Podcasts are increasingly being used for educational purposes within and outside of the classroom. In the English as a New Language (ENL) classroom, podcasts have been used as a source of authentic auditory input to supplement traditional pedagogical materials. The creation of podcasts by learners has been widely used to encourage language…

An effective learning community helps foster positive student learning experiences and outcomes. However, in distance learning environments, the communication barriers inevitably hinder the interaction among the students because of the lower levels of social presence. These barriers present challenges in building learning communities in an online…

Explores social constructivist theory; investigates successful collaboration; discusses characteristics of communication in an electronic setting, arriving at solutions for improving the use and effectiveness of computer mediated communication environments. Strategies suggested are: structuring interaction with authentic tasks, questioning…