This paper provides a means of quickly ascertaining the relative health of smaller academic libraries by presenting a top ten list of vitality indicators. The list is based on an observational convenience sampling of thirty smaller academic libraries across the United States. The indicators making the list were those which appeared most often in…

E-learning is becoming increasingly prevalent in educational institutions throughout the world. There is a growing awareness of the need to assess the impact of this new type of learning on the educational system and on the students who participate in these programs. In May 2008, following 4 years of research, iClass held a conference to discuss…

A growing number of television programs direct their viewers to access an Internet website for further information on a presented topic. The explicit link between television programs and companion Internet websites, both of which communicate information through multiple modes, can be considered a form of intertextuality. Do college students…

These are heady days for online learning in the academy. What was once the domain of innovative institutions, administrators, and faculty is quickly becoming mainstream. Higher education has seen rapid growth in online enrollments relative to the rest of the college population. More than one in five college students has taken a class online. A…

College leaders usually brag about their tech-filled "smart" classrooms, but a dean at Southern Methodist University is proudly removing computers from lecture halls. Jose A. Bowen, dean of the Meadows School of the Arts, has challenged his colleagues to "teach naked"--by which he means, "sans" machines. More than any thing else, Mr. Bowen wants…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide description and an analysis of two worlds colliding where real-world roles or ideas play out in a virtual dimension. Inhabited by digital natives, the virtual world in a learning organization is a journey back to the future of microworlds where the only limitation is one's imagination.…

Language arts education has experienced enormous growth and change with the advent of multimodalities in new media, digital literacies, and technologies. In this paper, Hagood uses Deleuze and Guattari's (1980/1987) theoretical work of a rhizome, rhizoanalysis, and rhizomatic cartography to view the field and examine differently converging…

Students are using Web 2.0 tools in school to meet technology and curriculum standards and many parents want to know more about those tools. How can the library media specialist be the "go-to" person for those parents who have Web 2.0 questions? It is important to keep up with Web tools but also important to know the limits. New Web tools are…

As we move further into the 21st century, the digital native/digital immigrant paradigm created by Marc Prensky in 2001 is becoming less relevant. In this article, Prensky suggests that we should focus instead on the development of what he calls "digital wisdom." Arguing that digital technology can make us not just smarter but truly wiser, Prensky…

In turning toward that which has fallen out of use, one approaches the threshold between presence and passing; between knowing and forgetting. It is the "place", perhaps the unexpected "pause", where language and loss meet. This essay speculates on the particular apparatus of print, the making and unmaking of its medium in a time of technological…

Disquisitions about public intellectuals usually conclude that they are not what they used to be. The pessimism about public intellectuals is reflected in attitudes about how the rise of the Internet in general, and blogs in particular, affects intellectual output. Critics fail to recognize how the growth of blogs and other forms of online writing…

This study covers the effects that social media use has on the daily lives of college students. More specifically, the current study focuses on college students' academic success, study habits, social interaction, and family interaction. Social media is a source of online tools that allow people from across the world to communicate with others.…

As technology advances so do schools and colleges and universities try to keep up with these technological advancements. It was not long ago that computers were installed in schools and colleges, now students have access to the internet on computers. It makes sense then to add distance-learning courses, where students can be enrolled in internet…

No one has had it worse than the Midwest. Job losses in the "great recession" of 2007 spared no region, but the bulk of industries hardest hit were in the Midwestern states. This is the second of a series of reports detailing the job and educational demand prospects for workers, by major census regions. When compared to all other…

Teaching a speech communication course in typical HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) comes with many issues, because the application of technology in some minority institutions differs. The levels of acceptability as well as affordability are also core issues that affect application. Using technology in the classroom means many…