As part of the MacArthur DML application. We are working on framing a historical context in which to place Red Rover.
I talked before about the need for a “cogent theoretical framework” for the application itself, this work is getting us closer to it.
Because MacArthur wants everything quick and to the point, our framework is pleasantly brief. I think it still works:
Alexander Astin’s (1985) and Lee Upcraft’s (1995) research suggest a relationship between quantity and quality of involvement and student achievement. Red Rover will increase involvement by increasing the ease and efficiency of becoming involved thus increasing student success. Kuh (2005) shows that highly effective institutions “clearly mark routes to student success” (p. 131). Thus, institutions are drawn to Red Rover because the path to student success remains but its context now includes a social medium institutions have yet to master (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Blogging). Systematically through a simple directory interface, Red Rover utilizes the feelings of social safety and well-being created by social software like Facebook (Ellison, et. al. 2007).
References:
Astin, A..W. (1985). Achieving educational excellence: A critical assessment of priorities and practice in higher education. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass.
Upcraft, M. Lee. (1995). Insights From Theory: Understanding First-Year Student Development. First-Year Academic Advising: Patterns in the Present, Pathways to the Future, (15-24). (Monograph # 18). Columbia, SC : University of South Carolina, The National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition.
Kuh, G.D., Kinzie, J., Schuh, J.H., Whitt, E. J. and associates. 2005. Student Success in College: Creating conditions that matter. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook “friends:” Social capital and college students use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), article 1.
Thanks to Kevin Guidry for the push, Art Esposito for the introduction to Upcraft, and Greg Heiberger for adding Kuh and stringing it nicely together.
