Joint construction of new knowledge demands that persons can express their statements in a convincing way and explore other people's arguments constructively. For this reason, more knowledge on different means to support collaborative argumentation is needed. This study clarifies whether structured interaction supports students' critical and…

Two experiments aim at describing the impact of friendship during a synchronous collaborative information retrieval (SCIR) with young pupils (recruited in Grade 3). In the first study, 68 pupils were asked to look for 13 answers in one of the three following conditions: on an individual basis (condition "Single"), as part of a designed duo with…

Today's adolescents write to communicate--via text messaging, instant messaging, and social networking posts. They are skilled at manipulating their out-of-school digital language to communicate with an intended audience and to capture individual voice. Because the writing is informal, teens have the ability to break rules, and they can do so…

This study investigates the effects of an optional and required (jigsaw) task on learners' quantity and quality of use of language under synchronous and asynchronous conditions. The question raised is: Does performing either of these task types under synchronous conditions cause a compounding effect that either positively or negatively impacts…

This exploratory study investigates the linguistic and social interaction of four intermediate EFL learners during game play in a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG). Twelve illustrative episodes drawn from the participants' text chat, collected in four 70-minute sessions held over a one-month period, are analyzed from a…

The purpose of this study was to examine rural school district administrators' satisfaction with distance education in the United States and to identify factors that may contribute to their satisfaction. Telephone interviews were conducted with administrators in randomly selected rural districts across the country. Analyses revealed that students'…

This article describes how some school districts are using social networking Web sites like Twitter and Facebook to tout their accomplishments and communicate with the public. In addition to informing users of upcoming school events and showing pictures from school activities, a district's Facebook site has links to local news stories about…

Many studies have compared traditional face-to-face courses to online or distance education courses. The purpose of this study was to examine academic performance, perceptions, and experiences of participants enrolled in different academic learning environments. Pre and Post Content Knowledge Tests and a student evaluation were used to measure…

To explore the potential applications of synchronous technology to enrich student learning, faculty members from an American regional state university and a Chinese regional university collaborated to find appropriate ways to integrate synchronous technology (e.g., Adobe Connect) into an educational technology program in the American university…

As clientele needs diversify, Extension educators are examining new technologies, including online tools, to deliver educational programming and resources. Using agritourism as the educational topic, the study reported here sought to evaluate participants' acceptance of online educational programming (webinars) and the effectiveness of the…

Research suggests that providing others with elaborated explanations is more beneficial for learning than receiving explanations (e.g., Webb, 1989). Applied to chat communication in a collaborative inquiry learning environment, we would expect that in a dyad learners with more domain-related contributions than their partners would learn more. In…

This practice application brief reviews the preparation, implementation, and evaluation of running behavioural interviews online. In a collaborative program between the School of Information Technology and the Careers and Employment service at Deakin University in Australia, students demonstrated their ability to articulate their generic…

Objective: The authors provide examples for the use of the WebCam as a therapeutic tool in child psychiatry, discussing cases to demonstrate the application of the WebCam, which is most often used in psychiatry training programs during resident supervision and for case presentations. Method: Six cases illustrate the use of the WebCam in individual…

The current study sought to specifically examine the affect of teasing by way of technology (cyber-teasing) and the importance of the redressive component of a tease. A triangulated approach was used here to gain better insight into the concept of "hurtful" cyber-teasing between romantic partners. A pretheoretical model was developed…

This article explores the face-to-face interactions between parents and teachers in parent-teacher conferences in the Swedish preschool. The article highlights how the preschool teacher introduces the conference by using a specific artifact, so-called "strength cards" with words relating to characteristic behaviour and qualities. The theoretical…