Abstract
Many school districts across the United States are spending large amounts of financial and employee resources on the implementation of technology enhanced personalized learning (TEPL) tools. There is little empirical understanding of the success, concerns, and characteristics of TEPL implementations and the learning environments they enable. This exploratory study used a qualitative descriptive methodology to survey and interview TEPL administrators in an effort to understand their perspectives on TEPL characteristics, definitions of success, concerns, and a general description of how TEPL tools are implemented in their learning environments. Along with confirming six characteristics previously identified (dual role of the teacher, diagnosis of characteristics, a student culture of collegiality, an interactive learning environment, flexible scheduling/pacing, striving for authentic assessment), this study found that administrators consider student choice and teacher comfort with technology as additional learning environment characteristics. Results also show that administrators define success through external measurement, are concerned with professional development, and how to leverage limited resources. The subjects indicated that the definitions of success and administrator concerns evolve over time. Finally, this study found that large variance exists in learning environments when considering online vs. face-to-face instruction, school size, number of users, grade level use, focus and perceived effectiveness of the tool. Recommendations were made for future research, including analysis of two newly identified characteristics, deeper exploration of learning environments, and further exploration of external measurement's sub-components. Recommendations for practitioners include considerations for their success definitions, allowing for the two additional learning environmental characteristics, and initial allocation of resources.
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Dissertations (EdD) -- Learning technologies; Educational technology -- Evaluation; Education -- Effect of technological innovations on; Computer-assisted instruction
Date of Award
2014
School Affiliation
Graduate School of Education and Psychology
Department/Program
Education
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctorate
Faculty Advisor
Sparks, Paul;
Recommended Citation
Gallagher, Rodney P., "Implementations of technology enhanced personalized learning: exploration of success criteria, concerns, and characteristics" (2014). Theses and Dissertations. 448.
https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/etd/448