Contextualised and ubiquitous learning are relatively new research areas that combine the latest developments in ubiquitous and context aware computing with educational approaches in order to provide structure to more situated and context aware learning. The majority of recent activities in contextualised and ubiquitous learning focus on mobile…

Teaching online is relatively new at Chicago State University (CSU). In this paper, twenty-four instructors who taught web-based, or web-enhanced courses during the spring and fall 2003 semesters CSU were surveyed about issues that they and their students had experienced in online communication. It was found that online learning was quickly…

This paper focuses on the Teachers Network Leadership Institute (TNLI), an initiative designed to bring the voice of teachers into the educational policy arena through teacher action research. We view teachers' research on teaching and on school processes as an important means through which to expose the various sources of tension between policy…

Communities of Practice offer state agency personnel a promising approach for engaging stakeholder groups in collaboratively solving complex and, often, persistent problems in special education. Communities of Practice can help state agency personnel drive strategy, solve problems, promote the spread of best practices, develop members'…

Faculty learning communities (FLC) provide opportunities for professional development and personal growth within university settings. Some FLC are structured; others are unstructured. Faculty at a mid-sized Midwestern state university were asked a series of close- and open-ended questions that examined the reasons for and benefits from their…

The experiences of students in an online learning community were explored in this qualitative case study using social presence theory as an interpretive lens. Participants included five undergraduate students in a certificate program at a large Midwestern university. Students who felt a sense of community online most highly valued the friendship…

Three universities are fostering leaders committed to (1) defining models of scholarship, (2) building a network of leaders that can learn from each other, and (3) creating an outreach culture. This three-way university partnership has established an annual conference and an online learning community to support a network of leaders. How have the…

This theoretical paper utilizes cybernetic-­based approaches (Bopry, 1999; Wiener, 1954) and communications theory (Habermas, 1984, 1990; Krippendorff, 1994) to advance knowledge of constructivist learning. I argue that past educational research literature on constructivist learning is partly responsible for limiting how educational designers…

What kinds of interaction take place in a history department? What might be their value? Between 1999 and 2003, Simon Letman, then history teacher and Director of Studies at The Royal Hospital School in Ipswich, set out to discover how the rich variety of between-teacher- interactions, so much a feature of the department he had worked in for…

No silver bullets for improving achievement for all students exist. However, anyone whose paycheck comes from a school district is ultimately responsible for these students. "Leading From the Middle: Mid-Level District Staff and Instructional Improvement," the first in a series of reports drawn from a larger, qualitative study of district/school…

Lave and Wenger have proposed that learning is situated and occurs by means of legitimate peripheral participation within a community of practice, in contrast with conventional schools which are based upon the assumption that knowledge can be decontextualized. I argue that their perspective is inappropriate for science teaching, because a newcomer…

External communities of practice are groups formed by company clients and employees based on common interests, commitment, mutual trust and collaboration whose members regularly share knowledge and learning. This paper examines how external communities of practice contribute to the creation of relational capital through an empirical investigation…

The evidence on learning communities suggests that student intellectual and psychosocial development is improved by participation. Faculty members become rejuvenated as learners once again through rediscovering the boundaries and intersection of their discipline with others. Active learning, collaborative learning, strategies to improve critical…

As networked learning becomes familiar at all levels and in all sectors of education, cross-fertilisation of innovative methods can usefully inform the lifelong learning agenda. Development of the pedagogical architectures and social processes, which afford learning, is a major challenge for educators as they strive to address the varied needs of…

Many early childhood practitioners use pedagogical documentation as an important process that enables children's thinking to be represented in a form that can be readily shared with others (Dahlberg et al., 1999). Documentation in the form of a professional portfolio provides a vehicle for reflection and an appreciation of the complexities and…