Health outcomes are associated with aggregate neighborhood measures and individual neighborhood perceptions. In this study, the authors sought to delineate individual, social network, and spatial factors that may influence perceptions of neighborhood disorder. Multilevel regression analysis showed that neighborhood perceptions were more negative…

Personal learning networks (PLNs) are not new. People have long relied on their families, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances to supplement their knowledge about the world. But the times are changing. Information and communication technologies (ICT), including an ever-growing repertoire of open source applications, have freed content from the…

The Gifted Kids Network is a Web-based, supplemental, gifted and talented programming model that includes standards-based classes, enrichment clusters, and affective programming. Students are encouraged to think critically and creatively and to question the material that is presented to them in order to meaningfully integrate topics covered into…

Background: Social support has been identified as a major protective factor in preventing mental health problems and also as a major contributor to quality of life. People with intellectual disabilities (ID) have been identified as having limited social support structures. Interventions have been focused on promoting their social presence and…

The undergraduate business program rankings in USNWR are based solely on peer assessments from deans and associate deans of AACSB accredited U.S. business schools. Often these reputation-based rankings are discounted and likened to a beauty pageant because the process lacks transparent input data. In this study, ten deans and ten associate…

The increasing prevalence of digital information systems and technologies compels libraries across the globe to update systems and provide users with a digital experience outside the confines of the structural library, providing useful benefits to the user while creating new areas of concern such as digital information preservation.…

Patients with fibromyalgia have difficulty managing symptoms (e.g., fatigue, chronic pain). The challenges in fibromyalgia management may vary from patient to patient, from painful physical exercise to pharmaceutical side-effects. Since the management of fibromyalgia greatly varies, there seems to be an individualist or personal component to…

Technology has enabled students to have greater access to vast array of resources, classes and experts; empowering students to become "Free Agent Learners" who are creating meaningful personalized learning experiences 24/7 outside of the traditional classroom and school structure. In the report "Creating our Future: Students Speak Up about their…

In a digital era in which technology plays a role in most aspects of a child's life, having the competence and confidence to use computers might be a necessary step, but not a goal in itself. Developing character traits that will serve children to use technology in a safe way to communicate and connect with others, and providing opportunities for…

Background: Immersive virtual worlds are one of a range of different platforms that can be grouped under the concept of mediated environments, i.e. environments that create a metaphorical space in which participants can position themselves and be embodied. Synthesising the literatures concerning the various mediated environment technologies…

Entrepreneurial start-ups have left an indelible impression on much of the USA's recent economic history. As hotbeds for technological innovation, university research laboratories create groundbreaking innovations that have been at the heart of many successful start-ups. However, powerful ideas do not necessarily beget successful companies: great…

This article describes the networks of experts involved in the fabrication of indicators and benchmarks supporting the Open Method of Coordination led by the European Commission. In studying international expertise, it explores the policy borrowing process and the transfer of knowledge between several agents and institutions at global level. Our…

At the beginning of last year the assistant Middle Division director at the Berkeley Preparatory School challenged his faculty to collaborate with at least one teacher from another department in the division for a portion of one unit. Because the challenge was given at the beginning of the school year, it was received with trepidation, but, after…

Much research into the use of online information and communication technologies for the internationalisation of learning and teaching has focused on established web technologies. This paper considers the possible internationalisation implications of existing uses of social software, also known as Web 2.0 technologies, which are now widely…

Education has long been considered as playing a part in the construction or formation of self and identity. The processes of education and formation, being historically and culturally shaped, display the concerns and features of time and place. One of the distinguishing and influential features of contemporary western societies is communication…