This sociopolitically-oriented case study aims to further explore the complex social network non-native students are engaged in during their literacy activities. In previous research, institutional policies, supervisors and instructors, and gatekeepers of target journals are normally regarded as key players to influence students fulfilling their…

This paper explores three potential affordances (social, technical and pedagogical) of wikis in the context of designing 32 teachers' learning of classroom management cases. Two learning environments were designed and two groups of the teacher-participants posted their own written and audio cases, identified problems, discussed and proposed…

In this article I focus on the mediational role of communicative activity in the co-construction of meaning involved when pupils write collaboratively. I explore the developmental nature of peer intermental or social activity within a Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) by drawing on perspectives from sociocultural theory and the dialogical aspects…

This paper reports on the use of action research in a case study involving two iterations of an online workshop implemented at two universities in late 2007 and early 2009 to prepare teaching staff for using wikis for student group work and assessment. Workshop participants were immersed in the experience of collaborating in a wiki as learners and…

Student teaching abroad is becoming increasingly popular in many colleges and universities in the United States. This experience can be highly rewarding in terms of developing pre-service teachers' culture competency, yet can pose challenges for faculty monitoring such placements. Stewart and Kagan (2005) suggest a framework for teacher…

This case study reports on patterns of participation in a virtual collaboratory organised around goals associated with the involvement of graduate students in research and writing projects. Traditionally, distance learning classrooms have been devoted to teaching content matter (in a virtual context) yet this case study reports on the use of…

Wikis (websites that can be edited quickly by multiple authors) were used with upper-primary school children to write group reports on a science topic. Two teachers observed the children working, and their observations were used alongside the texts from the wikis and group interviews with children to explore the question of whether using wikis…

Important to issues of writing instruction are the ways in which teachers, specifically those who teach in the discipline of language arts and English, understand and see themselves as writers. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how secondary English teachers positioned themselves and were positioned by others as writers through…

The need for twenty-first century learning skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and the use of technology are paramount to success in today's classroom. The purpose of this study was to explore what happened when children engaged in collaborative and critical discussions of themes related to social skills and social…

Some recent proposals on CSCL scripts have suggested that one key factor for their effectiveness is the ability of the teacher to adapt the scripts to the students and to the specific teaching and learning situations. In this context, this paper presents a multiple-case study dealing with the relationship between the assistance given by the…

The potential of wikis for learning has recently begun to capture the attention of English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) research. While students' collaboration, attention to form, and perceptions of wikis in document mode have been widely addressed in previous research, the educational value of wikis used in thread mode, as discussion…

This article presents the research findings of a small-scale study which aimed to explore the cautionary attitude toward the use of Wikipedia in the process of learning. A qualitative case study approach was taken, using literature review, institutional documentation, and semi-structured interviews with five members of academic teaching staff from…

This study proposes the use of case-based reasoning to help educators design with Web 2.0. Principles for designing a web-enhanced case-based activity (CBA) were used to design an online professional development course for a group of 16 in-service educators. The Learning in Context model was used as a scaffold to help participants in their design…

This essay presents case studies of "course-based tutoring" (CBT) and one-to-one tutorials in two sections of developmental first-year composition (FYC) at a large West Coast research university. The author's study uses a combination of rhetorical and discourse analyses and ethnographic and case study multi-methods to investigate both…

Research has indicated that the integration of wikis in higher education is very challenging. The present article focuses on the tensions emerging from the integration of a wikibook as a required assignment in an undergraduate course. Drawing on data from a case study, the article uses Activity Theory as a theoretical framework in order to…