Standards are a reality in all academic disciplines, and they can be hard to measure using conventional methods. Technology skills in particular are hard to assess using multiple-choice, paper-based tests. A new generation of online assessments of student technology skills allows students to prove proficiency by completing tasks in their natural…

This study presents findings on the efficacy of an online learning environment developed to foster EFL students' intercultural competence via reading articles on topics of their own culture and communicating their responses with speakers of another culture. The project offered opportunities for EFL students to use their own societal and cultural…

In Fall 2000, Dallas Teleconferences approached a prominent higher education organization about producing a series of satellite teleconferences for them. The intended recipient was complimentary of Dallas' teleconferencing endeavors, but representatives suggested that teleconferencing was an old medium employing antiquated technology. They…

The digital camera has many uses in an early learning environment. However, there are some prerequisites to implementing the use of digital photography. In this article, the author offers some categories of usage as well as some concrete ideas for implementation of digital photography. She discusses how photos can be used (1) to give children…

College administrators across the US are learning that chatter on e-mail, blogs, and social-networking sites can turn even minor faux pas into major controversies. The issue is discussed with reference to the firing of a teaching assistant whose Web site lampooned the president of Columbia College Chicago and left the institution facing serious…

Blogs and the whole gamut of interactive, Web-based tools are redefining how we connect with people and content on the Internet. This is the widely discussed next step known as Web 2.0, a truly revolutionary concept in which pervasive interactivity, where multitudes of users online actively exchange or contribute content, will transform the very…

This article discusses two Cornell research studies on the prevalence of self-injury or "cutting" in today's youth, led by Janis Whitlock, and presents historical perspectives on the issue. The first study randomly surveyed 3,069 undergraduate and graduate students at Cornell University and Princeton University. Data showed that 17 percent of the…

This study explored an instructor's and graduate students' reactions to their first on-line course. They initially felt high levels of stress. With increasing confidence, graduate students expressed their satisfaction. Most appreciated the reflection time that asynchronous dialogue provided, and learning relevant to real life that built on their…

To promote student engagement, professors must actively seek to create the conditions that foster engagement. Chickering and Gamson (1987) suggest that good practices in undergraduate education are ones that: encourage student-faculty contact, develop reciprocity and cooperation among students, encourage active learning, provide students with…

This book explores the wide range of contexts in which research into creating connections in learning and teaching may take place. Creating connections can encompass making links, crossing divides, forming relationships, building frameworks, and generating new knowledge. The cognitive, cultural, social, emotional and/or physical aspects of…

With teacher shortages in both general and critical needs areas and constricting operating budgets, it is important for Colleges of Education to develop methods of providing alternative certification programs to reach larger segments of the population. One method of increasing the scope of potential preservice teachers is through the development…

The present study expands the design of Warschauer (1996) surveying freshman foreign language students at a Turkish university. Motivating aspects of computer assisted instruction in terms of writing and e-mailing are explored through an exploratory factor analysis conducted on the survey developed by Warschauer (1996). Findings suggest that…

New technologies now offer teachers alternative models of collaboration with schools overseas, but how effective are they as professional development opportunities? The experiences of 18 specialist primary and secondary teachers in the Teachers' International Professional Development Programme who visited schools in the USA were investigated as…

Development workers studying at the graduate level benefit from exposure to the great variety of cultures and worldviews. In the Australian National University's Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development (MAAPD) program, peer learning is giving current and future development workers in the field and in the classroom the chance…

This article offers a critique of the lack of attention to the place of online course offerings in foreign language departments and/or distance education in general by the MLA's 2007 report on foreign language departments and their role in the academy. The article responds to how currently accessible technology (course management system platforms…