A randomized control trial was conducted to evaluate the impact of the Rural Early Adolescent Learning Program (Project REAL) on teachers' awareness of peer groups at the beginning of the 1st year of middle school. Two schools were randomly assigned to the intervention condition and 2 to the control condition. Thirty-nine teachers and 466 students…

Blog technology is a potential medium for encouraging reflective writing through self-expression and interactive exchange through social networking. This paper reports on a study using blogs as out-of-class assignments for the development of learners' language competence. The study involved seventeen university students at advanced level who kept…

Disparities in the rates of unintended pregnancy have increased for low-income African American women as compared to other groups due, in part, to declining contraception use. Women obtain family planning information from diverse sources, which may ultimately influence contraceptive decision making. For this qualitative study, we conducted…

There is no doubt that today's student is much more savvy with using computers than the students of years gone by. This tech generation eagerly embraces the Internet, online searching, and the newer Web 2.0 technologies. This latter platform provides users with the ability to interact in a large virtual world, share/take (upload/download)…

In dealing with Knowledge Management (KM) literature, we have to diagnose three essential points: first, we have detected a lack of comprehensive theoretical models based on "grand theories", secondly, we have discovered an overemphasis of "good" values, like openness and trust, that help organisations to learn. And thirdly, we have to recognise…

Social network analysis can enrich school-based research on children's peer relationships. Unfortunately, accurate network analysis requires near-complete data on all students and is underutilized in school-based research because of low rates of parental consent. This article advocates Krackhardt's cognitive social structures (CSS) as a solution…

In the last column, we began discussing Web 2.0 applications. In this column, we'll review participatory, social networking software called "wikis." We'll define wikis, discuss their use in college classrooms, explore benefits provided for collaborative knowledge construction, and explain five types of wikis with applications to developmental…

Rising middle level students face many new situations when they enter middle school. Stress is not uncommon for new students in any grade, but it is most acute during middle level years when students are dealing with the rapidly changing physical characteristics and emotions associated with early adolescence. The community of adults at a middle…

The eighteenth century was characterised by a ferment of ideas and activities which have usually been portrayed as masculine. It is now increasingly perceived that such developments travelled further through society than hitherto generally recognised. Even women participated in "enlightened living", despite gendered limitations on…

Using data from a national survey of adults in Taiwan, this study explored how often older adults participate in and how much they enjoy 2 mostly-solitary leisure activities (reading books and watching TV/DVDs/videos) and 2 mostly-social leisure activities (socializing with friends and engaging in physical activities). According to ordinal…

Online bullying or cyberbullying is one of the changes spawned by the Internet and social networking sites. Sometimes described as "old wine in a new bottle" (to signify a new form of bullying), it is one of those phenomena that has left educators--and just about everyone else--scrambling. In this article, the author details the expanding trend of…

New career realities appear to be reshaping the necessary tools, skills and attitudes individuals must possess in order to establish a successful career in the international business arena. In particular, the boundaryless career perspective provides an interesting point of departure from which to analyze the kinds of competences future global…

The social work literature is replete with studies evaluating social workers' direct practice interventions, but strikingly few have assessed how well social workers are faring in the political arena. This study tests a major theoretical model, the civic voluntarism model, developed to explain why some citizens become involved in politics, whereas…

While blogs, wikis and social networking sites are enjoying high levels of attention as tools to support learning, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) remains the "poor cousin" of these technologies in the higher education classroom, with relatively low uptake amongst educators and students. In this article, the authors argue that the affordances of…

A librarian may be comfortable with the idea of using a blog, wiki, or other social application with students, but other stakeholders in his or her community may not be so sure. Any technology maverick looking to sell the use of Web-based applications will, at some point, have to make the case. This article presents some of the most common…