Matching Items (6)
Description
The purpose of this study was to determine how I, as a future teacher, can best combat inequities in technological access and fluency in my future classroom. In this study, I explored a range of literature on the role of technology in the classroom, the digital divide in home and school settings, and variance in digital literacy. Additional insight was gained through interviews and observing school faculty in three public school districts in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. This provided a better understanding of local context in order to gain a sense of the national and local realities of the digital landscape as they relate to educational equity in the educational settings where I aim to serve as a certified teacher.
ContributorsJakubczyk, Nicole Marie (Author) / Foulger, Teresa (Thesis director) / Barnett, Juliet (Committee member) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Media and technology are integral parts of today’s society. Unlike in the past, most adults in the United States now have access to the internet via their own personal devices. Technology’s popularity does not stop with adults. The children of this generation are extremely knowledgeable when it comes to media and technology and are exposed to it at a very young age. This paper analyzes the effect that this exposure is having on early childhood development. The research shows that there are several benefits to children using technology at a young age. Some of these benefits include increased learning opportunities, preparation for future careers, and support for children with disabilities. However, there are also several challenges that technology can cause. Some of these challenges include increased violence, exposure to inappropriate content, sleep issues, and an increased chance of obesity. In addition to this paper, a resource website titled Toddlers and Technology was created. The purpose of this website is to give parents insight into the information that is available in regards to technology and child development. The website includes the benefits and challenges of children using technology, recommendations on how parents can combat the challenges, and a list of 10 educational apps for early childhood development.
Keywords: children, technology, media, apps, families
Keywords: children, technology, media, apps, families
ContributorsCave, Mckenna Ann (Author) / Farrand, Kathleen (Thesis director) / Boozer, April (Committee member) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Early adolescence is a pivotal stage of social and emotional development. Socialization traditionally occurs in person, but social interactions via technology (e.g., social media, video games) have grown in popularity. However, little research has been conducted on how early adolescents interact with technology and how these interactions relate to their socialization as well as other factors such as reading habits or academic achievement. Seventh and eighth grade students (n = 719) completed a survey that captured information about their technology use, their academic habits and performance, and extracurricular involvement. It was hypothesized that those involved in more extracurricular activities would use the internet more socially and that internet use would be negatively correlated to both academic performance and recreational reading. Responses indicated that a majority of students have access to technology (e.g. internet, computers, television, gaming consoles, and tablets) in their homes. Social media use differed drastically between platforms. Analyses indicated a relation between amount of extracurricular activities on social television watching and social internet use, but not on social gaming. A significant negative correlation was found between recreational reading and time spent socializing online, but there was no significant effect of these factors on academic performance. Thus, hypotheses were partially supported by the relation between amount of extracurriculars and social internet use and the negative correlation between time spent socializing online and recreational reading.
ContributorsHorner, Kate Elizabeth (Author) / McNamara, Danielle (Thesis director) / McCarthy, Kathryn (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
The principles of transformational play challenge the assumption that learning and "real life" are inherently separate spheres, and instead, intimately connect the two spheres by integrating the often separate treatment of person, content, and context. By positioning person, content, and context in a way that traditional learning environments cannot, transformational play puts students in the role of active protagonists in their own learning and positions them to use their growing knowledge to make authentic choices that can affect problems they face in reality and thereby transform: the circumstances of their lives, the way they understand knowledge as a functional asset, and the way they see themselves as agents with the ability to act and create change. This can be especially empowering to students who have thus far been facing a feeling of hopelessness or powerlessness in their lives. Teachers can apply the concepts behind transformational play throughout the learning process to improve the consequentiality of students' learning experiences.
ContributorsCurtis, Camryn (Author) / Barab, Sasha (Thesis director) / Arici, Anna (Committee member) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
Currently, treatment for multiple myeloma (MM), a hematological cancer, is limited to post-symptomatic chemotherapy combined with other pharmaceuticals and steroids. Even so, the immuno-depressing cancer can continue to proliferate, leading to a median survival period of two to five years. B cells in the bone marrow are responsible for generating antigen-specific antibodies, but in MM the B cells express mutated, non-specific monoclonal antibodies. Therefore, it is hypothesized that antibody-based assay and therapy may be feasible for detecting and treating the disease. In this project, 330k peptide microarrays were used to ascertain the binding affinity of sera antibodies for MM patients with random sequence peptides; these results were then contrasted with normal donor assays to determine the "immunosignatures" for MM. From this data, high-binding peptides with target-specificity (high fluorescent intensity for one patient, low in all other patients and normal donors) were selected for two MM patients. These peptides were narrowed down to two lists of five (10 total peptides) to analyze in a synthetic antibody study. The rationale behind this originates from the idea that antibodies present specific binding sites on either of their branches, thus relating high binding peptides from the arrays to potential binding targets of the monoclonal antibodies. Furthermore, these peptides may be synthesized on a synthetic antibody scaffold with the potential to induce targeted delivery of radioactive or chemotherapeutic molecular tags to only myelomic B cells. If successful, this would provide a novel alternative to current treatments that is less invasive, has fewer side effects, more specifically targets the cause of MM, and reliably diagnoses the cancer in the presymptomatic stage.
ContributorsBerry, Jameson (Co-author) / Buelt, Allison (Co-author) / Johnston, Stephen (Thesis director) / Diehnelt, Chris (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
In the future a Community struggles for survival on an uninhabitable Earth. A small faction of rebels, called Villains, put the lives of the entire Community at risk as they fight for domination of their home. Heroes and their Sidekicks rise up from the population to fight the Villains and win back their world. As they complete their training and begin to enter the world of Heroes and Villains, Alyssa begins to struggle with her identity as a Sidekick, her new role in the Community, and whether she can really preserve all that matters most to her. This excerpt from the larger novel, Sidekick, tells the story of Alyssa's struggles to remain true to herself, and her best friend Jeremy, all the while being called to serve the Community and eradicate the threat the Villains pose to her way of life. I conceived Sidekick as a work of speculative fiction because I believe the genre is one of the most powerful tools for education in the present time. By freeing one's mind to wonder, the dull becomes an exciting thought experiment that can (and does) influence how individuals see their world. Reading pieces like Ender's Game and 1984 I have found my ways of thinking challenged and stretched, and ideas from these works of fiction have stuck with and changed me. One major goal of the work was identifying and integrating major academic and life lessons I have learned into the overall work, providing it an intellectual and emotional grounding in reality. Having its foundations in the real world, the setting of Sidekick becomes a stage for a fantastical story as well as the reader's own imagination and introspection.
ContributorsWarren, Taylor Ann (Author) / Finn, Ed (Thesis director) / Bell, Matt (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor, Contributor, Contributor) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12