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Dissertation Information for Elizabeth Anne Baker

NAME:
- Elizabeth Anne Baker

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Education

SCHOOL:
- Vanderbilt University (USA) (1995)

ADVISORS:
- None

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected

Title: The nature of literacy activities in a technology-rich fourth-grade classroom from a meaning-making perspective

Abstract: "This ethnographic investigation was based on studies concerning the use of technology in schools. Although researchers have conducted studies focussing on the impact of computers on middle school, high school, and college students, relatively few studies have involved elementary students or multiple technologies. Meanwhile, the meaning making perspective of literacy has impacted classrooms, national policies, and publishers of literacy curriculum. This study extended the current knowledge base by combining the following factors: (a) a prolonged investigation (b) in an elementary classroom (c) that contained multiple technologies (d) in order to generate grounded theories (e) from a meaning making perspective.

Data were collected for 18 weeks in a fourth grade classroom that had multiple technologies which the students used to conduct research and generate presentations. Data analysis occurred throughout and after data collection. Using the constant comparison method, several themes emerged related to the public, multimodal, transitional, and production nature of literacy activities. The public nature of the literacy activities revealed that students frequently constructed meaning socially. The multimodal nature of the literacy activities raised issues related to current definitions of literacy based on text and words because the students in this classroom commonly accessed and exchanged meaning through spatial images and auditory products as well as text. The transitional nature of literacy activities allowed students to use the components of composition nonlinearly, thereby raising issues related to the recursiveness of compositional processes. The production nature of the literacy activities reiterated notions of the mitigation of expression when elementary students use technology.

It is recommended that teachers who use technology in their classrooms establish norms that foster the public, multimodal, transitional, and production nature of literacy activities. Specifically, teachers should provide guidelines for students to solicit and offer feedback. Teachers also need to sanction the use of text, spatial images, and auditory products as viable sources and formats for meaning. Because students in technology rich classrooms may have access to multiple sources of information, teachers should provide students with synthesis strategies. Teachers also should help students evaluate the quality of the materials they access and generate."

MPACT Scores for Elizabeth Anne Baker

A = 0
C = 1
A+C = 1
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:19:40

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