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Previous research has shown that Black males do not find schools to be safe spaces or places where they feel a sense of belonging. Instead, they do not feel welcomed (Brooms, 2019a). If students must spend 8 to 9 hours in a place daily, we will want that space to be somewhere they want to be. Findings from research conducted by Collins et al. (2022) confirm that students have a better chance of academic success when affirmed and welcomed. My study aimed to discover where Black male students feel they most belong and why. Specifically, I aimed to answer my main research question: "What are Black male teenagers' experiences with and perceptions of their feelings of belonging in schools and recreation centers?" My secondary question was: "What recommendations do Black males have for improving their feelings of belonging?" For my research, I defined a sense of belonging as a feeling of connectedness with or integration into a community (Hussain & Jones, 2021). In my qualitative study, I interviewed several Black young men attending local high schools and recreation centers in the city of Campbell (a pseudonym). Using the Critical Race Theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017) concept of counter-stories, I sought to gain insight into the lived experiences of my participants. In my study, I found that the Black male students who were my participants had different definitions of belonging and what it felt like to them, but some common elements, such as mutual respect, were expressed. In addition, the participants experienced an increased sense of belonging in recreation centers compared to their high schools. They also explained that in recreation centers, they encountered fewer issues with traditional negative stereotypes that typically plague Black males. Finally, the participants recommended schools and recreation centers increase their sense of belonging in those spaces. Their recommendations included that schools ensure fair discipline practices and that recreation centers offer more community events. Some of the key takeaways from my study are that feelings of belonging are relative to personal experience, school size is important, and support is always necessary. I conclude by offering advice for practitioners and future researchers. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Students in today's classrooms are immersed in technology outside the classroom walls, and then they enter classrooms without the use of any technological tools, and they doubt the relevance of education. To determine the impact of technology used in the classroom, this qualitative phenomenological research study's methodology gathered data using anonymous surveys and in-depth interviews. Consequently, the students' voices were heard as they described their experiences in the Game Design Classes held in a small community college in the southwest. One hundred invitations were sent out to students and 40 responded and the in-depth interviews followed the Seidman model. The research questions reflected the students' feelings about the impact of the technological tools used in the class on the success of learning game design concepts, as well as their motivation to continue in the game design field. The results were 100% of the students continuing in the game design field, as well as the documentation that the use of video and pdf tutorials, computer programs, and interactive short discussions in the classrooms improved the students' success in learning. The implications are educators need to listen to the voices of their students and make sure that their curriculum reflects the world of the students. Also, the data gathered from this study implies that more research is needed such as: comparing classroom with technology and without, professional development opportunities for educators, funding barriers for getting technology inside the classrooms, but always continually listening to the voices of all the students. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

COVID-19 ushered in a new era in education. Overnight, schools were forced into online learning, dependent entirely upon digital learning tools to educate students. Dubbed by some as a great online learning experiment, teachers experimented with various tools to provide students with the same quality of education they had delivered in the face-to-face setting. Most were ill-equipped to meet this challenge. Teachers' major obstacles were low engagement and student motivation while learning online, resulting in high failure rates. Although there is a proven correlation between digital learning tools, student motivation, and achievement, the sudden shift to fully online learning exposed a need to know which digital learning tools have the most impact on student motivation and achievement and why so educators can be more intentional about which tools they use. This study aimed to examine the beliefs of high school students and teachers at a Title I school with a high racial minority population. In this study, 19 students and six teachers completed surveys sharing which digital learning tools they believed had the most impact on student motivation. The questions they answered were based on the three basic psychological needs outlined in the self-determination theory: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The findings of this study indicated that overall, students believed Kahoot! was the tool that most appealed to all three basic needs outlined in the self-determination theory, due mainly to its fast-paced, highly competitive, entertaining, and fun nature, which helped them learn from their mistakes and motivated them to want to try harder. Findings also indicated that teachers believed Flipgrid and Peardeck most appealed to all three needs, primarily because their collaborative nature and ease-of-use tools supported students' independent learning. The findings suggest that, although students learn best when all three basic needs are met, students and teachers believed the most impactful programs appealed most to the need for relatedness and collaboration. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The primary purpose of this study was to identify the influence of computer user knowledge as measured by the Computer User Knowledge Survey (CUKS), and the personal demographic characteristics of Gender, Age, and Race on academic achievement as measured by the Graduation Exit Examination-21 (GEE-21), among high school seniors in public schools in a parish in South Louisiana. The CUKS and the Gender and Race data were collected from the self-perceived CUKS survey administered to 295 seniors registered in English IV classes at a school in South Louisiana. The academic achievement data and the ages of the student subjects were retrieved from the Louisiana Department of Education GEE-21 data base. Each of the six CUKS sub-scales, Basic Knowledge CUKS, Windows CUKS, Word Processing CUKS, Internet CUKS, Multimedia CUKS, and Computer Games CUKS, and the Overall CUKS score were correlated with each of the four GEE-21 academic achievement categories, Math, English, Science, and Social Studies. The results showed that Multimedia CUKS (r = 0.16; p = 0.018) and Basic Knowledge CUKS (r = 0.04; p = 0.037) were significantly related to English scores. No other significant relationships were found among the CUKS subscales and the GEE-21 scores. Regression analysis was used to determine if models existed which explained a significant portion of the variance in academic achievement scores. The regression models showed that Multimedia CUKS explained 2.3% of the variance in English scores; Gender explained 3.8% and Hispanic explained 1.9% of the variance in Science scores; and Gender explained 5% and Multimedia CUKS 1.9% of the variance in Social Studies scores. Conclusion included: 1) the racial make-up of the sample was very atypical for public schools in South Louisiana; 2) there was little or no correlation between computer user knowledge and academic achievement; 3) the scores of the student participants were exceptionally high on the self-perceived CUKS; 4) sample students typically scored in higher achievement levels than students statewide, and outstandingly so in Math. Recommendations included finding and using more objective computer knowledge assessments in future studies to reduce the possibility of student response error in similar studies. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]