| This dissertation centers on the social, cultural, and historical aspects of Vista Elementary, a school that was first in its district specifically built with the idea of technological advances in mind. The principal of Vista Elementary, two Third Grade teachers identified as the SMARTBoard technology embracers, and their students were participants in this study. The research questions guiding this study are: 1) What are the impacts of interactive whiteboards on teaching and classroom dynamics of teachers who embrace this technology? and 2) How do social, cultural, and historical practices influence the activity around the interactive whiteboards? Amidst the literature, there is ongoing blame placed on teachers for underusing or overusing technologies, and nothing about the function of a school and the important role of community and parental involvement have been explored in the fields of educational technology. Through the Grounded Theory analysis techniques, an adapted theoretical framework of the Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as well as the Theory of Diffusion of Innovation (TDI), this study has filled some of the aforementioned gaps and has offered even more. This dissertation emphasizes the notion of technology as a tool, and thus is able to offer an outlook on the variety of teaching pedagogies and classroom practices both with and without technology. Such an outlook was achieved through analyzing how Vista Elementary functions as a societal activity system that is diffused with two innovations, namely CARES and the SMARTBoard technology. CARES, an abbreviation for "Cooperation, Assertion, Responsibility, Empathy, and Self-Control," is the school's pledge, which the school's culture, rules, and activities revolve around. CARES emerged as a key innovation that was necessary in this school for the diffusion of other technologies. This study suggests that the adoption of these innovations was made swift through Vista's community practices. These practices, which emerged through the data analyses, are community building, developing routines, and balancing act. Reciprocally, the innovations themselves have enforced such practices and made the practices all the stronger. Such practices uncovered in this study are the mix that was necessary for Vista to successfully diffuse innovations into its system and function efficiently as a community. Implications of this study include the need to expand the scope of technological research to the community and context in which teachers and technologies are situated, rather than limiting investigations specifically to the individuals and their use or non-use of new technologies. |
