This experiential exercise teaches students what constitutes Appreciative Inquiry and how it is different from other feedback models, along with giving students the opportunity to apply their knowledge. Students practice giving Appreciative Inquiry to their peers' presentations through the use of an online platform that allows for written words…

Discourses surrounding digital technologies have often foregrounded their capacity to connect people however, in reality, online communication can also result in fragmentation, polarization and modes of exclusion. To address these issues, this paper highlights the need for learners to develop a critical digital literacy (CDL) that contributes to a…

The digital is inextricably woven across people's everyday lives and literacy practices, and English educators are tasked with preparing students to be critical, ethical, and agentic inventors and consumers of digital text. What has crystallized for English educators is an awareness that facilitating "digital discourse"--or the multiple…

The shift of evidence-based, active and inquiry-based pedagogy to online modalities has typically been done with a synchronous model, using video conferencing technology to facilitate interaction and collaboration amongst students. Such an approach can be infeasible for some students and create inequitable situations within a class. This paper…

When COVID-19 appeared on international radar this year and began its march around the globe, it revealed to any who might have previously denied it that the work to eliminate educational inequities is far from done. During this pandemic, more than ever, many educators are keeping these inequities top of mind. Rather than move online with what…

The COVID-19 pandemic posed, and continues to pose, many challenges to teaching and learning, most notably the need to pivot from traditional in-person course instruction and experiences to entirely virtual course delivery while maintaining course rigor and quality. Our guiding principle for course modification was the critical need for an…

University programs for preparing preservice teachers of languages for teaching in schools generally involve generic pedagogy, methodology, curriculum, programming and issues foci, that provide a bridge between the study of languages (or recognition of existing language proficiency) and the teaching of languages. There is much territory to cover…

Treasure quests in virtual worlds can help students develop multi-literacy communication skills and promote community, offering insights about art teaching and learning. As part of the new media literacy, students explore the offerings of Second Life (SL), a virtual world, as a series of quests. Multi-literacy involves communication. Through their…

This paper presents a promising and powerful approach used to cultivate a doctoral community of inquiry and practice and harness the intelligence, commitment, and energy of all of its members in a blended learning environment. The discussion board online learning community approach was developed to transform a traditional face-to-face doctoral…

As free online courses draw students to star professors at prestigious colleges, Peer 2 Peer University asks whether instructors are needed at all. This article features Peer 2 Peer University, a three-year-old online institution where students learn together, at no charge, using materials found on the Web. The unusual institution, where anyone…

Apps, specialized programs used on mobile computers, can be used in innovative ways to enhance science and literacy learning. With the skilled guidance of their teachers, students can exploit app affordances for learning and acquire disciplinary literacies unique to science. This article showcases apps that help students to access information,…

This article describes how Web 2.0 technologies may facilitate journaling and related inquiry methods among older adults. Benefits and limitations of journaling are summarized as well as computer skills of older adults. We then describe how Web 2.0 technologies can enhance journaling among older adults by diminishing feelings of isolation,…

Children in classrooms and scientists in laboratories engage in similar activities: they observe, ask questions, and try to explain phenomena. Video conferencing technology can remove the wall between the classroom and the laboratory, bringing children and scientists together. Virtual experiences and field trips can provide many of the benefits of…

Throughout this group of authors' respective experiences as middle school teachers and teacher educators, they have worked with diverse populations of students with varying beliefs about education--students for whom achievement and success are perceived as foregone conclusions, students for whom school is viewed as a pathway to a better life, and…

Today's youth thrive in informal participatory communities where they not only consume but also act as contributors or producers. Through active participation they develop new media skills encompassing cultural competencies and social skills. In a participatory culture of learning, students' active contributions to their learning are stressed and…