Validity arguments for assessment tools intended to measure medical professionalism suffer for lack of a clear theoretical statement of what professionalism is and how it should behave. Drawing on several decades of field research addressing deviance and informal social control among physicians, a theoretical sketch of professionalism is presented…

As social media--which includes blogs, social networking environments, person-to-person and broadcast messaging, and other Web 2.0 applications--becomes more pervasive, their use has significant implications for emergency management practice and policy. Information and communication technology (ICT) enables people--disaster survivors, curious…

In Europe and in America there is a growing recognition of the need for theory, research, and applied programs that contribute to both community and youth resiliency. This article seeks to build on previous theory and literature to provide a conceptual framework for understanding the mechanisms for linking community and youth resiliency. Included…

Major developments in the use of the internet have enabled easy and widespread access to information and the ability to form virtual social networks. For parents of children with developmental disorders, who may at times feel isolated, having a forum to discuss their fears and concerns with other parents who are sharing similar experiences may…

Despite its invaluable guidance to distance education development, transactional distance (TD) theory is not seamlessly synchronised with current field practice and lacks a social component. After it has provided over 30 years of guidance, there is now a need to re-appraise TD's propositions about distance learning activities. The social-cultural…

The various scandals around social networking abuses have garnered lots of press in the past couple of years. Predators, bullying, slander, and harassment of all kinds on sites such as MySpace and Facebook are increasingly the subjects of horror stories and play into a renewed wave of fear about the dangers online. However, once the fear of safety…

Social media has permeated almost every aspect of the lives of anyone who utilizes the internet. Teachers and students are no exception. Students are most likely to use social media sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. This research focuses on best practices related to augmenting school curriculum to utilize these tools to increase student…

There have been increased efforts to recruit and retain underrepresented groups (Asians, African-Americans, and Hispanics) and students who speak English as a second language (ESL) into nursing. However their success rates lag behind those students who speak English as a first language. As little is known about the influence of non-cognitive…

This article reports on an online collaborative project between English language teachers pursuing a degree in TESL/TESOL from three universities in Malaysia--Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). A total of 142 teachers were involved in the study and about three to eight…

Studies have shown that learners with high degrees of socialization with the target language community acquire the target language better (Lybeck, 2002; Schumann, 1978). Milroy's (1987) use of social network theory in sociolinguistics indicates that socialization patterns are constituted by structural relationships of different types and…

Realists recognize reorganizations for what they are: opportunities to do things better--to change business as usual to reflect best practices, new tools and technologies, and current challenges in the marketplace. At educational institutions, perhaps no area is as sensitive to those shifts as communications and marketing offices. The advances in…

Numerous researchers discuss the solidarity-producing effects of crime, natural disasters and mass tragedies; however, there is much we do not understand about the processes involved in the phenomena. We specify the social relationships that "generate" and "sustain" solidarity by building on Hunter's descriptions of the…

This article introduces the Nokia Mobile Learning for Mathematics Project in South Africa, which made use of mobile technology to support mathematics learning at 30 public secondary schools. It draws on the evaluation of this project from January to June 2010. The article discusses learner access to mobile devices, learner and teacher uptake and…

For the forty-second time, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two volumes. Volume 1 contains 37 papers dealing…

An online survey conducted at a mid-Atlantic university and two high schools located in close geographical proximity sought to determine the motives for using the social network site Facebook.com. A redesigned instrument based upon the Interpersonal Communication Motives (ICM) scale used in past uses and gratifications research measured…