Tag Archives: technologies

Kesiena Chris-Iwuru #UBC MA Defence: Youth Perspectives on #Cyberbullying and Social Media Platforms #bced

Kesiena Chris-Iwuru, BSc, MSc

Masters of Arts in Media & Technology Studies Thesis Defense

YOUTH PERSPECTIVES ON CYBERBULLYING AND SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS: TEEN AGENCY, INTERACTIVITY, AND SOCIAL COGNITION

Friday January 19, 2018, 10:00 am, Scarfe 2108

ABSTRACT: This research examines how social media platforms have reconfigured traditional notions of social interaction and specifically how a sample of youth view these platforms in light of problems with cyberbullying. The research design included two primary questions: 1) How do social media platforms reconfigure social interaction and means by which youth perceive and understand these platforms? 2) What role does social cognition play in youth perspectives of online identities and interactions in relation to cyberbullying? The participants included nine Grades 10-12 students (4 males and 5 females), aged between 16-21 years. The research site was an independent high school located in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Actor-network theory and optimal distinctive theory (Brewer, 1991; Latour, 2005) formed the theoretical perspective for analyzing, discussing and the presentation of the research study findings. Data were collected through ethnographic techniques, including observations, artefacts (documents, etc.), and interviews.

The findings from this study indicate that the ubiquitous mode of interaction within these spaces deviates from traditional norms, with resulting consequence that impact users’ ability to perceive telepresence. The manner in which social media spaces are understood is largely influenced and informed by the predominant collective, where the self is seen as undefined and enacted in context-specific processes. The findings also indicate that interactions, perception, and mode of responses to conflict situations are based on previous experiences and currently held notions of what constitutes appropriate online behaviour. The implications and significance of the research findings have relevance for educators on how best to engage and understand teenagers in these spaces, with new and effective measures to examine instances of conflict and antisocial behaviour online. For social media companies and startups, it provides an insight into the nuanced mode and context of interaction prevalent within these platforms and the resulting impact on how individuals, the collective, and the platform itself all exert influence on each other.

  • SUPERVISOR:  Dr. Stephen Petrina
  • COMMITTEE MEMBER:  Dr. Franc Feng
  • THESIS EXAMINER:  Dr. Samson Nashon

PhD defence, Jenny Arntzen “Teacher Candidates’ Imaginative Capacity and Dispositions Toward Using ICT in Practice”

Congratulations Jenny!

The Final Oral Examination For the Degree of
DOCTOR of PHILOSOPHY
(Curriculum Studies)

JENNY ARNTZEN
B.F.A., Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, 2003
M.A., The University of British Columbia, 2007

Friday, November 20, 2015, 12:30 pm
Room 200,  Graduate Student Centre

Teacher Candidates’ Imaginative Capacity and Dispositions Toward Using ICT in Practice

EXAMINING COMMITTEE

Chair: Dr. Deborah Butler (Special Education)

Supervisory Committee:
Dr. Samson M. Nashon, Research Supervisor (Curriculum Studies)
Dr. Stephen Petrina (Curriculum Studies)
Dr. E. Wayne Ross (Curriculum Studies)

University Examiners:
Dr. Marlene Asselin (Language and Literacy Education)
Dr. Peter Gouzouasis (Curriculum Studies)

External Examiner:
Dr. Ann-Louise Davidson
Concordia University

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the relationship between instructional discourses in a pre-service teacher education program and teacher candidates’ subsequent plans to use ICT in their professional practice. Teacher candidates’ dispositions, in terms of comportment and composure, were seen as indicative of the quality of their relationship with ICT. Teacher candidates’ manifestations of these dispositions, in terms of ICT imaginative capacity, were seen as indicative of the characteristics of their use (what they had the capacity to imagine and the capability to implement). Manifestations of dispositions were described as displays of ICT imaginative capacity.

The setting for the study was a post-baccalaureate two-year teacher education program in a large regional university in western Canada. Participants in the study were comprised of a thirty-eight member cohort of teacher candidates in the first year of their two-year program. A sub-group of teacher candidates was self-selected from the cohort and participated in a research intervention.

This study adapted a social constructivist theoretical framework complemented by an enactive analysis of social interactions examining communicative events from the teacher education program. An interpretive case study methodology collected data from teacher education classes, teacher candidate questionnaires, and focus group discussions. These three datasets were analyzed and interpreted to explore relationships between instructional discourses and teacher candidates’ dispositions toward using ICT.

Findings document teacher candidates’ dispositions toward using ICT as demonstrated by their capacity to imagine using ICT and their capability to implement these imaginings in practice. Conclusions suggest a need for further research into “ecologies of learning”. Recommendations also include a need to investigate instructional discourses with regards to developing ICT imaginative capacity and imaginative capability. The need to develop imaginative capacity extends beyond when, where, why, how, or what ICT teachers learn to use in practice.

#HWL at STEM 2014

STEM2014-logo flowers

Researchers on the How We Learn (HWL) team are presenting in a symposium this afternoon at 3:00 at the STEM 2014 Conference.

Design and Engineering Cognition and
Design-Based Research

Stephen Petrina, Franc Feng, Mirela Gutica, Peter Halim, Yu-Ling Lee, Lesley Liu, PJ Rusnak, Yifei Wang & Jennifer Zhao

University of British Columbia

Symposium Chairs: Yifei Wang & Stephen Petrina

This symposium aims to generate discussion and understanding of design-based research (DBR) in design and engineering cognition. Seven empirical reports exploring design and engineering cognition or using DBR give the symposium depth and structure: Studies of 1) thirty tweenage girls in designing a mother’s day game, media, and robots; 2) fifteen elementary students testing a new educational video game; 3) nineteen young adults within an immersive virtual environment; 4) four teen students on the design of games; 5) six nursing students involved in a simulated learning environment; 6) Conceptual paper exploring technology and the “design” in DBR; and 7) Methodological paper connecting DBR with design and engineering cognition and ethical know-how. Arguably, new technologies along with a return of DIY or maker culture invite or configure everyone to employ inventive practices or “designerly ways of knowing.” Design now marks interaction with new technologies, making DBR increasingly important and relevant for STEM.

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APIs: Is Code/Coding subject to copyright?

Can code/coding be itself subject to copyright? The answer to that question has broad implications for the unfolding of new technologies. With the binary code that underlies the infrastructure of modernity- for which presently, only a select few are able to understand, decode, or debug, the code that is used to regulate transactions of daily functions progressively moving, from desktops to portables, tablets and mobile devices- is there also a need to further define, that which is subject to copyright protection at the level of APIs running our mobile devices? The US Court of Appeal apparently thinks so; in a recent decision adjudicating competing claims by Oracle and Google. with Oracle alleging that the Android mobile operating system violated seven different Java patents. even though Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court had ruled differently, in 2012.

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3D Printing: Paper as media, in the 3rd Industrial Revolution

Interesting conference and expo, specializing in 3D printing technologies as the emergent third industrial revolution (perhaps Vancouver next, for its upcoming Expos?), where it has become possible, to print any content in any form (see the 3D printed guitar!) in any media- even paper, in full color 3D- dispelling possible prior preconceptions of paper, in which paper emerges as durable material, for our design considerations, that due of its unique properties, can also be coated, to extend its initial properties with the strength and properties of other as/more durable materials. 3D printing