The number of educators, administrators, and institutions that utilize social networking has increased dramatically. Many have adopted social networking in order to be up-to-date and connected with their students' learning beyond the boundaries of the classroom. However, this increase in the use of social networking in academia presents many…

Current interest in social media for educational purposes has led many to consider the importance of literacy development in online spaces (e.g., new media literacies, digital literacies, etc.). Relying heavily upon New Literacy Studies (NLS) as a base, these approaches treat literacy expansively to include socio-cultural factors beyond mere skill…

A cloud-based computing environment, Google Apps for Education (GAFE), has provided the Anaheim City School District (ACSD) a comprehensive and collaborative avenue for creating, sharing, and editing documents, calendars, and social networking communities. With this environment, teachers and district staff at ACSD are able to utilize the deep…

The content and emphasis of the introductory technology courses for undergraduate preservice teachers has historically been examined, with the earliest study conducted by Stracke in 1932. In an attempt to identify trends in the course DeKieffer conducted a series of studies over ten year intervals, in 1947, 1957, 1967, and 1977. In 2000 the first…

In this article we describe the evolution of an elective course designed specifically for undergraduate students in our pre-service teacher education program. This course is intended to prepare these undergraduate students as future teachers--helping them to make effective and creative uses of technology in learning settings. This course…

Web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook, a popular social networking site, provide educators with new possibilities for reaching their students. As these technologies are new, there is not a total understanding of how these technologies could best be used in education. This study helps to develop this understanding by investigating how appropriate…

Learning management systems traditionally provide structures to guide online learners to achieve their learning goals. Web 2.0 technology empowers learners to create, share, and organize their personal learning environments in open network environments; and allows learners to engage in social networking and collaborating activities. Advanced…

While blogs, wikis and many other Web 2.0 applications can be employed in learning settings, instruction is not the primary purpose for these tools. The educational field must actively participate in the definition and development of what repurposed or new Web 2.0 applications means in educational settings. One way of viewing this needed…

This article justifies classifying the TI-Nspire CAS Touchpad as a mobile device for grades 8-16 mathematics classrooms equipped with a Navigator system. The 2010 Horizon Report: K-12 indicates virtually every secondary school aged child has some sort of mobile device. Yet, many school policies ban the use of mobile devices, preventing students…

Second Life[TM], or simply SL, was developed at Linden Lab, a San Francisco-based corporation defined by its creators as "an online society within a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents, where they can explore, build, socialize and participate in their own economy." With over 14 million residents in the SL virtual community,…