"Everyday Muse" is an online professional learning community for artists and creative entrepreneurs working in the Creative Industries, specifically targeted at people working in the visual arts, creative writing, film and media. Underpinned by a holistic approach to creative and business development, the program focuses on supporting…

As the K-12 student population becomes increasingly diverse, developing cultural competence is essential for educators, including physical education teachers. An online international collaboration is one way to address cultural competence in higher education. The purpose of this article is to discuss steps and suggestions for integrating an online…

Social studies instructional time in elementary schools has declined substantially. Responding to this, the National Geographic Society (NGS) developed a professional learning program called the Elementary Social Studies Community of Practice (ESSCoP). This article describes this program's design and content, as well as evaluates its…

There is a pressing need for prevention programs that address increasing rates of epidemics and pandemics, including noncommunicable diseases. However, many populations face substantial systemic barriers to accessing traditional prevention programs. To minimize persistent service utilization gaps for underserved populations, the field requires…

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate design principles for transforming existing making communities of practice within public libraries into online knowledge-building communities to support youths, families with young children and adult members' making and tinkering during COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach: Building upon C4P and connected…

Higher education institutions are under increasing pressure to offer online postgraduate programmes. Although it is reasonably common to convert existing programmes to online or blended delivery modes, it is unusual to offer a programme simultaneously in online, on-campus, and blended delivery modes. This paper describes the authors' experiences…

This paper provides a summary of the design, development, and evaluation of a mobile distance supervision system for teacher interns in their field-based teaching experiences. Developed as part of the University of Florida's Restructuring and Improving Teacher Education 325T grant project, the prototype system streams video of teachers in rural…

This paper brings together the reflections of the authors on their shared and individual experiences of virtual action learning. Whilst many conclusions are shared, there are also some points of difference in practices.

This paper presents a promising and powerful approach used to cultivate a doctoral community of inquiry and practice and harness the intelligence, commitment, and energy of all of its members in a blended learning environment. The discussion board online learning community approach was developed to transform a traditional face-to-face doctoral…

Students working on a highly collaborative project used social networking technology for community building activities as well as basic project-related communication. Requiring students to work on cross-program projects gives them real-world experience working in diverse, geographically dispersed groups. An application used at Appalachian State…

Professional development for distance tutors is traditionally delivered through texts or websites, supplemented by face to face workshops. However, one of the major challenges is to ensure that they engage with the materials and carry away something which is of value to their practice. At the Open University (UK) our 8000 tutors work from home,…

With growing international interest in diversifying sites for pedagogical work within the doctorate, doctoral programmes of different kinds are being developed in different disciplinary, institutional and national settings. However, little is known about how the pedagogical work of these programmes is designed and enacted, and with what effects.…

The topic of virtual reference has been a popular one in the past year, and this column highlights a range of those articles. Included are overviews of the topic, articles addressing specific technological solutions and concerns, and pieces that explore the intricacies of delivering and assessing a "traditional" service through a…

Describes a Newark-based social revitalization program that involves a telecommunications/computer linkage between a community development corporation, an elementary school, and a medical college. The author explains how information technologies are used by the residents of a Newark housing project to create a special sense of neighborliness. (GR)

In 1998, the Visually Impaired Personnel Preparation Program was established in Texas to train 100 teachers of students with visual impairments and 50 orientation and mobility specialists. By May 2000, 194 students had enrolled. Course work was delivered at outreach sites and through online courses, interactive television, and on campuses.…