There has been a remarkable improvement in access and rate of adoption of technology in higher education. Even so, reports indicate that faculty members are not integrating technology into instruction in ways that make a difference in student learning (Cuban, 2001;McCannon & Crews, 2000). To help faculty make informed decisions on student learning, there is need for current knowledge of faculty integration practices. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the nature of the relationship between faculty integration of technology into classroom instruction and students' perceptions of the effect of computer technology to improve their learning.A sample of at least 800 undergraduate students at a participating medium-sized midwest public university was selected using a stratified random sampling technique. The researcher delivered and administered the surveys to the participating students and collected them after completion. 98% of the questionnaires were complete and retained for analysis. Two major statistical techniques were used to analyze data obtained in the study: a multiple regression and a Two-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).A statistically significant relationship was found between the three predictor variables and the criterion. The Two-Way ANOVA results indicated no interaction effect between gender and course levels, and students' perceptions of the effect of computer technology use to improve their learning. The main effects of gender and course levels were not statistically significant.The results indicated that students lack computer skills in various computer applications that are necessary to support and enhance their learning experiences. Therefore, it can be suggested that students need to have direct instruction to efficiently use computer technology applications such as authoring and sophisticated hypermedia. These programs provide computer skills in advanced computer technology applications that will enable faculty members to expect more disciplinespecific computer-based projects such as developing a webquest in a web editor.
Diversity is increasing in our classrooms implying the need for teachers to be prepared to work effectively with students from different backgrounds, such as cultural, linguistic or national origin. Additionally, the focus on diversity education is important because of the need for students to develop, from an early age, the ability to communicate with and relate to others from diverse backgrounds. This article focuses on cross cultural experiences gained from cross cultural partnerships between preservice teachers and English Language Learners over the course of a semester at a medium size public university. Evidence from this project suggests the need for teacher educators to model and support appropriate cultural competencies that are critical in classrooms that are fast becoming more culturally as well as linguistically diverse.
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