Tony’s Cafe

This is a paper I wrote in 1999 for an Interactive Learning Environments class. This paper proposes a computer program called The Virtual Treehouse. This program is presented a learning tool for students to use in a classroom with the teacher. The focus of this paper is the integration of learing theory into educational software, and using this software as a way to assist in teaching concepts about geometric perspective.

Download the paper The Virtual Treehouse: A Tool for Teaching [316KB] (Adobe PDF).

This is a paper I wrote for a class in Qualitative Analysis. For my first endeavor in this type of analysis, I chose to write about Speech Perception. In this paper, I examine how humans perceive speech, and discuss the perception as a describable process. I talk about the three distinct processes, or Turing Machines, that occur when a human hears an acoustic speech signal, and how these processes could be embodied into a computer program.

Download the Paper Language Aquisition and Translation [239KB] (Adobe PDF).

The first study went very well, considering some minor technology glitches. Two days before the study, I went out to the Norwich Free Academy (NFA) to make sure my study’s technology piece would work. One of the problems with schools is their connection to the Internet. I wasn’t sure how NFA’s connection to the Internet over a T1 (~1Mbps) line would handle a 1Mbps Internet video broadcast. Also, NFA utilizes a proxy server, for security reasons. I needed to have OpenVPN work through the HTTP proxy server, to establish a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to allow the teacher to talk to the knowledge specialist through a H.323 audio channel. Fortunately, after some tweaking, everything worked. I did have to scale back the Quicktime Internet video broadcast to 500Kbps, and use a different video compressor. (I was using Sorensen 3, and switched to MPEG-4. Sorensen 3 has better video quality, but won’t scale back to bandwidths lower than 1Mbps, like MPEG-4 in Quicktime Broadcaster.)

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Does the use of technology in a classroom lesson change
students’ attitudes towards learning?

Abstract

This study will examine the impact technology has in a classroom lesson (more specifically, an Internet video broadcast and web chat) on students’ academic self-efficacy. High school and 3rd-4th grade students will participate in this mixed-mode study. Based on Albert Bandura’s Theory of Self-Efficacy, if the technology increases the students’ academic self-efficacy, it can be said that students’ academic performance will increase. This is an important statement, as this study will hope to contribute to the long standing debate on whether or not technology in the classroom is helping students academically.

Download the Proposal [894KB] (Adobe PDF).