The role of IT literacy in defining digital divide policy needs

This article expands our current understanding of the digital divide by examining differences in individuals' IT skills acquisition. In the last two decades scholars have gradually refined the conceptualization of the digital divide, moving from a dichotomous model mainly based on access, to a multidimensional model accounting for differences in usage levels and actors' perspectives. Digital divide views tend to focus on groups of users and user characteristics and focus less on different processes of use. As models of the digital divide became more complex, research focused on deepening the understanding of demographic and socioeconomic differences between adopters and non-adopters. While IT literacy is an important factor in digital divide research, and studies examine user characteristics with respect to IT literacy, few studies make the process of basic IT literacy acquisition their main focal point (Selwyn, 2005). This perspective furthers our thinking by expanding the notion of user characteristics beyond demographic and socioeconomic differences to differences in the processes leading to internet use. Based on a dataset referring to an Italian region, this paper presents a metaphorical interpretation of the digital divide in general and explores the process of IT skills acquisition in particular. Our analysis shows the key role of self-learning and the presence of three distinct approaches in IT skills acquisition leading to different needs in terms of policy. We argue that these preliminary results are a useful starting point for the design of more effective and sophisticated digital inclusion policies.     

Longitudinal Relations Among Parents' Reactions to Children's Negative Emotions,Effortful Control,and Math Achievement in Early Elementary School

Panel mediation models and fixed‐effects models were used to explore longitudinal relations among parents' reactions to children's displays of negative emotions, children's effortful control (EC), and children's math achievement (N = 291; M age in fall of kindergarten = 5.66 years, SD = .39 year) across kindergarten through second grade. Parents reported their reactions and children's EC. Math achievement was assessed with a standardized achievement test. First‐grade EC mediated the relation between parents' reactions at kindergarten and second‐grade math achievement, beyond stability in constructs across study years. Panel mediation model results suggested that socialization of EC may be one method of promoting math achievement in early school; however, when all omitted time‐invariant covariates of EC and math achievement were controlled, first‐grade EC no longer predicted second‐grade math achievement.     

Linking research and practice through teacher communities: a place where formal and practical knowledge meet?

This study characterises the links between research and practice across 12 projects concerned with the collaborative design of lesson plans by teacher communities (TCs). Analyses focused on sources of knowledge used to inform lesson design, participants’ roles and knowledge generated by the teacher community. Three patterns emerged pertaining to the sources of knowledge informing lesson plans: design guided by formal and practical knowledge, by classroom-data and practical knowledge or by a combination of all three. Findings further suggest that the emphasis given to the use of formal knowledge over classroom-data or vice versa restrains the full accomplishment of research and practice links. Across the projects studied, university researchers contributed to linking research and practice by directly or indirectly supporting community activities. Surprisingly, the role of teachers in the generation and dissemination of formal knowledge was limited. Further research should explore the effects of collaboration within TCs on researchers and policy-makers.     

Shared book reading behaviours of children with Down Syndrome before and after participation in the MultiLit reading tutor program: an exploratory study

This exploratory study compares the shared book reading behaviours of five school aged children with DS (aged 11 years 6 months to 15 years 6 months) before and after participation in an intervention which included selected components of the MultiLit Reading Tutor Program. The program was delivered 1:1 to participants each week over a 12 week period. Analysis of the average performance across the group revealed that the proportion of reading errors relative to the number of words read from preintervention to postintervention were significantly reduced. Significant improvement was also seen in shared book reading fluency following intervention. Individual case study data is also presented. Postintervention, reading errors per minute were reduced for two participants (P4 and P5). Reading dysfluencies per minute decreased for two participants (P1 and P5) while all participants improved in shared book reading fluency. Preliminary results suggest that children with DS can generalise skills taught in the MultiLit Reading Tutor Program to shared book reading, although variability regarding changes in literacy abilities postintervention was observed.     

One-to-One Technology in K–12 Classrooms: A Review of the Literature From 2004 Through 2014

This literature review examined empirical research conducted between 2004 and 2014 regarding 1:1 technologies in K–12 educational settings. Our overarching research question was: What does research tell us about 1:1 technology in K–12 classrooms? We used the constant-comparative method to analyze, code, and induce themes from 46 relevant articles. Findings showed that the studies selected for analyses primarily concentrated on the following themes: effects on student achievement, changes to the classroom environment, classroom uses, effects on learner motivation and engagement, and challenges to classroom integration. In this article, we define each of these themes, describe the implications of the use of technologies on a 1:1 basis in classrooms, and offer suggestions for future research.     

Detrimental effects of immediate explanation feedback

Adjunct questions are a common means to foster learning from instructional explanations. As the benefit of adjunct questions is mitigated if learner performance on them is low, it is also common to provide feedback as an add-on if learners fail to correctly respond to them. However, if adjunct questions are highly demanding, feedback might not only beneficially affect learning because it helps learners revise their comprehension difficulties; at the same time, it could also detrimentally affect learning by causing learners to invest less time in responding to subsequent adjunct questions, which lowers learner performance on these questions. This, in turn, could reduce learning outcomes. To address these potential detrimental effects of feedback, we experimentally varied whether N?=?59 students received immediate feedback after they responded to highly demanding adjunct questions. We found that the feedback did indeed have detrimental effects: At least for the learners who perceived the task of responding to the adjunct questions as highly demanding, the feedback decreased both the time the learners invested in responding to the adjunct questions and their performance on them. This detrimental effect on the performance on the adjunct questions, in turn, entailed a detrimental effect on learning outcomes. We conclude that immediate feedback is not necessarily a beneficial add-on to adjunct questions in all situations.     

The role of the institutional researcher in a sex discrimination suit

This paper has three purposes, the first being a summary of what transpires when an institution of higher education is the defendant in a class action suit charging prejudicial treatment of some minority group. The second purpose is to demonstrate how easily the plaintiffs can use the institution's own data to establish aprima facie case for disparate treatment. The final goal is to display typical data and statistical exhibits that an institution might expect to see filed against them by the plaintiffs. Considerable attention is placed on discussing the role institutional researchers play in the defense phase, particularly with regard to strategies for defending against a multivariate regression model that the claimants' statistical expert has submitted in evidence of a classwide bias. The hoped for result of this exposition would be greater alertness to the vulnerability of any institution and an appreciation of the need for advance preparation that would ensure the availability of data and techniques required to make a strong defense against a class action suit that may be unwarranted.Presented at the Twenty-First Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Minneapolis, May 1981.     

Encouraging E‐Textbook Adoption: Merging Two Models

This research builds a new model by drawing upon e‐textbook adoption models developed in two recent publications, which share similarities but have different findings. Although they both achieve positive results, these two prior e‐textbook studies employ different methods and background theories. This research bridges these earlier models and develops a third, parsimonious, blended model for e‐textbook adoption. Using a survey of undergraduate students, the authors first assess each model independently. Broadening the diversity of the sample population yields results that are similar, yet slightly different from those found in the prior two studies. Next, this study develops a single blended, parsimonious model that explains a higher proportion of the variance than the prior studies with just three constructs: perceived usefulness, hedonic motivation, and habit. In addition to developing and testing a new parsimonious model, this research provides theoretical and practical guidance for e‐textbook usage.