Intro to Computer Supported Learning

As I mentioned on the course page for EDER 779.05, Dr. Brown and Dr. Jacobsen did an absolutely stellar job of tying our two courses together. The Doctoral Pathfinder segment of this website comprised 40% of my grade for this course.

I took a step back in EDER 779.05 to take a look at the role of the Teacher-Student Relationship (TSR) in the classroom. In my literature review for this course, I was looking into how digital tools impact the TSR. I have definitely identified a gap in the literature, as I downloaded and read/annotated somewhere in the range of 140-150 articles for these two papers, and only found two that addressed the potential of digital tools to impact this TSR. I found lots of information with respect to school-level, district-level, and even governmental-level banning of cell phones, and certainly there is research out there about using smartphones for learning purposes. Social Networking Sites (SNS) have been studied in English Language Learning post-secondary classrooms, but the usage of those mechanisms for the TSR is also an area where research is needed. I think I have found my niche.

So, for my first exploration of this topic, my paper for Dr. Brown’s course is The Complex Role of Digital Technologies in the Teacher-Student Relationship. This is a very preliminary paper as it pertains to my research goals for the next three years, but it is important that I know what the foundation is right now in terms of research so I can begin thinking about methodology and data collection.