In the online learning world it is easy to become so preoccupied by technology that technology solutions are mistaken for educational solutions. Long-term improvements in online departmental and university communities require an educational approach that recognizes the reduced delivery of community in the online world, just as research has shown a…

This study explores a labelling feature that allows students to tag parts of their online messages. Data comes from four sequentially offered sessions of a graduate education course. Students engaged in two to three online activities in groups of three or four. Students (n = 53) contributed from 0 to 56 labels (M = 12.42, SD = 13.50) and 18 to 114…

This paper analyses the use of various communication channels in science teachers' professional development project aiming to develop versatile uses for ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in science teaching. A teacher network was created specifically for this project, and the researchers facilitated three forms of communication…

Distance education means instruction in which the instructor and student are separated by distance and interact through the assistance of communication technology. Distance education changes the learning relationship from the common, centralized school model to a more decentralized, flexible model. It also reverses social dynamics by bringing…

Web 2.0 applications such as YouTube have made it likely that students participate in online back-and-forth exchanges that influence their rhetorical literacy. Because of the back-and-forth nature of online communities, we turn to the procedural, critical, and progressive qualities of dialectic as a means of accounting for what makes public…

For a growing group of educators, the online role-playing game World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment's massively popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), is a place to go to relax, network, and discover potential learning strategies-- and slay a few monsters if they get in the way. The online role-playing game World of…

Adult students have become the new majority in online distance education. Research in online distance education, however, is still predominantly based on the historical perspective of the traditional student profile. This study examines adult students' learning engagement in online courses and explores the impact of online course design models and…

This article examined online learners' preferences in personalized, relationship-based social awareness information sharing in course management systems. Three hundred seventy-seven online learners' willingness to share social awareness information was measured through a national survey. Results indicated that today's online learners are open…

This article talks about the latest trend in education, which is social networking. As this phenomenon continues to grow, community colleges are getting into the act, launching online initiatives and harnessing the technology to communicate, promote, and conduct important school business. School administrators believe that social networking can…

This study examined the benefits and difficulties that graduate student teachers perceived while participating in online collaborative group activities during their first year of a masters program. Overall, it was discovered that the three most prominent perceived learning outcomes involved 1) the teachers' recognition of the value of a supportive…

Purpose: At many universities, web lectures have become an integral part of the e-learning portfolio over the last few years. While many aspects of the technology involved, like automatic recording techniques or innovative interfaces for replay, have evolved at a rapid pace, web lecturing has remained independent of other important developments…

Using computers to help students practice and learn grammatical constructions goes back to the earliest days of computer-assisted language learning (CALL). With the coming of the Internet age, CALL began to focus more heavily on the new capabilities of group connectivity and computer-mediated communication. More recently, a gathering consensus has…

As course management systems (CMS) gain popularity in facilitating teaching. A forum is a key component to facilitate the interactions among students and teachers. Content analysis is the most popular way to study a discussion forum. But content analysis is a human labor intensity process; for example, the coding process relies heavily on manual…

This year's "School Library Journal's" spending survey showed that, despite the recession, the vast majority of media centers around the country have retained their credentialed media specialists. For example, almost 85% of elementary schools and more than 95% of middle and high schools have a full-time certified librarian. In addition, salaries…

This study explores how preservice primary teachers became engaged in meaning-making mathematics teaching when participating in online discussions within learning environments integrating video-clips of mathematics teaching. We identified different modes of participation in the online discussions and different levels of knowledge-building. The…