To date, little empirical research on professional use of social network sites has been conducted, particularly with reference to groups of teachers on Facebook. The paper presents the results of two surveys addressed to the founders of five Italian Facebook groups and their members (n = 1107), with the aim of investigating mechanisms underlying…

This paper reports on a case study investigating students' participation and learning presence in an educational blog implemented as a cross-thematic inquiry activity exploring and debating on the acid rain problem. Twenty-one secondary education students (14-15 years aged), coming from two separate classes, were involved. The content and…

This study aimed to investigate the relationships between college students' behavioral and cognitive engagements while performing an online collective information searching (CIS) activity. The activity aimed to assist the students in utilizing a social bookmarking application to exploit the Internet in a collective manner. A group of 101 college…

It was the aim of this study to investigate physical education undergraduate students' views on the use of social networking, one of the most typical representations of Web 2.0 technologies. In order to do so, the researcher, who was the instructor of the class, entitled "Fair Play Education in Sport", introduced Ning and its educational…

This article shares findings from a year-long study about social practices of high school youth with mobile devices during school time. In particular, this study found that students see their school time as fluidly social and academic. Educators and policy-makers need to carefully consider these social practices when preparing 21st century youth…

Facebook and other social media have been hailed as delivering the promise of new, socially engaged educational experiences for students in undergraduate, self-directed, and other educational sectors. A theoretical and historical analysis of these media in the light of earlier media transformations, however, helps to situate and qualify this…

The purpose of the study was to examine pre-service teachers' sense of community, perception of collaborative learning, and perceived learning. Fifty pre-service teachers from two undergraduate ICT courses which incorporated blogs participated in this study. The data were obtained via three online questionnaires (Collaborative Learning scale,…

Student demand and budget shortages have influenced the need for land-grant institutions to offer online courses. Research has identified that online courses broaden the reach of land-grant institutions to students who may not have access to campus. Literature indicated student satisfaction in online courses should be routinely assessed in order…

Literacy practices can be considered powerful tools used to claim a space, establish an identity, or provide a voice in various social interactions. The goals of this study were to understand the literacy practices of three female young adults who attended an alternative school prior to my study in the spring of 2008. The study also explored the…

This work proposes an organizational framework for creating a community to share personal health record (PHR) information in the form of a Health Records Social Network (HRSN). The work builds upon existing social network community concepts as well as the existing Systemized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED) model used by the medical community and…

As the ranks of educators on Twitter grow, more and more are heard about the importance of their "PLNs" (a term reportedly coined by educational technology guru David Warlick). A PLN, or Personal Learning Network, is a group of like-minded professionals with whom one can exchange ideas, advice, and resources. So why shouldn't students have PLNs of…

The social media environment is much like a coral reef--a living, growing, dynamic entity filled with billions of independent organisms or ideas attaching themselves to each other and creating something glorious. But like a reef, these free-floating ideas need to be nurtured by a robust and healthy ecosystem if they are to remain vital. In the…

If six degrees of separation is all that is needed for anyone to find anyone else, and if three clicks can find almost anything on the World Wide Web, perhaps analyzing how social networks form and connect people to each other offers a useful way to reconsider how the rehabilitation profession pursues job placement and employer development. Social…

When it comes to keeping an organization on the cutting edge, there is one thing that effective leaders cannot afford to neglect--and that is relationships. To support a quality public relations program in school districts, one of the most important relationships to cultivate is that with building principals. Talk to any seasoned school public…

In the 1990s, sociologists began to rethink the failure of utilization models to explain whether and why individuals accessed formal treatment systems. This effort focused on reconceptualizing the underlying assumptions and processes that shaped utilization patterns. While we have built a better understanding of how social networks structure…