Whilst the dynamics informing processes have taken time to become clear, civic resistance initiated by young people using new media began in Egypt in 2010 against the Mubarak regime, soon widened to Tunisia, Yemen and Libya. Known as the "Arab Spring", this phenomenon re-ignited discussion about the political role of digital space and…

Asynchronous online threaded discussions are widely recognized as a tool to enhance learning in the virtual classroom. While they can serve as a mechanism for reinforcing material and promoting a deeper understanding of course content, discussion boards often lack rich and dynamic dialogue, and instead serve as a field of obligatory discourse,…

The aim of this study is to examine the determinants of effective web-based teaching and learning processes, using MEBIR (Management Education by Internet Readiness) Scale. Data were obtained from 407 students studying in a number of universities in China. The results demonstrate that the perceived quality of the web-based international management…

Online collaborative learning allows discussion to occur at greater depth where knowledge can be constructed remotely. However students were found to construct knowledge at low-level where they discussed by sharing and comparing opinions; those are inadequate for new knowledge creation. As such, this research attempted to investigate the students'…

The purpose of this article is to give an overview of what is needed for creating and teaching an online Chinese course and some systematic recommendations for what a Chinese language teacher needs to know in order to continuously succeed in the new teaching context. An exhaustive review of empirical studies published in the past seven years is…

We report on our development of an educational social machine based on the concept that feedback in communities is an effective means to support the development of communities of learning and practice. Key challenges faced by this work are how best to support educational and social interactions, how to deliver personalised tuition, and how to…

Adults frequently define their lives as "hectic" and "overextended;" yet, many make the decision to return to school and add the role of student into their busy lives. This research study explored and explained the impact of connective technology on self-efficacy and self-regulated learning of female adult students balancing…

To help students prepare for the resit exam of the mathematics Bagrut (Israeli matriculation) of 2013, the Center for Educational Technology established a virtual review session using Facebook, for four days before the exam. 614 students and 16 teachers participated. We examined three central questions, each about using Facebook to prepare for the…

The 2010 National Educational Technology Plan argued that online communities of practice should be an integral component of the future of professional learning for educators. Building on at least two decades of existing scholarship, this report summarizes three years of exploratory research conducted by the Connected Educators project and…

The purpose of the current study was to compare the use of virtual discussion boards in various educational settings in the United States and Costa Rica. Participants included professors of education, in-service and pre-service teachers in the United States and Costa Rica where a survey was used that included demographic, knowledge, attitude, and…

New teachers of students with significant disabilities are expected to use evidence-based practices that build academic and functional skills from their first day on the job. Yet, these teachers may struggle with applying information learned in their preservice coursework to their daily instructional practices. One widely accepted means of…

Despite extensive preparation in high-quality programs, novice teachers face a daily deluge of moments when their understandings about teaching are called into question in the living context of their new classrooms. These encounters often challenge new teachers' ideals about what teaching truly entails as well as their abilities to succeed in…

New technologies, such as social networks, wikis, blogs and other social tools, enable collaborative work and are important facilitators of the social learning process. Many companies are using these types of tools as substitutes for their intranets, especially software development companies. However, the content generated by these tools in many…

This study investigated course design factors influencing social presence and the development of ICT self-efficacy. Instructional design factors that promoted authentic uses of threaded discussions as a vehicle to establish social presence, self-directed learning and cooperative learning resulted in 900 posts in a semester, when no posts were…

This article examines the effects of teaching behaviors in online university classes, focusing on the agreement among class members. Literature on group leaders' effects on group agreement about workplace climate is reviewed. Hypotheses are generated about the effects that teachers of online courses, as class leaders, have on both the level and…