Modern Communication Technology And Acculturation Of Children Education Essay

Modern Communication Technology And refinement Of Children Education EssayOver the last several years, as natural waves of African immigrants and their children welcome continued to enter the United States, exploreers have considered the impact of semiotics of modern conversation ne devilrks and technologies on acculturation and heathenish identity, as come up as the gists of immigration on the nations economy and society. However, the way immigrant children adapt to American appraises by using kindly networks and technologies has been or soly ignored. McDonnell Hill (2008) explained that children rifle into the United States today represent a particularly diverse range of cultures, and most importantly, some have had little or no formal pedagogy in their native countries.Little is known almost how cultural conflicts evolved from the phthisis of these technologies and became integrated into core American value in discourses, lookal skills, attitudes and finally ap prehend the norms of American society and the cultural semiotics that are prevalent. Another overlooked factor is generally the impact the act of using modern dialogue engineering has on the adaptation mathematical process and the psychological consequences that emerge as these bran-new youth African immigrants learn a new culture, new loving norms and determine, and most importantly, a new cultural language.Relevance of this searchKristin McCarthy (2010) confirms that immigration and the subsequent acculturation process results in enormous stress for children. McCarthy (2010) clarified how experts agree that existence connected and accepted is an important component of adolescent development, and the inability to have this connection and behave as Americans could result in an increased risk of depression, suicide, bullying, alienation, condition failures and drop-outs. Failure to connect could also lead to misinterpretation of societal values leading to criminal activitie s. Most importantly, the language barrier may bring about rejection from the society. Redfield, Linton Herskovits (1936) showed that there is growing attention on the role of acculturation, the complex process of change that individuals experience as a result of continuous contact with another(prenominal) culture in behaviors of immigrants residing in the United States.Evidence is mixed as to whether acculturation using Social networks and modern parley technology helps or harms African immigrants who make America their new home. This vignette get out be the first to evaluate the relationship between acculturation and modern colloquy technologies amongst African immigrants. This study should provide a foundation for further cross-cultural investigate on brotherly communication networks, acculturation and the physical and psychological functioning of African American childrenSignificance of the ProblemThe influx of African immigrants and their children to the United States in the last two decades has been phenomenal. The number of African immigrants to the United States more than quadrupled in the last two decades (Immigration and Naturalization Services, 2009, Jo, 1999). We are aware of the correlates of genial act behavior of African American children (Chandler et al, 2002), However, little is known about the neighborly activity behaviors and unique personal, companionable and environsal correlates of social activity in African immigrant children use of social networks and communication technologies in their adjustment to a new society. Thus, it is important to identify the enamour of acculturation process using social networks and modern communication technologies, in addition to commonly examined correlates of social activity on African American childrens social activity behavior.Objective of this studyThe purpose of this study is to examine how the use of lucre social communication networks exchangeable MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and modern communication technologies like smart-phones instant messages, multimedia (online gaming), blogging and discussion forums called Social Activity, have impacted the acculturation process of young African immigrants(18-25 years) to the nation. The larger goal is to increase understanding of cultural conflicts, semiotics of language differences, and adaptation process in order to promote diversity and enrichment in American society.Research questionsThe proposed research forget service the following(a) questionsWhat are the social activity behaviors of young African immigrants using social networks or modern communication technologies?What are the metrics of young African immigrants say-so strategies to be pursued within their adaptation process correlated with their use of social networks and modern communication technology?Is there a direct effect and/or indirect effect of acculturation on social activity behavior through intrapersonal correlates of social activity using social networks and modern communication technology?What are the relationships between acculturation (multidimensional young African immigrant and American acculturation and proxy language, length of stay in the US, age at immigration) and other background correlates of social activity (use of social network sites, communication with peers on Internet and communication technologies serving as status symbol), interpersonal correlates of social activity and social activity behaviors of young African immigrants.Conceptual erectworkThe conceptual framework used to guide this study will be adapted from Anthony Giddens structuration opening of interaction of groups and organizations with cultivation technology called Adaptive Structuration Theory (DeSanctis, G., Poole (1994) modified this model and used it successfully and criticized the technocentric view of technology use and emphasized social flavors. DeSanctis, G., Poole, M. S. (1994) emphasized that groups and organizations using br eeding technology for their work dynamically create perceptions about the role and utility of the technology, and how it can be applied to their activities. These perceptions can vary widely across groups. integrity major assumption of this model is that the role and utility of technology and how it can be applied influence the way and how technology is used and hence interrupt its impact on group outcomes. To understand and give validity to these perceptions by DeSanctis Pooles theory (1994), Gordon (1964) concept of Assimilation in American flavor will be evaluated to determine changes in behaviors pattern of immigrants establish on use of technology.Literature followsThis research will present a comprehensive literature review on acculturation of young African immigrant into americans social-cultural pattern in their use of social technologies. An in-depth look will be provided into the aspects of web-based social technology associated phenomena including languages, interact ions, cultural influences and status quo of these technologies as modern wave of new generation acceptance. Amongst specific literatures to be reviewed will be based on the following model lists.Social change and AcculturationSocial activity enables psychology of social change and acculturation, which showed that many psychological characterizes become altered as individuals experience changes in their socio-cultural milieus ( pick, J. W., Poortinga, Segall Dasen, 2002). These changes can be as a result of social changes that are taking place from within a society (Georgas, 1993), or may result from contact with other cultures (Feldman et al, 2002). Berry et al (2002) also cogitate that these changes have been identified as economic changes that move people away from traditional pursuits and norms towards new forms of employment and empowerment, alteration in social relationships including intergroup and interpersonal relations, and cultural changes that involve the alteration of traditional institutions and the replacement of these with imported ones.Socio-cultural values of technology assimilation by young West African immigrantsInformation technologies are both a by-product of the socio-cultural environment within which they evolve as well as a substantive and strategic sub-system of that environment (Elmandjra, 2001). McGinn (2006) explained that the significance of understanding a new cultural environment is to accept the invasion of technologies and their products or to opt for an rest slight stand and for the elaboration of strategies and policies to ensure social relevance as well as cultural coherence. Steward (2009) believed that cultures do not change according to some inner logic, but rather in foothold of a changing relationship with a changing environment even with technology.Americanism and Social NetworksThe Internet has fundamentally changed our communication patterns in which peoples interactions are increasingly dependent on electronic c ommunication channels and less confined by territorial gaps. Such change has shrunk the distances between physical location importantly and thus brought about a brand new view of space and time (Miller, 2002 Watson et al., 2002). As the need for adaptation of African immigrant children into American way of life continues, the need for study of the cross-cultural adoption and use of IT has been souring which is evidenced by the surging number of pertinent research papers published and presented. electronic computer networks have been used to support information and knowledge exchange among geographically dispersed users and distributed social interactions(Ahuja et al., 2003).Social-cultural adaptation of modern communication dickheadsBlau (1964) showed that social exchange theory positing that individuals engage in social interaction because they expect to receive some type of reward whose form does not necessarily confine to monetary value but also emotional values including appro val status and respect. Wasko et al. (2005) clarified further that one potential way an individual can benefit from active participation is the perception that participation enhances his or her personal reputation in the society. Therefore, reputation, acceptance and status symbols are assets that young West African immigrant can supplement to achieve and maintain assimilation within a collective environment (Jones et al., 1997).RESEARCH METHODOLOGYThe research methodology consists of three phases to leverage the strengths of qualitative and quantifiable methods. The first phase will review extant research literature related to the influential factor of web-based social networks as a form of communication technology participation. The picture of the semiotics of cultural interaction will be evaluated as an adaptation process of young West African immigrants. The objective of this work on will be to identify explanatory constructs from academic works across disciplines including social network theory, cultural dimensions, and individual train technology acceptance as evidence amongst selected young West African immigrants to the United States.The second phase will consent to researcher to conduct in-depth interviews of young West African immigrants that carry through the minimal requirements for web-based social network usage on one hand and other physical communication tools such as cell phones, blogging and multimedia. These interviews will be guided by a qualitative interview instrument, which contains a series of open-ended questions for the interview process. By engaging in the interview will allow the researcher to further elicit driving factors of user adoption of both social networks and the social activity involved in the use of the physical communication tools.The final phase, along with indicators generated in phase one and two will allow researcher to gather entropy from these interviews to create a 100-page quantitative aspect that will be distributed to a random population of young West African immigrant in 25 states in the United States of users of both social networks and communication tools. In this way, empirical evidence can be obtained through analyzing users ratings of indicators that pinpoint the significance of social communication technology to acculturation of young West African American immigrants. The instrument will be subjected to subject validity analysis, the try frame will be identified to enable the broadest generalization, and the instrument items will be assessed for discriminated validity.Work plan for entropy collectionIn order to maintain both social and material properties, it is important to adopt a triangulation concept which could evidence legitimate ground to reduce the methodological conflict between qualitative and quantitative research approaches (Orlikowski and Robey 1991 Yin, 1994). McGrath (1982) justified the use of both qualitative and quantitative method in three methodologi cal dimensions namely generalizability, precision and realism. investigator intends to incorporate the three dimensions in his research work plan for data collection.Sample FrameResearcher intends to select research subjects before the research design can be carried out for data collection. The sample frame for pre-test and large home plate subject field will be drawn from two distinct areas. The first will be from college students whose ages range between 17 to 24 in United States and new West African immigrants who recently won the DV Visa lottery. In order to justify using this frame, the researcher will revisit the focal issue of this research and explain how it would be difficult to conduct meaningful research without studying young west African immigrants who are both new and young web-based social communication tool users or adopters. information CollectionSince this research will include technology study, survey and restrainled experiment are considered widely adopted to manifest causal relationships between observed variables. Each of them bears advantages and disadvantages and it is contingent upon various factors to decide which one has better fit with the research context. Lyberg and Kasprizyk (1991) explained that pass judgment quality of collected data, estimated costs, expected level of errors and length of the data collection period are major reasons for controlled experiment. Bailey (2002) agrees that this will explain why lab experiment are not as popularly used in social science as in other disciplines such as natural science. In addition to survey, other content analysis techniques including secondary data sources, archive data exploration, objective measures or tests, and semi-structured interviews are used to compensate for some limitations of quantitative data analysis.Qualitative Data CollectionThe qualitative data collection to be used will range from interviews, observational techniques such as participant observation and field work, through to archival research. Both primary and secondary sources of data will be used exclusively in this research. Insights into social networks and web-based communication tools will be generated based on a wide range of differentiatey of industrial reports, newspaper stories, national statistics and descriptive research. The primary sources of data will refer to those data which are unpublished and which the researcher has gathered from the subjects or organization directly. The interview process will involve interviewees from US and from 25 states primarily at selected colleges. Written permission will be obtained with the application for IRB approval from each college. The screening process will consider subjects commonalities and cohesion of traits including culture, education and social communication tool activity in a web-based environment. Guidelines will also be incorporated into the interview design to elicit the subjective, contextual, and spontaneous information concerning web-based socializing activities and consistent use of modern communication tools.Quantitative Data CollectionSelltiz et al., (1976) explained that when using the explanatory survey approach that makes logical inferences from non-experimental data, the researcher does not need to manipulate predicting variables or make concession of groups because the variables are observed in their natural settings. Newsted et al., (1996) further clarified that epistemologically, surveys provide one way of obtaining and validating knowledge and raised the question whether surveys had outlived their usefulness and concluded that surveys are entrance in certain conditions and less useful in others.Selltiz et al. (1976) argued that an explanatory survey is applicable when studying complicated social phenomena in which causal patterns contain multiple factors and more than one predicting variable is found. Cronbach (1971) explained that the main purpose of conducting the survey is to move from observations to theory validation by using an instrument that captures necessity data in an unbiased manner. It is suggested that by doing this will require a clear understanding of the concepts of constructs and their relationships which are important to make sense of human behavior involving information systems use.Scales DevelopmentThe researcher will use psychometric response scales, a five point Likert scale will be selected Strong disagree/Disagree/Neutral/Agree/Strongly Agree. Researcher chose this type of response scale because of its good balance between parsimonious design and room of response. Researcher did not use the most popular wider range of scale such 7 or 10 because of its ambiguity in transformation data. Dawes (2008) found that data from 5-level, 7-level and 10-level items showed very similar characteristics in terms of mean, variance, skewness and kurtosis after a simple transformation was applied. He further explained the lack of precision regarding the differences between moderately disagree and somewhat agree. Dawes (2008) further clarified that in order to avoid response bias which poses challenges in collecting effective data that accurately polish the social facts, it is important to use a scale with balanced keying, such as a five point scale that has an equal number of positivist and negative statements which can mitigate the problem of acquiescence bias because acquiescence on positively keyed items will balance acquiescence on negatively keyed items (pg. 79).Proposed InstrumentResearcher will cover three general areas of structuration theory of interaction of groups and organizations with information technology called Adaptive Structuration Theory and pertinent meditation are rooted in research literature of IS and socio-cultural theories that would help to answer the research questions suggested in this research. The areas to be covered will include the use of technology and social communication tools, social behavio r motivation to acculturation and cultural conflict influence of the immigrantsPretestResearcher will engage in pretest which refers to a research process/experiment that precedes a full scale study to examine whether operational constructs or variables are appropriate for further analysis. Researcher will use various forms of experiments and aims to replicate the formal experiment but on a smaller scale. Hunt et al., (1982)An important rule of thumb in conducting pretest is to use sampling subjects whohave the closest characteristics with those of full scale data collection. For this research,both groups of college students and DV lottery winners in the U.S. will be selected to complete the questionnaire to provide further feedbacks in terms of appropriateness of items, length of time required to finish, and overlooked dimensions. This feedback will be considered in the process of finalizing the instrument that will be distributed to a large scale sample target. The research method ology will also include content validity, measurement equivalence, common methods bias, and non-response bias.DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONSResearcher will describe data collection procedures and also present data analysis results using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Researcher also plans to use supportive empirical finding which will be explained along with how statistical assumptions are satisfied. These statistical evidences will be used to examine any hypotheses generated from literature study and inferences. Researcher will also provide both descriptive and interpretive data analysis using the structural equation modeling techniques. Researcher will also answer most research questions from a confirmatory perspective, links theoretical assumptions and conclusions and completes the research methodologyQualitative Data AnalysisResearcher will use taradiddle style and open ended interview questions rather than retrieving answers based on fixed options multiple choi ces. Shim et al., (2002) explained that qualitative data can reveal the realism aspect of investigated subjects. So this section will be used to interpret perceived data obtained from interviewees in a focus group environmentMethod explanation Focus GroupResearcher believed that it is important to understand what motivates subjects of this research and the understanding of user behavior in the use of social communication network and tool when they find themselves in a different cultural environment. Researcher will use focus group method by selecting a group of interviewees (in this case, less than 30), which consist of individuals that meet the pre-screening requirements (Morgan 1998). The group will participate in the discussion whose topic is designated by the researcher. As a validated approach in behavioral sciences, focus groups are administered in US. All participants are selected social network and communication tools users including rejecters (used Social network and com munication tools and decided to discontinue usage). Researcher intends to have a table list of profile of interviewees in the United States.Quantitative Data AnalysisResearcher will analyze perceptional data statistically to discover interesting patterns hidden behind human behaviors. Respondents will be asked to report their true opinions according to a structured survey that contains items generated in literature review and qualitative data analysis.Method Description Large Scale SurveyLee (1999) argued that surveys are particularly useful in determining the actual values and interactions of variables. Researcher will use an approach which would be seen to have the following strengths compared to interpretive methods, it will be easy to administer it will determine the values and relations of variables and constructs generalizability and replicability will also be tested it will be capable of testing theoretical propositions in an objective fashion. Selltiz et al. (1976) argued t hat an explanatory survey should be adopted when studying complicated social phenomena in which causal patterns contain multiple factors and more than one predicting variable is found.Cronbach (1971) emphasized that the main purpose of conducting the surveys is to move from observations to theory validation by using an instrument that captures necessary data in an unbiased manner. Researcher will use both paper based and web based survey instrument. The selection of sample subjects will be strictly based on how well the characteristics of the target population can be represented.Data Collection AnalysisResearcher will use analysis that would demonstrate respondents social background that is consistent with the research design, namely, young African immigrants with appropriate social network and communication tool use experience. Researcher will also use a pilot study that will examine sign content validity of the collected data. Straub (1989) explained that non-response bias is a major threat to the validity of the survey method.Demographic StatisticsResearcher will use a demographic statistics of respondents that are categorized in four dimensions age, gender, web or Internet experience and modern communication tools. Researcher will use high level of homogeneity of domestic nature within one group young west African immigrants and a high level of heterogeneity across groupsgeomorphologic Equation ModelingResearcher will use the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) which is a statistical technique widely used in social science research. Byrne (2006) indicated that this consists of two major parts a measurement model and a structural model. This technique is similar to multiple regressions however, SEM is a powerful technique in constructing and examining causal relationships using measurement error and model fitness. The justification for using SEM is that it employs a confirmatory rather than exploratory approach to test models. Therefore, it is an sublime selection for theory verification instead of development, even though in reality SEM does carry some exploratory nature. Chin (2008) suggested that SEM enables IT researchers to achieve the goals including evaluate and control measurement model errors of latent variables, simultaneous analysis of multiple paths relationships, and flexibility of testing theoretical assumptions.DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONSThe core issue of research is to examine how the use of Internet social communication networks like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and modern communication technologies like smart-phones instant messages, multimedia (online gaming), blogging and discussion forums called Social Activity, have impacted the acculturation process of young African immigrants(18-25 years) to the nation. Most of the research questions are expected to be answered in this research and findings discussed to explain different related behaviors in acculturation of young west African immigrants. Using mixed methods o f both qualitative and quantitative, the researcher will be able to reveal context-oriented insights that are complement empirical findings which are statistically inferred to large population of samples. With this in mind, researcher will divide the discussion of findings into two aspects of quantitative and qualitative including further justifications of research methodology, the implications of these findings, future research directions and conclusions.