Currently, many scholars have increasingly turned to the Internet to examine diasporic communities and corresponding identities. While I am happy that social scientists have embraced the use of online methods in studying communities formed within cyberspace, I also believe that we should continually reflect on whether our research is best served…

The debate about social media in schools--about should we or should we not--is already over. Social media is here to stay. The only relevant question now is how long it will take school leaders to adopt new ways and adapt the new technologies to support teaching, learning, and communication among the adults in schools. For schools to pretend that…

Very little is known of the longitudinal changes that occur in contact with children and participation in social activities during late-life widowhood. Using data on social networks and activities drawn from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing, trajectories of change in social engagement were modeled for 1,266 participants (mean age 76.7…

Arguments regarding the high prevalence of interpersonal collectivism in Japan typically hinge on the assumption that Japanese communication networks are more enduring, frequently contacted, and dominated by kin and work ties than networks in Western countries. However, this assumption has not been examined using nationally representative data.…

We can expect climate change to alter the frequency, magnitude, timing, and location of many natural hazards. For example, heat waves are likely to become more frequent, and heavy downpours and flooding more common and more intense. Hurricanes will likely grow more dangerous, rising sea levels will mean more coastal flooding, and more-frequent and…

In March of 2011 Unite States president Barack Obama announced the "100,000 strong in the Americas" program during his visit to Chile (U.S. State Department, 2011). The initiative's goal is to reach 100,000 U.S. students studying in Latin America and 100,000 Latin American students studying in the United States. This interchange of…

In Hong Kong, there is an acute need to provide newly appointed principals with opportunities for continuous professional development so that they could face the impact of reforms and globalization on school development. The Education Bureau has commissioned the tertiary institutions to provide structured professional development courses to cater…

Adult English as a second language (ESL) educators have struggled to move beyond skills-based instruction to implement more student-centered, contextualized pedagogy that prepares students to become active citizens and to solve real-world problems, even as the growing number of immigrants make adult education increasingly important for determining…

This exploratory study investigates how a typically disadvantaged user group of older, female learners from rural, low-tech settings used and perceived a Facebook group as a research supervision and distance learning tool over time. The within-stage mixed-model research was carried out in a module of a part-time, advanced midwifery education…

In the past fifteen years, Web 2.0 social networking technologies have ushered in a new era of information production, distribution and consumption with significant implications for language teaching and learning. An example of such technology is Moodle, which is a learning management system with several useful features that can transform the…

As colleges and universities increase their online course offerings, student social experiences in online learning environments require further examination, specifically for nonresidential students who may already be less integrated into college social networks. A social capital framework was used to guide this qualitative study of 17…

Education reform initiatives tend to promise higher effectiveness in classrooms especially when emphasis is given to e-learning and digital resources. Practical changes in classroom realities or school organization, however, are lacking. A major European initiative entitled Open Discovery Space (ODS) examined the challenge of modernizing school…

Online environments can cultivate what have been referred to as 21st century skills and capabilities, as youth contribute, pursue, share, and interact around work and ideas. Such environments also hold great potential for addressing digital divides related to the development of such skills by connecting youth in areas with fewer resources and…

Being a part of an ethnic minority group and a student with a disability (SWD) often presents as a barrier to college retention and graduation rates among members of this marginalized group. Purpose: To examine educators' awareness of racial and institutional influences that impact African American SWD. Method: Data for this study were gathered…

While many innovative teaching strategies exist, integration into undergraduate science teaching has been frustratingly slow. This study aims to understand the low uptake of research-based instructional innovations by studying 21 successful implementations of the Student Centered Active Learning with Upside-down Pedagogies (SCALE-UP) instructional…