In recent years, different professional and academic settings have been increasingly utilizing ePortfolios to serve multiple purposes from recruitment to evaluation. This paper analyzes ePortfolios created by graduate students at a Canadian university. Demonstrated is how students' constructions can, and should, be more than a simple compilation…

Purpose: To describe an exploratory study in which an online learning system was used to provide an intercultural experience for pre-service education students from New Jersey and Namibia. Design/methodology/approach: Pre-service education students from New Jersey and Namibia were enrolled in an online course in the fall of 2004. The following…

Len Annetta, Marta Klesath, and Shawn Holmes describe how avatars in virtual learning environments (VLEs) can contribute to the learning experience by giving students a sense of social presence and investment in the learning community that may otherwise be difficult to access. VLEs have the potential to become the next generation of instructional…

As technology becomes more pervasive on community college campuses, administrators are leveraging emerging solutions to cultivate highly interactive learning environments, using next-generation tools to target instruction and furiously digitizing arcane administrative functions. Despite the potential to revolutionize the community college campus,…

Tom Reardon, a mathematics teacher at Austintown Fitch High School in Ohio, is among the rising number of teachers who use interactive whiteboards in their classes. He uses the device to record his class lectures and offer sample tests that he posts on his personal website for students to download. Reardon found that the results of his students'…

Virtual schooling, in which K-12 courses and activities are offered mostly or completely through digital communication technologies, has become firmly established in K-12 education across the United States. The VS movement continues to expand at a rapid rate, especially at the high school level. The continuing success of VS efforts will require…

To support and continue the motivation of participants in virtual learning environments it is important to achieve a successful learning atmosphere. Therefore, it is necessary to reach the participants on a personal level and to perceive their personal needs and emotions when conversing with them. These factors of learning motivation depend on the…

This study represents an effort to construct a learning framework for knowledge building and collective wisdom advancement in a virtual learning community (VLC) from the perspectives of system wholeness, intelligence wholeness and dynamics, learning models, and knowledge management. It also tries to construct the zone of proximal development (ZPD)…

Modern day education reform, impacted by the No Child Left Behind Act, is dominated by accountability and results. At Polaris Career Center in Middleburg Heights, Ohio, student results are front and center. Students participating in a laptop and online curriculum initiative have documented astonishing achievement gains. Prior to the 2004 school…

Group work, group projects and collaborative learning encourage students to learn from other students as well as from the lecturer. Peer learning may involve cooperation, communication and the giving and receiving of peer feedback. In addition peer learning emphasises the sharing of knowledge and ideas between students in a reciprocal partnership.…

This document is a compilation of Kentucky Virtual High School's (KVHS) 2004/2005 prerequisite and course materials listed by content area and subject and provides access information for KVHS's online professional development programs. After the Material and Textbook Procurement Policy, entries for the following KVHS course subject areas are…

Proposes five implications of Internet-based education: separate but unequal access, rising personal expectations, loss of face-to-face connectivity, the equation of a larger number of credentials with a job, and the movement to standardize across boundaries. (EV)

To ensure the most effective and up-to-date learning, educators should consider intelligent buildings that meet technological needs and flexibly accommodate change. Virtual schools alter the need for traditional physical facilities. (Contains 15 references.) (SK)

Presents an autobiographical sketch of a science fiction writer's relationship with the Information Technology revolution, from the Commodore PET to Microsoft 2000: a creator of imaginary futures privileged to observe an "imaginary future" in the act of becoming present reality. Touches on the nature of narrative and technology, the changing…

Considers ways to successfully create an online community. Suggests that one way to engage students and encourage them to want to take responsibility and ownership for their learning is to construct a learning environment that places their ideas at the center of the learning process, not the completion of the course assignments. (SG)