This article recounts the experience of the Regent University Library in planning and implementing a festival of Tolstoy and Russian culture as part of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Big Read initiative. The NEA launched the Big Read in 2006 to counter the alarming decline of literary reading documented in its 2002 report Reading at…

Student-directed projects are increasingly becoming a common phenomenon in schools of social work across the United States. Students acquire a great learning experience from these projects, which sharpen their skills in leadership, innovation, and practice. Social work practitioners who go through such a process emerge having acquired knowledge…

This paper describes a new social networking site, Cloudworks, which aims to provide a dynamic environment for finding, sharing and discussing learning and teaching ideas and designs. The paper begins by discussing the mismatch between the potential application of technologies in education and their actual use in practice. It considers some of the…

The role of critical and creative thinking has been debated within the field of instructional design. Through an instructional design and development project we have identified how critical and creative thinking are essential to the instructional design process. This paper highlights a recent project focused on a virtual Native American village…

From selecting appropriate curricula and teachers to providing classrooms with bathrooms easily accessible to 4-year-olds, public preschool programs present challenges to districts that run the programs, which are designed to prepare children to get off to a good start when they enter kindergarten. While a wide range of private preschool programs…

In 2009 the Secretary General of Universities (SGU) of the Spanish Ministry of Education launched a new programme to foster the modernisation and internationalisation of Spanish university campuses. This initiative focused on teaching, research and aspects of technology transfer, but also developing the campus into an integral social model which…

Planning youth and family programming in the 21st century is daunting given family members' busy schedules. This is even more challenging when planning programs in rural areas, where there are vast distances between communities. This article discusses a research and educational outreach project that uses best practices in program development…

Research shows low-income students suffer disproportionate learning loss over the summer and because those losses accumulate over time, they contribute substantially to the achievement gap between low- and higher-income children. The Wallace Foundation is funding a five-year demonstration project to examine whether summer learning programs can…

The Network for a Healthy California (Network) employs a Geographic Information System (GIS) to identify the target audience and plan program activities because GIS is a powerful tool for assisting in data integration and planning. This paper describes common uses of GIS by Network contractors as well as demonstrating the possibilities of GIS as a…

Because of recent violent crimes, natural disasters, and other emergencies or crises, colleges and universities are convening committees and task forces to reexamine or conduct a comprehensive review of policies, procedures, and systems related to campus safety and security. As with many critical areas on the agendas of administrators, campus…

Arguably, the ultimate application of evidenced-based communications is translating the research recommendations into a full-fledged media campaign. This article explains the development and implementation of Watch Your Mouth, a campaign based on FrameWorks Institute's research on children's oral health. To date, this innovative campaign has been…

The award-winning website for Union Public Schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is one of the communications department's most powerful tools in building positive relationships. As with raising a child, the challenge lies in finding ways to nurture a growing entity--constantly providing it with meaningful information, adapting it to social changes, and…

Program evaluation and planning is at the heart of efforts to integrate the domains of practice and research. Traditionally, research and practice have operated in independent spheres with practitioners focused on the implementation of programs that affect individual behavior and researchers focused on the development and testing of theory.…

Five years ago, the editor of "Exceptional Parent" Magazine requested the author to provide an account of a day in the life of the National Children's Study, an ambitious study by the federal government that aims to find out how the environment affects child health and development. Planning and implementation of the National Children's Study has…

This article reports on the launching of the Revans Academy for Action Learning and Research at Manchester Business School on 26 November 2008. The goal of the Academy is to foster the development of action learning as a unifying framework within Manchester Business School. Its goal is to provide a hub for dialogue, collaboration, exploitation and…