Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) in teacher education have a short history which is little longer than that of this journal. Twenty years ago they were the province of early adopters only and limited to email and, more unusually, asynchronous conferencing. Today, VLEs are widespread and mainstream, sophisticated and officially sanctioned…

While schools have been using computers within their classrooms for years now, there has been a purposeful ignoring of the growing power of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Many schools ban students from accessing and using sites such as Facebook at school and many English and literacy teachers ignore or deny their value as a teaching…

The problem with the study of the concept of electronic government (e-Gov) is that scholars in the field have not adequately explored various dimensions of the concept. Literature on e-Gov is replete with works on the form of government to consumer e-Gov. Much less work had been done on the government to government (G2G) e-Gov. This qualitative…

As public health concerns about physical inactivity and childhood obesity continue to rise, researchers are calling for interventions that comprehensively lead to more opportunities to participate in physical activity (PA). The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics and attitudes of trained physical education teachers during the…

Open Distance Learning (ODL) provides learners with the greatest possible control over time, place and pace of education. The educational delivery of ODL has improved greatly over the years with growing number of students continuously enrolling into various ODL programs globally. ODL however does come with issues and problems. Loss of student…

This article argues that the digital humanities can be seen as a humanities project in a time of significant change in the academy. The background is a number of scholarly, educational and technical challenges, the multiple epistemic traditions linked to the digital humanities, the potential reach of the field across and outside the humanities,…

This paper captures and characterises the interplay between a group of student teachers' narratives of social network practice and their emergent professional practice with technologies. Teachers on an Initial Teacher Education programme in the UK spent a semester studying a module that synthesised university-based lectures with a professional…

This dissertation aims to investigate how advanced information technologies cope with the various demands of disaster response. It consists of three essays on the exploration of micro-blogging and FOSS environments. The first essay looks at the usage of micro-blogging in the aftermath of the massive 2008 China earthquake and explores the…

From Facebook to Twitter, ordinary citizens' use of social media to discuss, organize, and participate in the political process continues to grow in popularity (Davis, 2005; Rainie, 2005; Kohut, Keeter, Doherty, & Dimock, 2008). Researchers interested in this area have explored the demographics, patterns of behavior and motives of participants…

Technological developments have affected teachers' instructional techniques: technology has allowed the concept of education to be viewed from different perspectives. The aim of this research is to integrate Web 2.0 tools, which are sparsely found on the internet (each tool is on a different site), into education and see if it positively affects…

Citizen science projects involve the public with scientists in collaborative research. Information and communication technologies for citizen science can enable massive virtual collaborations based on voluntary contributions by diverse participants. As the popularity of citizen science increases, scientists need a more thorough understanding of…

Like in all areas, virtual communities make their presence felt in the area of healthcare too. Virtual communities play an important role in healthcare in terms of gathering information on healthcare, sharing of personal interests and providing social support. Virtual communities provide a way for a group of peers to communicate with each other.…

Analysing the influence of new technologies/media (e.g., mobile phones, chats, instant messaging services) on the use and learning of maternal languages basic rules is the goal of this investigation, involving teachers and students (10th, 11th and 12th grade pupils, aged between 16 and 21) at the "Escola Secundaria de Silves" -- ESS…

Social networking sites (SNS) affordances for persistent interaction, collective generation of knowledge, and formation of peer-based clusters for knowledge sharing render them useful for developing constructivist knowledge environments. However, notwithstanding their academic value, these environments are not necessarily insulated from the…

The problem addressed in this qualitative case study focused on the limited amount of scholarly research addressing the use of information and communication technology in U.S. motor carrier operations. The trucking industry is part of the service sector which contributes approximately 67.8 percent to the gross domestic product of the United…