In academia, there remains a broad cultural divide between STEM and the humanities that was identified over half a century ago by C.P. Snow. However, the nature of this divide has changed in recent years as a scientific tool, the digital computer, has become ubiquitous in daily life. The humanities must now contend with how to account for this…

In the era of technology and digital standardized testing, one might question the practicality of teaching cursive handwriting to early learners. The problem addressed in this study is that due to the increased use of technology in the Montessori classroom, teachers may not value cursive handwriting instruction as an important skill for early…

To teach composition in this era means to engage students with technology; it is all but an unspoken requirement at the majority of universities. This dissertation theorizes, however, that the imbricated use of technology in first-year writing (FYW) classrooms places rural students at an inherent disadvantage, with issues of inadequate…

Due to college writing instructors' lack of pedagogical digital competence (PDC), they struggled to adapt to emergency remote teaching (ERT) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The problem this study addressed is that while higher education institutions expected undergraduate instructors to use online teaching methods effectively, few studies…

Narrative is an important part of how humans make sense of the world and express their thoughts and feelings. For children, stories are the predominant way in which they organize and express ideas and imagination. Hence, stories have a significant role in children's various play activities, especially pretend-play. At around the third to fifth…

The dissertation consists of three studies that are the process of designing, developing, and evaluating generative-AI-powered story-authoring platforms for children. The first study focuses on the formative study on how stakeholders in education (i.e., teachers, parents, and students) perceive and leverage generative AI platforms (i.e., ChatGPT…

The push to teach coding in schools continues to gain momentum. Coding helps students develop skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity, as well as improve overall academic performance. However, students with disabilities often face challenges in areas such as problem-solving, mathematics, and multistep reasoning when learning…

High school students with specific learning disabilities continually struggle with the demands of a standardized writing curriculum. As students age, they are expected to master more complex styles of writing, utilizing differentiated, multimodal supports throughout each phase of the writing process, from pre-writing to publishing. With more high…

The genre of persuasive writing requires writers to independently probe their long-term memory to generate pertinent ideas that support their opinion on a given topic. However, many students with high-incidence disabilities struggle with the complex synergy of tasks involved in writing, and in particular generating ideas. A qualitatively dominant…

This dissertation focuses on the dynamics between teachers and machines at the intersections of design, teaching labor, and pedagogy when automation is deployed in writing classrooms. The sites of analysis are Eli Review and Turnitin, two technologies that represent different design approaches that center around "informating" or…

This dissertation responds to the dearth of research in responding practice of instructors teaching in college composition online writing classrooms, especially addressing both how they do it and how "care-fully." More specifically, the dissertation investigates the responding thoughts and behaviors of instructors teaching writing within…

The purpose of my dissertation study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of English language instructors about the use of multimodal digital technologies in the teaching of academic writing. Writing academically in English as a second language (L2) is complex and multilayered for international students, and multimodal digital literacy…

Student writing outcomes in the U.S. are dismal, and this has been an area of concern for decades, yet schools and teachers are not implementing evidence-based practices (EBP) in writing instruction. Self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) is an EBP in writing yet the administrator's role in implementing EBPs in writing has not been studied.…

While the Common Core State Standards initiated the instructional shift that promoted technology to achieve a student-centered, process-oriented blended reading and writing classroom, the COVID-19 pandemic demanded innovative technology applications in K-12 public schools. This qualitative, phenomenological action research study explored the…

Modern technological advancements have transformed the way in which humans communicate, including writing. Today's students must not only be able to master the mechanics of good writing, but they must also become competent using writing programs in an online environment. English Language Arts teachers are the primary users of these writing…