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In this study, I investigate the digital literacy practices of adult immigrants, and their relationship with transnational processes and practices. Specifically, I focus on their conditions of access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) in their life trajectories, their conditions of learning in a community center, and their appropriation

In this study, I investigate the digital literacy practices of adult immigrants, and their relationship with transnational processes and practices. Specifically, I focus on their conditions of access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) in their life trajectories, their conditions of learning in a community center, and their appropriation of digital literacy practices for transnational purposes. By studying the culturally situated nature of digital literacies of adult learners with transnational affiliations, I build on recent empirical work in the fields of New Literacy Studies, sociocultural approaches to learning, and transnational studies. In this qualitative study, I utilized ethnographic techniques for data collection, including participant observation, interviewing, and collection of material and electronic artifacts. I drew from case study approaches to analyze and present the experiences of five adult first-generation immigrant participants. I also negotiated multiple positionalities during the two phases of the study: as a participant observer and instructor's aide during the Basic Computer Skills course participants attended, and as a researcher-practitioner in the Web Design course that followed. From these multiple vantage points, my analysis demonstrates that participants' access to ICTs is shaped by structural factors, family dynamics, and individuals' constructions of the value of digital literacies. These factors influence participants' conditions of access to material resources, such as computer equipment, and access to mentoring opportunities with members of their social networks. In addition, my analysis of the instructional practices in the classroom shows that instructors used multiple modalities, multiple languages and specialized discourses to scaffold participants' understandings of digital spaces and interfaces. Lastly, in my analysis of participants' repertoires of digital literacy practices, I found that their engagement in technology use for purposes of communication, learning, political participation and online publishing supported their maintenance of transnational affiliations. Conversely, participants' transnational ties and resources supported their appropriation of digital literacies in everyday practice. This study concludes with a discussion on the relationship among learning, digital literacies and transnationalism, and the contributions of critical and ethnographic perspectives to the study of programs that can bridge digital inequality for minority groups.
ContributorsNoguerón, Silvia Cecilia (Author) / Warriner, Doris S (Thesis advisor) / Faltis, Christian J (Committee member) / Mccarty, Teresa (Committee member) / Wiley, Terrence (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
Driven by a variety of factors, online learning has continued to grow at an unprecedented rate. A Sloan Foundation report issued in January of 2010 indicated that in 2009, 4.6 million students took at least one online class, an increase in 17% over 2008. Graduate business education, and more specifically,

Driven by a variety of factors, online learning has continued to grow at an unprecedented rate. A Sloan Foundation report issued in January of 2010 indicated that in 2009, 4.6 million students took at least one online class, an increase in 17% over 2008. Graduate business education, and more specifically, Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs have responded to this growth and other drivers such as globalization, institutional competition and student demand by leveraging the online platform more extensively. Because of the continued growth of online programs, there is an ongoing need to better understand the motivational beliefs and self-regulatory strategies students utilize to achieve academic success. Self-regulation is a social-cognitive construct supported by several decades of research, which posits that students engage in a self-directive process to transform their mental abilities into academic skills. Online MBA students balance work, family, business travel and other life events while pursuing their degree. Their ability to balance life events while succeeding academically suggests they possess the capacity for academic self-regulation. Can admissions requirements that are already in place provide insight into how students' manage their academic self-regulation? This study examined the relationship between the MBA admissions requirements of Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) total score, GMAT verbal score and years of work experience to determine if they were predictive of the student's motivational beliefs and self-regulatory learning strategies. GMAT scores and years of work experience are often thought to be predictors of student success in MBA programs. Self-selected online MBA students (n = 130) completed the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire during the final week of Organization Theory and Behavior, a core course in the MBA program. Analysis indicated that the MBA admissions requirements of GMAT total score, GMAT verbal score, and years of work experience were not reliable predictors of motivational beliefs and self-regulatory strategies. The findings indicate that while admissions criteria may be predictive of student success in the overall program, they provide little insight about how students manage their motivational beliefs and self-regulatory strategies while participating in their courses.
ContributorsSalik, Steven H (Author) / Bitter, Gary G. (Thesis advisor) / Alpers, Rojann R (Committee member) / Legacy, Jane M. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010