The impact of professional development through a graduate course on multimedia technology on teachers’ beliefs about multimedia and their implementation of multimedia into their teaching practice, including to meet the Common Core state standards

The purpose of this study was to help determine teachers’ beliefs about multimedia and its relationship to literacy and the literacy standards of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). It looks at how four teachers’ professional development experiences through an online graduate course at Rutgers University called “Web-Based Multimedia Design for Educators” influenced their beliefs about multimedia and their own efficacy to infuse multimedia into their lessons to meet state and local standards. The questions which guided this study were: 1) What beliefs do teachers have regarding multimedia and literacy? 2) How does teacher professional development in a graduate course on web-based multimedia instruction impact the way they think about multimedia and its purpose in classroom instruction? a. How does what the teachers learn about multimedia influence their efficacy to infuse multimedia into their lessons? b. How does what they learn influence their view of how multimedia can be interpreted and articulated to meet the Common Core State Standards? This study was informed by the research related to multimedia, literacy, teacher beliefs, and teacher professional development. The Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989; 1993) was also utilized to inform the analysis of data and to determine the multiple factors that could potentially impact the teachers’ acceptance or rejection of multimedia technology into their instruction. The findings of this research study demonstrated that studying teachers’ beliefs can provide insight into teachers’ rationale for utilizing or rejecting the use of multimedia technology. The Technology Acceptance Model provided a useful analytic lens through which to identify intrinsic factors that affected teachers’ use of multimedia technology, such as their beliefs about multimedia technology and their feelings of self-efficacy to use multimedia in their instruction. It also helped to identify external factors that impacted their beliefs and usage of multimedia technology, such as the state mandated Common Core State Standards; their professional development; their access to resources; and pressures from schools leaders and curriculum requirements. Though the teachers did not define or utilize multimedia technology in the same way, they did feel it benefited students’ learning and engagement and their ability to enhance students’ literacy skills.Ed.D.Includes bibliographical reference