Technology can support the interface between urban and metropolitan universities and the cities and regions of which they are a part. Through partnerships and the Web as a medium for communication and collaboration, technology can support community dialog around institutional goals. Through identifying opportunities and facilitating reflection in…

This article presents an idea of "digital social creativity" as part of social media and examines an approach emphasising openness and experimentation and collaborative learning in the world of information and communication technologies. Wikipedia and similar digital tools provide both challenges to and possibilities for building learning sites in…

Internet predators are finding new ways to prey on the vulnerabilities of youth in chat rooms and lure them into sexual activities. This study will examine three chat room transcripts between adult predators and adult volunteers of the group "Perverted Justice" posing as youth. These conversations will be analyzed to interpret the underlying…

With nearly half of all new teachers leaving the classroom within 5 years, schools are faced with the challenge of retaining early-career teachers while simultaneously providing them with the support they need to develop into effective professionals. Mentoring novice teachers by pairing them with experienced teachers in schools is a widely adopted…

To get money flowing from alumni, colleges try to keep them feeling plugged in to their alma mater--even if the "plug" becomes wireless. Bucknell University rolled out a new service this month that pushes cell phone text messages to its 47,000 alumni. So far only a few dozen alumni have signed up for the service. If the service, which is…

This study investigated the process by which shared understanding develops in a chat learning space. It used a practical inquiry model to assess the development of cognitive presence. The study also explored how the pattern of conversation in synchronous discussion supports cognitive presence and how cognitive presence changes over time. Results…

"Future" often conjures up something far off. Library media specialists come to realize that the future is often much closer than they think. Web 2.0 technologies have swiftly taken library media specialists into a whole new realm of possibilities. No longer consumers, they have the opportunity to become producers of information and collaborators…

Over the past few years Australian universities have sought to establish generic graduate attributes statements to meet the demands of external stakeholders. Within the area of information and communication technology (ICT), for example, professional organizations and employers want new ICT graduates to be able to talk with clients, create…

This descriptive pilot study employed the Grascha-Riechmann Student Learning Style Scale (GRSLSS) to examine student communication and interactions in an online educational discussion that occurred for fourteen days. Discussion activity exhibited conversational turns and messages appeared as conversation rather than expository. Individuals scoring…

This paper seeks to improve approaches to the learning and teaching of culture using new technologies by relating the key qualities and dimensions of the culture concept to elements within a pedagogical framework. In Part One, five facets of the culture concept are developed: culture as elemental; culture as relative; culture as group membership;…

Handwritten notes, meeting for coffee, eye contact, a handshake, a smile--are these social practices of yesteryear, soon to be replaced by the "wall posts" and "pokes" of today's social networking technologies? Although advances in social networking technologies allow for new and perhaps more efficient means of learning and…

Practice-based education is gaining a growing popularity in fields as diverse as, for example, software engineering, pedagogy and medical studies. In practice-based education learning takes place across different learning arenas and requires cooperation among all the actors involved in the learning process. However, mobility of students across…

People connect on Facebook by asking to "friend" one another. A typical user lists at least 100 such connections, while newbies are informed, "You don't have any friends yet." A humbling statement. It might make one want to find some. But friending students can be even dicier than befriending them. In the real world, casual professors may ask…

The purpose of this study was to determine if the nature of student comments on anonymous end-of-course evaluations differed relative to course delivery medium. Comments evaluated were submitted by 202 graduate students enrolled in face-to-face (F2F) and online versions of research and statistics courses over a four-year period. Results suggested…

This study focused on the effects of peer moderation on meaningful interactions in online discussions. A meaningful interaction was defined as a message relating to a discussion topic, responding to a previous message, and adding substance to the discussion. A randomized-subject, posttest-only control group design was used to test the first…