individual courses, across degree and co-curricular programs, and across entire undergraduate experiences. The taxonomy describes four attributes of ePortfolio practice along three dimensions of impact—High-Impact, Higher-Impact, and Highest-Impact. For the purpose of supporting student success the taxonomy aims to: 1. Provide guidance for course instructors, program directors, and campus administrators in planning, developing, implementing, and reflecting on ePortfolios in the context of course, curriculum, and program development; 2. Provide direction to campus ePortfolio professional development efforts; and 3. Provide a tool for encouraging program fidelity

Open Science and Data Management: Introducing Graduate Students to Research Workflows in a Local Context

The Engineering & Physical Sciences Division of the UC Berkeley Library partners with researchers to support the entire research life cycle. Since 2016, the division’s Science Data Librarian has offered Research Data Management training that covers data management, storage, documentation, and sharing. Based on this established work, division librarians piloted a series of open science workshops in 2019. The Earth & Planetary Sciences (EPS) Department was chosen as the target department for this work. Librarians began by replacing their traditional orientation session, focused on library procedures and resources, with an approach that highlighted local support for open research workflows

Why Isn\u27t Everyone an Early Adopter?

The adoption and use of information technology (IT) innovations within an organization are critical to deriving the benefits of IT, yet many innovations are underused or never used. Theoretical perspectives that have been used to analyze individual behavior regarding IT usage include innovation diffusion theory (IDT) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB). IDT states that adoption of an innovation is influenced by attributes of the innovation. TPB posits that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control will influence an individual’s decision to adopt. While most adoption and diffusion research concentrates on why people adopt an innovation, this research will compare how innovation characteristics and TPB components are perceived by both early and late adopters. We then investigate late adopters’ perceptions at the time of the innovation introduction and the time of actual adoption to determine which, if any, innovation perceptions have changed