The popularity of Facebook among university students inevitably raises questions on the educational potential of this Social Networking Site for Higher Education. From the limited literature on the instructional uses of Facebook, one can draw conflicting conclusions. Benefits were identified through the communicative potential, student…

Given the ubiquity of digital media in daily life, students must not only read and write traditional texts, but also those associated with information and multimedia technologies, such as blogs, photo and video sharing sites, social networks, and wikis. In response to the need to teach students to read and write these non-traditional texts, guides…

This dissertation manuscript reports on a study that explored the ways in which the focal children in three Muslim immigrant families enacted identity by way of literacy practice. This study set out to construct a better understanding of Muslim American immigrant families by providing a "thick description" of their identity performance…

Frequently interacting with other people or working in an information-rich environment can foster the "accidental discovery of information" (ADI) (Erdelez, 2000; McCay-Peet & Toms, 2010). With the increasing adoption of social web technologies, online user-participation communities and user-generated content have provided users the…

What are the most popular practices and tactics for electronic student recruitment at the undergraduate level? To find out, Noel-Levitz conducted a Web-based poll in April of 2012 as part of the firm's continuing series of benchmark polls for higher education. As a special bonus, selected findings from a parallel study of prospective students are…

Research on internet communication technologies by midlife and older adults has received less attention than the young, yet rapid gains in the use internet media suggest older adults have become significant users. Adoption of specific applications has emerged in patterns distinct from younger users, reflecting the different experiences and…

This study examines how knowledge management (KM) is applied to higher education in Thailand, and it will also examine whether higher education in Thailand is ready to combine KM with their educational missions in terms of teaching, research, administration, and strategic planning. Knowledge creation and social networking frameworks are used to…

This study describes and tests a model of scientific inquiry as an evolving, organizational phenomenon. Arguments are derived from organizational ecology and evolutionary theory. The empirical subject of study is an "epistemic community" of scientists publishing on a research topic in physics: the string theoretic concept of…

This study investigated how first-generation Latina/o students utilize social networks to succeed in a two-year community college. Guided by a social capital framework, this qualitative study examined the role informal experiences play in the persistence of first-generation Latina/o students attending a community college. Results in this study…

Sokolowski (2000) summarized the phenomenological attitude by saying, "We look at what we normally look through" (p. 50). Through interviews and document analysis, this study looked at the lives of six students and their decision to return to their education to earn a high school diploma. The purpose of this study was to illuminate how…

This dissertation addresses the issue of using the social networking website, Facebook, for educational purposes by examining how it was used in an upper-level public relations course. Research on education suggests instructors should find ways for their students to take a more active approach in learning and can do so by having them engage in…

This dissertation consists of three studies on the development of information technology (IT) industry in Korea and Taiwan. Using industry-level data from those countries, I would like to investigate why similar economies would take different paths toward developing their industries. The first chapter, "Span of Control and Production…

Through analysis of a qualitative online ethnography in an Internet text-based website message board database called "WidowNet" (http://www.widownet.org/wnbb3), I studied online text conversations of adults who lost their life partners to death. This online autoethnographical research investigates how and why online widows/widowers perform their…

Over the last four years, the Afterschool Alliance and MetLife Foundation have worked together to identify exemplary, and often lesser-known afterschool programs across the nation. For the past two years, efforts have focused on finding innovative afterschool programs serving middle school students. This focus was developed to address the need for…

In Learning Networks, learners need to share knowledge with others to build knowledge. In particular, when working on complex tasks, they often need to acquire extra cognitive resources from others to process a high task load. However, without support high task load and organizing knowledge sharing themselves might easily overload learners'…