Matching Items (27)
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- All Subjects: Education
- Creators: Blasingame, James
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
- Resource Type: Text
Description
ABSTRACT This study describes student interactions in the academic social network site Edmodo versus student interactions in Facebook. This qualitative case study relies upon four high school juniors enrolled in Advanced Placement Language and Composition who use Edmodo to complete assignments for their English class. Their experiences were gathered in an attempt to describe specific experiences in a complex system. Students were selected using an Internet Connectedness Index survey. Using a Virtual Community of Practice framework, students were asked about their experiences in Edmodo. This study concludes that Edmodo and Facebook can be compared in three categories: accessibility, functionality, and environment. Unlike Facebook, which students access regularly, students access Edmodo only to fulfill the teacher's participation expectations for the specific grade they wish to receive. Additionally, students appreciated the convenience of using Edmodo to complete assignments. The functionality of Edmodo is quite similar in layout and appearance to Facebook, yet students were unaware of the media sharing capability, wished for private messaging options, and desired the ability to tag peers for direct comment using the @ sign, all options that are available in Facebook. Students felt the environment in Edmodo could best be characterized as intellectual and academic, which some mentioned might best be used with honors or AP students. A surprising benefit of Edmodo is the lack of social cues enable students to feel free of judgment when composing writing. Some felt this allowed students to know their classmates better and share their true personae free from judgment of classmates. As a result of the case studies of four students, this study seeks to illustrate how students interact in Edmodo versus Facebook to provide a robust image of the academic social network site for teachers seeking to implement educational technology in their classes.
ContributorsCurran-Sejkora, Elizabeth (Author) / Blasingame, James (Thesis advisor) / Nilsen, Alleen (Committee member) / Rodrigo, Rochelle (Committee member) / Turchi, Laura (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This dissertation shares findings from a yearlong qualitative case study of Young Voices Rise (YVR), a diverse spoken word poetry group in the urban Southwest. The study examined the group's characteristics and practices, adolescent members' views of their writing and themselves as writers, and changes members attributed to their experiences in YVR. Data sources included interviews with six adolescent poets and two adult teaching artists, observations of writing workshops and poetry slams, collection of group announcements through social media, and collection of poems. Sociocultural theory guided the study's design, and grounded theory was used to analyze data. This study found that YVR is a community of practice that offers multiple possibilities for engagement and fosters a safe space for storytelling. The adolescent participants have distinct writing practices and a strong sense of writing self; furthermore, they believe YVR has changed them and their writing. This study has several implications for secondary English language arts. Specifically, it recommends that teachers build safe spaces for storytelling, offer spoken word poetry as an option for exploring various topics and purposes, attend to writers' practices and preferences, encourage authentic participation and identity exploration, and support spoken word poetry school-wide.
ContributorsWilliams, Wendy (Author) / Blasingame, James (Thesis advisor) / Roen, Duane (Committee member) / Marsh, Josephine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Unschooling is a child-centered educational philosophy that eschews teachers,
schools, curricula, grades and tests. Unschool practitioners have complete freedom to choose what they want to learn, when, to what level, and for how long. Unschooling families use the World Wide Web to provide a bespoke academic experience at home. This study compares qualitative data collected from questionnaires and semi-structured interviews conducted with 10 unschooling families with quantitative data collected from 5 children within these families using a tracking and monitoring software. The software captured the duration of use, keystrokes, mouseclicks, and screenshots for all programs and websites for 14 days. Children stated they used technology less than 6 hours a day, and parents stated children used them less than 8 hours a day. Quantitative data shows the children use technology at least 10 hours a day, suggesting usage self-reports may not be reliable. The study revealed hardware form factor was the number one determinate of application use. Almost exclusively social media was used on smartphones, internet browsing on tablets, and creative endeavors such as modding, hacking, fan fiction writing, and video game level building all took place exclusively on laptops and desktops. Concurrent use of differing hardware form factors was the norm observed. Participants stated YouTube, Wikipedia and Khan Academy were the websites most used for knowledge gathering. The tracking software verified YouTube and Wikipedia were the most used websites, however when accessed on the PC, those sites were used almost exclusively for video game related purposes. Over 90% of the total PC use was spent on video games. More traditional educational activities were done primarily on tablets and on parent smartphones with parental engagement. Khan Academy was not used by the
participants in the 14 day monitoring period. 90 day web browser logs indicated Khan Academy was used by individuals no more than 3 times in a 90 day period,
demonstrating the inherent risks in relying upon internet usage self-reports without
quantitative software for verification. Unschooling children spent between 30 and 60 hours a week using technology.
schools, curricula, grades and tests. Unschool practitioners have complete freedom to choose what they want to learn, when, to what level, and for how long. Unschooling families use the World Wide Web to provide a bespoke academic experience at home. This study compares qualitative data collected from questionnaires and semi-structured interviews conducted with 10 unschooling families with quantitative data collected from 5 children within these families using a tracking and monitoring software. The software captured the duration of use, keystrokes, mouseclicks, and screenshots for all programs and websites for 14 days. Children stated they used technology less than 6 hours a day, and parents stated children used them less than 8 hours a day. Quantitative data shows the children use technology at least 10 hours a day, suggesting usage self-reports may not be reliable. The study revealed hardware form factor was the number one determinate of application use. Almost exclusively social media was used on smartphones, internet browsing on tablets, and creative endeavors such as modding, hacking, fan fiction writing, and video game level building all took place exclusively on laptops and desktops. Concurrent use of differing hardware form factors was the norm observed. Participants stated YouTube, Wikipedia and Khan Academy were the websites most used for knowledge gathering. The tracking software verified YouTube and Wikipedia were the most used websites, however when accessed on the PC, those sites were used almost exclusively for video game related purposes. Over 90% of the total PC use was spent on video games. More traditional educational activities were done primarily on tablets and on parent smartphones with parental engagement. Khan Academy was not used by the
participants in the 14 day monitoring period. 90 day web browser logs indicated Khan Academy was used by individuals no more than 3 times in a 90 day period,
demonstrating the inherent risks in relying upon internet usage self-reports without
quantitative software for verification. Unschooling children spent between 30 and 60 hours a week using technology.
ContributorsCurtice, Brian (Author) / Gee, James (Thesis advisor) / Gee, Elisabeth (Committee member) / Savenye, Wilhelmina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
The right to write: novice English teachers write to explore their identities in a writing community
Description
ABSTRACT This research studies the effects of a writing community on three novice, middle school, Title I language arts teachers' perceptions of themselves as educators and as writers. The participants wrote on topics of their selection, on a bi-monthly basis, for one semester, to explore their teaching and learning. The teachers are in their first five years of instruction and work in Title I, urban schools with ethnically diverse students. All participants are National Writing Project fellows. The researcher analyzed teachers' journals, narratives, conversations, interviews and pre-surveys to collapse and code the research into themes. Findings suggest that teachers need time and support to write during the school day if they are going to write. They also need a supportive, honest, and friendly audience, the writing community, to feel like writers. Findings generated have implications for teacher preparation programs. The participant, who was not an education major, in her undergraduate program, is the only teacher who feels confident in her writing abilities which she connects to her experience in writing and presenting her work as an English and women's studies major. More teacher education programs should offer more writing courses so that preservice teachers become comfortable with the art of composition. Universities and colleges must foster the identities of both instructor and writer in preservice language arts teachers so that they become more confident in their writing and, in turn, their writing instruction. It may be implausible for novice teachers to be effective writing instructors, and educate their students on effective writing strategies, if they do not feel confident in their writing abilities. Although writing researchers may posit that English teachers act as gatekeepers by withholding writing practices from their students (Early and DeCosta-Smith, 2011), this study suggests that English teachers may not have these writing skills because they do not write and or participate in a writing community. When preservice English teachers are not afforded authentic writing opportunities, they graduate from their teacher education programs without confidence as writers. Once ELA teachers transition into their careers they are, again, not afforded the opportunity to write. In turn, it is difficult for them to teach writing to their students, particularly low-income, minority students who may need additional support from their teachers with composition. K-12 teachers need the time and space to write for themselves, on topics of their selection, during the school day, and then, must be trained on how to use their writing as a model to coach their students.
ContributorsPowell, Mary G (Author) / Roen, Duane (Thesis advisor) / Blasingame, James (Committee member) / Turchi, Laura (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) (2001) was a tipping point for the requirement of academic and English language proficiency standards. Yet, there continue to be variations among English language proficiency standards linked and aligned to academic content standards across states, districts, and schools (Golden, 2011). The purpose of this research was to examine how the requirement of only linking language proficiency standards to academic content standards has impacted the quality of Arizona English Language Proficiency Standards with the Common Core English Language Arts State Standards and WIDA Standards at grades 2, 7, and 9. A modified version of Cook's (2007) method was used to determine the standards alignment as well as common and uncommon knowledge between the sets of standard. Results indicate no alignment and limited linkage. Findings also showed absence of grade-level academic content and academic language.
ContributorsNguyen, Tracy Robin (Author) / Arias, M. Beatriz (Thesis advisor) / Blasingame, James (Committee member) / Garcia, Eugene (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This dissertation explored the literacy practices that developed around comics when two secondary teachers (one AP Science and one AP English) used comics in their classroom instruction for the first time. It also explored the ways the teachers and their students positioned comics within their specific classroom contexts. Historically, comics are a marginalized medium in educational circles—widely considered non-academic despite the recognition by scholars for their sophistication as a multimodal medium. Scholars, librarians, teachers, and comics authors have made the case for the inclusion of comics in educational contexts citing their ability to support the literacy development of struggling readers, engage reluctant readers, promote lifelong reading, and convey information visually. However, the roles comics can play in educational contexts are still under researched, and many gaps exist in the literature including a lack of real world contexts and clearly reported instructional strategies. This study aimed to fill these gaps by reporting the literacy practices that students and teachers develop around comics, as well as contextualizing these practices in the classroom contexts and students’ and teachers’ experiences. Drawing from a social semiotic view of multimodality and the view of literacy as a social practice, I conducted a qualitative case study using ethnographic methods for data collection which I analyzed using an interpretive framework for qualitative data analysis and constant comparative analysis. I found three literacy practices developed around comics in these contexts—Q&A, writing about comics, and drawing comics. I also found that teachers and students positioned comics in four primary ways within these contexts—as a tool, as entertainment, as a medium, and as a traditional form of literature. Based on my findings, I developed three assertions: 1) there is a disconnect between teachers’ goals for using comics in their instruction and the literacy practice that developed around the comics they selected; 2) there is a disconnect between the ways in which teachers position comics and the ways in which students position comics; and 3) traditional views of literature and literacy continue to dominate classrooms when multimodal texts are selected and utilized during instruction.
ContributorsKachorsky, Danielle Perrine (Author) / Serafini, Frank (Thesis advisor) / Gee, Elisabeth (Committee member) / Marsh, Josephine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
This research features a phenomenological investigation of the interactions between adolescent storytellers and audience members during a live storytelling event. The researcher partnered with an English teacher in an urban Southwest high school and a spoken word poet from a youth nonprofit to produce a storytelling workshop and corresponding story slam event for high school students. Fourteen participants, including seven student storytellers and seven student audience members, participated in extensive follow-up interviews where they described the experience of their respective roles during the event. Utilizing a phenomenological design (Moustakas, 1994; Vagle, 2014) and drawing from reception theory (Bennett, 1997; Hall, 1980) as a framework, the researcher used participant descriptions to compose a textural-structural synthesis collectively describing the phenomenon of interaction, connection, and transaction between storytellers and audience members during the live event.
The textural-structural synthesis of participants’ descriptions comprises four major essences of the transactional phenomenon. These include 1) the relational symbiosis of storytellers and audience members, 2) the nature of the story slam as a planned and produced event, 3) the storytellers’ inclusions of specific, personal details which resonated with specific, personal details in audience members’ lives, and 4) the storytellers’ intentional style and content choices which corresponded with reactions from audience members.
These findings provide a platform for fostering conditions for interaction, connection, and transaction in curricular and extra-curricular secondary contexts. For a classroom teacher, they may be helpful in creating principles for optimizing interactions between teachers and students in instruction and between students in collaboration. In extra-curricular contexts, these findings provide a platform for consideration of how to hold space for creative performance once spaces for creative expression have been made for youth.
The textural-structural synthesis of participants’ descriptions comprises four major essences of the transactional phenomenon. These include 1) the relational symbiosis of storytellers and audience members, 2) the nature of the story slam as a planned and produced event, 3) the storytellers’ inclusions of specific, personal details which resonated with specific, personal details in audience members’ lives, and 4) the storytellers’ intentional style and content choices which corresponded with reactions from audience members.
These findings provide a platform for fostering conditions for interaction, connection, and transaction in curricular and extra-curricular secondary contexts. For a classroom teacher, they may be helpful in creating principles for optimizing interactions between teachers and students in instruction and between students in collaboration. In extra-curricular contexts, these findings provide a platform for consideration of how to hold space for creative performance once spaces for creative expression have been made for youth.
ContributorsGriffith, Jason (Author) / Blasingame, James (Thesis advisor) / Graham, Steven (Committee member) / Clark, Shanetia (Committee member) / Durand, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Given the profound influence that schools have on students’ genders and the existing scholarly research in the field of education studies which draws clear implications between practices of schooling and sanctioning and promoting particular gender subjectivities, often in alignment with traditional norms, I conduct a critical ethnography to examine the practices of gender in one eighth grade English language arts (ELA) classroom at an arts-missioned charter school. I do this to explore how ELA instruction at an arts charter school may provide opportunities for students to do gender differently. To guide this dissertation theoretically, I rely on the process philosophy of Erin Manning (2016, 2013, 2007) to examine the processual interactions among of student movement, choreography, materiality, research-creation, language, and art. Thus, methods for this study include field notes, student assignments, interviews and focus groups, student created art, maps, and architectural plans. In the analysis, I attempt to allow the data to live on their own, and I hope to give them voice to speak to the reader in a way that they spoke to me. Some of them speak through ethnodrama; some of them speak through autoethnography, visual art and cartography, and yet others through various transcriptions. Through these modes of analysis, I am thinking-doing-writing. The analysis also includes my thinking with fields – the fields of gender studies, qualitative inquiry, educational research, English education, and critical theory. In an attempt to take to the fields, I weave all of these through each other, through Manning and other theorists and through my ongoing perceptions of event-happenings and what it means to do qualitative research in education. Accordingly, this dissertation engages with the various fields to reconsider how school practices might conceive the ways in which they produce gender, and how students perceive gender within the school space. In this way, the dissertation provides ways of thinking that may unearth what was previously cast aside or uncover possibilities for what was previously unthought.
ContributorsSweet, Joseph David (Author) / Carlson, David Lee (Thesis advisor) / Blasingame, James (Committee member) / Durand, E. Sybil (Committee member) / Koro-Ljungberg, Mirka (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
There has been growing interest among learning scientists in the design and study of out-of-school time (OST) learning environments to support equitable development of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) interests among youth from groups that are underrepresented in STEM fields. Most of these design studies assumed the youth came to the learning environments without well-developed STEM interests. I challenged this assumption by enacting a social design participatory study to engage youth (aged 11 to 14), from groups that are underrepresented in STEM fields, as partners in designing an OST networked club to support the youth in growing their own STEM interests. Based on longitudinal ethnographic data, I report a three-year iterative design of this networked club. I characterize the heterogeneity of STEM interests that emerged and grew across the networked club. Building on ecological theories of interest development, and leveraging the cultural assets of the nondominant community, I argue that heterogeneity of interests, resources, and practices served as a design tool and a catalyst for the development of STEM interest in the OST networked club.
ContributorsGould, Deena Lee (Author) / Barab, Sasha (Thesis advisor) / Gee, Elisabeth (Committee member) / Jimenez Silva, Margarita (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of how collaborative language learning activities affected student perceptions of their engagement and language self-efficacy in a communicative, flipped language learning classroom in higher education. The new online platforms accompanying many textbooks now allow students to prepare for classes ahead of time, allowing instructors to use more class time for student engagement in actual language practices. However, there has been little investigation of the effects of this communicative, flipped classroom model on students’ learning processes and outcomes. This mixed methods action research study revealed that the introduction of varied collaborative language learning activities had a positive impact on students’ self-efficacy and engagement as well as provides implications that will be of value to language educators interested in enhancing their use of the communicative, flipped classroom model.
ContributorsRama, Rashmi (Author) / Gee, Elisabeth (Thesis advisor) / Buss, Ray R. (Committee member) / Mayes, Eric (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019