SOCIAL MEDIA AND EPISTEMIC DISCOURSE: DESIGNING INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES

Terence Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2014 (Mar 17, 2014) pp. 51–58

This paper describes an instructional design strategy to help teachers create learning activities that make effective use of social media. In order to create effective instruction, the designer should have a clear understanding of the intended...

Topics: New Possibilities with Information Technologies

Bridging the gap: Using dynamic models in the curriclum

Terence Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2009 (Mar 02, 2009) pp. 1344–1349

Serendipity is a program targeted at middle school teachers with the goal of implementing dynamic system modeling across disciplines. The project targeted 3 teachers: science, math and social studies. Serendipity began during the summer where they...

Hofstede’s Model of Cultural Dimensions: A Tool for Understanding How Background Culture Affects Instructional Designers.

Antoinette Hando; Terence Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2012 (Mar 05, 2012) pp. 1162–1170

This project looks at the influence background culture has on instructional designers. Current research supports the hypothesis that background culture affects learning preferences. This study approaches cultural background from the instructional...

Games, models and simulations: A case study in design and delivery

Terence Ahern; Angela Dowling

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2011 (Mar 07, 2011) pp. 2013–2018

This paper reports on the findings of a study conducted in an 8th middle school class using a teacher-developed eco-simulation modeling a food web. Findings indicate that whole class instruction coupled with the use of a white-board resulted in a...

Effects of a Game-based Metaphor on Instructional Activity Design on Learning Outcomes in a Middle School General Science Class

Angela Dowling; Terence Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2013 (Mar 25, 2013) pp. 2836–2838

This study investigated the effects of a game-like environment on instructional activity design on learning outcomes in a middle school general science class. The participants for this study were 165 students, ages 13-14 years old, who were enrolled ...

The Use of Student Mentors in an Eco-simulation for Whole Class Instruction

Angie Dowling; Terence Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2012 (Mar 05, 2012) pp. 2515–2518

A basic computer model of a forest ecosystem was constructed using StarLogo software. During whole class instruction it was noticed that the students were often more focused on the software than the science literacy skills needed to examine the...

Gaming the Learning: Making curricular tools such as tests, presentations, and learning activities intrinsically fun

Angela Dowling; Terence Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2016 (Mar 21, 2016) pp. 2822–2826

“Gaming the Learning” is a process whereby curricular tools such as tests, presentations, and learning activities can be used to enhance the intrinsic fun involved in learning and therefore increase motivation and learning outcomes. This study...

Topics: Science Education, Creativity, Technological, Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)

The effect of choice of instruction in personalized flipped learning

Hisae Matsui; Terence Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2017 (Mar 05, 2017) pp. 240–246

This study examined how and why certain instructional choices were made by students in a personalized flipped learning curriculum. In this curriculum, before attending class, students had the choice of watching a lecture video in Japanese, one in...

Topics: Distance/Flexible Education

A Framework for Improving the Task-to-Technology Fit in Distance Education

Terence C. Ahern

TechTrends: Linking Research and Practice to Improve Learning Vol. 41, No. 6 (1996) pp. 23–26

Proposes a framework for designers and teachers to research better design methodologies for distance education and to choose the most appropriate technologies and design better instructional tasks. Presents a scenario in which inherent...

Technology Compatibility: Impact on User Collaboration in Virtual Learning Environments

Elijah Mbui; Terence Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2009 (Mar 02, 2009) pp. 2865–2871

Technology is defined as humanity at work and not as just mechanical tools. Technology has availed new avenues for forming new environments and communities that have distinct characteristics, functionalities and roles. These have unsurpassed quality ...

Toward a New Model of Usability: Designing, Developing and Deploying Apps in the classroom

Terence Ahern; Steve Rinehart

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2016 (Mar 21, 2016) pp. 1732–1735

Computer technology in the classroom is becoming ubiquitous, Access to the Internet has also seen steady increases over the past few decades. According to the Pew Research Center for Internet, Science and Tech in 2000 only about 52% of adults had...

Topics: Teaching and Learning with Emerging Technologies

Rules of the Game: Effects of a Game-based Metaphor on Instructional Activity Design and the Use of Student Mentors on Learning Outcomes in a Middle School General Science Class

Angela Dowling; Terence Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2013 (Mar 25, 2013) pp. 2839–2841

This study investigated the effects of a game-like environment on instructional activity design and the use of student mentors on learning outcomes in a middle school general science class. The participants for this study were 165 students, ages 13...

The Effects of Teacher Discourse in Computer-Mediated Discussion

Terence C. Ahern

Journal of Educational Computing Research Vol. 8, No. 3 (1992) pp. 291–309

Describes a study that examined increasing peer interaction in an asynchronous learning environment by investigating the effect of a teacher's discourse style on the level and quality of student participation in a computer-mediated discussion. Three ...

Emerging Technology Factors in Design

Terence C. Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 1998 (1998) pp. 444–446

Texas Tech University West Texas A & M University Texas Tech University

Games, game play and the Magic Circle:Integrating games into the middle school classroom

Terence Ahern; Angie Dowling

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2012 (Mar 05, 2012) pp. 2444–2448

: Games, models and simulations have been touted as a dynamic alternative to the more traditional classroom strategies. But what are the elements of a “game” that makes it useful for schools? Game play is recursive. Games create a tangible...

Understanding the affordance of 3D VLEs and its impact on interpersonal emotional connections

Hisae Matsui; Terence Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2015 (Mar 02, 2015) pp. 3343–3350

The purpose of this study is to examine participant’s perception of co-presence as an affordance of three-dimensional virtual learning environments (3D VLEs) in developing interpersonal emotional connections with their partners during the initial...

Topics: Technological, Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK), Games & Simulations, Virtual Environments

A Waterfall Design Strategy for Using Social Media for Instruction

Terence C. Ahern

Journal of Educational Technology Systems Vol. 44, No. 3 (2016) pp. 332–345

Using social media can create a rich learning environment that crosses all content areas. The key to creating this environment is for instructors and designers to match appropriate social media software with the intended learning outcome. This...

The tactics of wearable technology in the classroom

Terence C. Ahern; Matthew Anderson

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2016 (Mar 21, 2016) pp. 1736–1738

This brief paper reports on a preliminary study that used Google Glass as a mechanism to inform student teachers on the execution of a lesson. The student-teachers were wearing Google Glass while teaching their class. This provided a teacher...

Topics: Wearable Technologies, Teaching and Learning with Emerging Technologies

Leadership Concerns Toward Implementation Of The Texas Essential Knowledge And Skills (TEKS) For Technology Applications

Leo Wells; Terence C. Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 1999 (1999) p. 503

The Effects of Technology on Online Education

Terence C. Ahern; Judi Repman

Journal of Research on Computing in Education Vol. 26, No. 4 (1994) pp. 537–46

Discusses uses of technology in distance education and describes a study of college graduate students that illustrated the effects of two different instructional delivery technologies on the nature of interaction in online education systems: one...

The Effects of Three Web-Based Delivery Models on Undergraduate College Student Achievement

Terence C. Ahern; Trey Martindale

International Journal of Educational Telecommunications Vol. 7, No. 4 (2001) pp. 379–392

Web-based instruction (WBI) is becoming much more common with the growth of the Internet and available computer networks (Harasim, Hiltz, Teles, & Turoff, 1995). With the rapid expansion of WBI there is a need to examine its effectiveness. This...

Improving the Instructional Congruency of a Computer-Mediated Small-Group Discussion: A Case Study in Design and Delivery

Terence C. Ahern; Amelia E. El-Hindi

Journal of Research on Computing in Education Vol. 32, No. 3 (2000) pp. 385–400

Presents an exploratory case study with preservice teacher education students of an experience in collaborative discourse mediated through an educationally designed network-based application. Topics include computer mediated communication; text...

Targeting Motivation--Adapting Flow Theory to Instructional Design

Tom S. Chan; Terence C. Ahern

Journal of Educational Computing Research Vol. 21, No. 2 (1999) pp. 151–63

Investigates the effect of activity content, its presentation, and the interactions between the two on flow experience (intrinsic motivation) in instructional activity. Results suggest that activity content has major influences on motivation;...

Authoring Lessons for the Internet: Factors in Design

Terence C. Ahern; Kathy Burleson; Trey Martindale

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 1998 (1998) pp. 463–466

The World Wide Web’s (WWW) ability to deliver entertainment, provide information, and conduct commerce holds a particular fascination for the public. Everyone from individuals to corporations and major newspapers to universities have a homepage that ...

Computer-Mediated Communication as a Teaching Tool: A Case Study

Donna R. Everett; Terence C. Ahern

Journal of Research on Computing in Education Vol. 26, No. 3 (1994) pp. 336–57

Discussion of emerging educational technologies focuses on a case study of college students that was conducted to observe the effects of using computer-mediated communication and appropriate groupware as a teaching tool. Highlights include effects...

The Impact of the Interface Design on Web-base Learning: Visual and Navigational Dynamics on Learners’ Satisfaction

Ivana Schnitman; Jacqueline Lynn Webb-Dempsey; Terence C. Ahern Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2006 (Mar 19, 2006) pp. 1037–1043

Recent advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been tremendous. However, the concomitant development of Web-based delivery models has not kept pace and educators know very little about the effects of online delivery....

Topics: Instructional Design, Human Computer Interaction, Learning Outcomes, Information Communication Technologies, Communication

Authoring Lessons for the Internet: Factors in Design

Terence C. Ahern; Kathy Burleson; Trey Martindale

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 1997 (1997) pp. 463–466

The World Wide Web’s (WWW) ability to deliver entertainment, provide information, and conduct commerce holds a particular fascination for the public. Everyone from individuals to corporations and major newspapers to universities have a homepage that ...

Mapping the instructional event

Terence Ahern; Matthew Anderson; Nicholas Bowman

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2017 (Mar 05, 2017) pp. 1121–1124

The study explores an instructional experience at the tactical level. Basically how does the teacher deploy tactics to realize a particular instructional strategy. With the advent of wearable technology we had the opportunity to see what the...

Topics: Wearable Technologies

The Importance of Motivation: Integrating Flow Theory into Instructional Design

Tom S. Chan; Terence C. Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 1999 (1999) pp. 780–782

It seems a truism but when people are intrinsically motivated to learn, they not only learn more, they also have a more positive experience (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Handicapped by a lack of good theoretical framework, designers often assume that good...

Topics: Instructional Design

Designing the next generation of tools using an open systems approach: A usability study

Terence Ahern; Mark Jamison; Arturo Olivarez

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2000 (2000) pp. 2390–2395

Educational technology is at a crossroads. The Internet was originally designed for the needs of the science and military, not for the purposes of sound instruction. New and more powerful protocol schemes are needed to truly realize the potential...

Topics: Networking Technologies, Educational Technology, Internet, Instructional Design

Teachers, Text and Technology

Monica McCartney; Traci Minny; Terence Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2007 (Mar 26, 2007) pp. 1600–1603

Improving student writing is an issue facing many educators today. Many school systems have begun looking to writing across the curriculum as a means of incorporating writing within the content areas. The problem is twofold. Typically, instructors...

Components of Effective Web Course Design: Aesthetics, Navigation and Content Networks

Kathy J. Burleson; Terence C. Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 1999 (1999) p. 772

Although the Web was not designed as an educational medium, current pressures exist to develop it as a means of delivering instruction. The lack of design standards and the open environment of the Web are obstacles to instructional designers...

Topics: Instructional Design, Navigation

Is a Quality Course a Worthy Course? Designing for Value and Worth in Online Courses

Robin E. Youger; Terence C. Ahern

Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration Vol. 18, No. 1

There are many strategies for estimating the effectiveness of instruction. Typically, most methods are based on the student evaluation. Recently a more standardized approach, Quality Matters (QM), has been developed that uses an objectives-based...

Toward a New Model of Usability: Guidelines for Selecting Reading Fluency Apps Suitable for Instruction of Struggling Readers

Steven D. Rinehart; Terence C. Ahern

Journal of Educational Technology Systems Vol. 45, No. 1 (2016) pp. 124–136

Computer applications related to reading instruction have become commonplace in schools and link with established components of the reading process, emergent skills, decoding, comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency. This article focuses on computer...

Learners’ perceptions of a Web-based Learning Environment (WLE) interface: The Usability Evaluation Questionnaire Method

Ivana Schnitman; Terence C. C. Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2007 (Mar 26, 2007) pp. 937–943

The development and diffusion of educational initiatives based on the Word Wide Web (WWW) increased dramatically with the advances technology has gone through over the past decades, especially Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)....

Using the Concept Attainment Model for Web-Based Interventions in Self-Paced Classes

Emery S. Martindale; Terence C. Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 1998 (1998) pp. 163–165

Self-paced, learner-autonomous instruction is rapidly proliferating, particularly due to the growth of the World Wide Web. The effectiveness of this self-paced instruction has been and is currently being researched with varied results and...

The Development of an Online Tropical Medicine Course: A Case Study.

Antoinette Hando; Melanie Fisher; Terence Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2013 (Mar 25, 2013) pp. 502–509

This paper explores the development of an online element for a Clinical Tropical Medicine Course, and tips instructional designers can consider when converting courses from a traditional setting to a blended learning environment. Advances in...

A Matter of Convenience: Student Perceptions and Rigor in Web-based Course Delivery

Charles D. Mize; James G. Izat; Terence C. Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 1999 (1999) pp. 229–231

This is a summary of some of the issues that arise in discussions among administrators, faculty, and students involved in on-line course delivery. The Internet is being seen increasingly as a delivery method for many courses, however, not everyone ...

Topics: Faculty, Students, Administrators

Serendipity: Data modeling for middle school teachers

Terence Ahern; Toni Hando; Noriza Abu Hassan Shaari; Arifa Rahman

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2008 (Mar 03, 2008) pp. 1600–1605

Serendipity is a program targeted at middle school teachers. The project started with a summer program that used StarLogo as the application. Even though StarLogo used a visual programming metaphor it was still difficult. Nonetheless we were able to ...

Going for the Numbers: Are Universities Supporting Non-Traditional Students?

Toni Hando; Noriza Abu Hassan Shaari; Terence C. Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2009 (Mar 02, 2009) pp. 2538–2544

Abstract: This paper reflects the findings of a study conducted on universities and their implementation of technology to encourage non-traditional students. The first part of the study concentrates on who non-traditional students are, and what are...

Talking On-line: Promoting Student and Understanding Through the Development of On-line Course Discussions

Charles D. Mize; LeAnn McKinzie; Terence C. Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 1999 (1999) pp. 232–236

This paper is a report on the use of synchronous chat for the delivery of an on-line portion of a pre-service teacher training course. The specific course content was legal and ethical issues that pertain to the professional development of a...

Topics: Ethical Issues, Students, Legal Issues, Professional Development, Interaction

Learning State An XML based course editor for online instruction

Terence Ahern; David Dean; Roman Taraban; Ben Walton

WebNet World Conference on the WWW and Internet 2000 (2000) pp. 857–858

Learning State is a lesson editor that creates a control file in XML so that a designer can not only sequence lesson content but also determine how a student should engage the content. Further because of its inherent structure of XML, lesson...

Affecting Systemic Change Through Online Educational Intervention

Noriza Abu Hassan Shaari; Toni Hando; Terence Ahern

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2009 (Mar 02, 2009) pp. 1675–1681

This paper examines the prevalence of diabetes problems from a systems thinking perspective, a powerful method to analyzing and changing systems, by looking at systems from a broad perspective rather than just specific events or specific...

The effect of social grounding on collaboration in a computer-mediated small group discussion

Terence C. Ahern; Julie A. Thomas; Mary K. Tallent-Runnels; William Y. Lan; Sandra Cooper; Xiaoming Lu; Jacqui Cyrus

Internet and Higher Education Vol. 9, No. 1 (2006) pp. 37–46

There is a tremendous amount of pressure on educators to incorporate highly advanced computer-mediated communication (CMC) into the classroom, but the research shows that this is not an easy task. Part of the difficulty learners experience within...

Language: English

Teaching Courses Online: A Review of the Research

Mary K. Tallent-Runnels; Julie A. Thomas; William Y. Lan; Sandi Cooper; Terence C. Ahern; Shana M. Shaw; Xiaoming Liu

Review of Educational Research Vol. 76, No. 1 (2006) pp. 93–135

This literature review summarizes research on online teaching and learning. It is organized into four topics: course environment, learners' outcomes, learners' characteristics, and institutional and administrative factors. The authors found little...