The field of mentoring includes a broad base of stakeholders, such as researchers and practitioners who implement mentoring programs. The research-to-practice gap is an ongoing area of concern in many fields of social science including mentoring. One reason for this is that researchers and practitioners often operate in isolation. Technology is…

Educational leadership is a widely discussed topic in educational science. However, although the study of social networks in (informal) educational settings is gaining interest in recent years, the intersection between leadership and online social networks has received limited attention. This article investigates the informal sets of networks in…

In order to develop pragmatic competence in a language other than our own (L2), it is important to have enough knowledge of the cultural norms of the target language and enough opportunities to interact with a wide range of speakers to deploy different speech acts, registers, levels of politeness, conversational moves, and the like. The…

Social networking sites have become ubiquitous in our daily communicative exchanges, which has brought about new platforms of identification and opened possibilities that were out of reach for many minoritized communities. As they represent an increasing percentage of the media we consume, these sites have been considered crucial for…

Rare diseases impact small numbers of people. In the United States, a rare disease is one affecting less than 0.06% of the population. Although any given rare disease is, by definition, rare, the number of people living with a rare disease is substantial. It is estimated that 10% of people world-wide have one of the approximately 7,000 different…

In the e-learning context, social network analysis (SNA) can be used to build understanding around the ways students participate and interact in online forums. This study contributes to the growing body of research that uses statistical methods to test hypotheses about structures in social networks. Specifically, we show how statistical analysis…

Peer review has been commonly applied to university-level online courses, but less at the high-school level. Little is known about high school students' tendencies when they give reviews to their peers, specifically which posts are more likely to receive reviews. This study adopted social network analysis, regression analysis and content analysis…

This study employs dramaturgical analysis, the study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance, in examining online student interactions. Region-specific activity--front stage (the course LMS) versus backstage (Facebook)--was examined to determine where students spend their time doing class-related tasks. The context for this case…

High schoolers' creative thinking and complex problem-solving abilities are important for determining achievement. There is a need to investigate whether spiritual training delivered via a microblogging social networking platform would be effective. This article reports a study that examines the impact of Twitter-based spiritual posts on high…

Language knowledge is not limited to linguistic competence; cultural norms of a society affect the way people communicate. In fact, culture, tradition, and values are realized and manifested through language and the use of units known as speech acts. The current study sought to explore the strategies used by 200 native Iranian speakers of Persian,…

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced school closure thus shifting teaching and learning towards full home-based learning (HBL). Technology plays a key role but the considerations to design online learning environments that meaningfully engage students are complex. This exploratory, qualitative study attempted to elicit eight mathematics teachers'…

This article advances thinking around the semiotic repertoire by exploring how resources are negotiated in the course of interactions mediated by mobile messaging apps, and how this process of co-constructing repertoires is shaped by the affordances and constraints of the virtual spaces in which these interactions take place. Drawing on…

In 2016, a number of language applications released chatbots to complement their programmes. Used primarily in informal learning settings, chatbots enable language learners to engage in conversational speaking practice, which can be perceived as less threatening than face-to-face interactions with native speakers. This study takes a closer look at…

Focusing on Facebook pages from public broadcasters in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, this paper looks at ways in which written quotations and snippets of news are reused and shared in social media posts. Drawing on recent theorization of digital quotations as recontextualized discourse, the study deals with a specific genre of digital news:…

The present study explores the uses of WhatsApp groups in the education context. It examines utilities and burdens associated with educational WhatsApp groups. The study also explores how the presence of teachers in the groups can influence the group functioning. In the first study chats of four WhatsApp groups of one year, where two groups were…