This exploratory study uses quantitative and qualitative data to explore (1) whether educational blogging is associated with gains in student comprehension, (2) the relationship between writing medium (online or hard copy) and student time on task, and (3) student perceptions of blogging in the classroom. College students (n=52) completed a series…

There has long been a call for schools to prepare students for the twenty-first century where skills and dispositions differ significantly from much of what has historically characterized formal education. The knowledge based economy calls for policy and pedagogical efforts that would transform schools. Schools are to foster communities of…

The convenient format, delivery, and accessibility of information offered by podcasting has made it a hot new trend. One of its limitations in educational applications, however, is its implementation primarily as a push technology--one that simply feeds users information. Podcasts tend to focus listeners inward and rarely encourage human…

A well-designed syllabus provides students with a roadmap for an engaging and successful learning experience, whereas a poorly designed syllabus impedes communication between faculty and students, increases student anxiety and potential complaints, and reduces overall teaching effectiveness. In an effort to facilitate, streamline, and improve…

Children's online experience, especially the risks to which they might be exposed, is an increasingly important policy and research concern. This article reports an analysis of the amount, nature and range of empirical research concerning children's online experiences across 18 European countries. Research teams in each country have collaborated,…

It was the perfect Halloween project. Each class would construct a three-dimensional "monster" out of common classroom materials (construction paper, cardboard boxes, tape, markers, glue, string, etc.), then write down instructions for building the monster and send them off to another class in the district, or in some other district, or even some…

Purpose: This paper aims to introduce an enterprise-wide Web 2.0 learning support platform--SNAP, developed at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. Design/methodology/approach: Pointing to the evolution of the social web, the paper discusses the potential for the development of e-learning platforms that employ constructivist, connectivist,…

To understand the student experience on social software, the research aims to explore the disruptive nature and opportunity of social networking for higher education. Taking four universities, the research: (1) identifies the distinction between the students' current usage of social software; (2) reports on the students' experience on…

Background: In the 1990s, Salmon developed a five-stage model for enabling and scaffolding remote groups to work and learn together using asynchronous bulletin boards. The model has informed online learning and development practice across different levels and education for online and blended learning. Purpose: This paper reports our testing of the…

Schools generally have been unable to keep up with the rapid technical changes in modern society. As a result, primary school age children worldwide are becoming self-taught independent e-learners and the gap between what they know and are able to do exceeds the learning outcomes for their schools' ICT (information communication technology)…

Shared databases are used for knowledge exchange in groups. Whether a person is willing to contribute knowledge to a shared database presents a social dilemma: Each group member saves time and energy by not contributing any information to the database and by using the database only to retrieve information which was contributed by others. But if…

Feedback theory proposes that feedback influences the behavior of a system and its parts and that is governed by rules. This exploratory study attempts to test this theory in a graduate-level class on leadership theory. Twelve students were asked to participate in five online discussions, each lasting one week. The questions for each discussion…

Although an increasing number of K-12 educators have taken up blogging in the past few years, blogging professors are still a rarity. Time pressures, entrenched beliefs about peer-reviewed publication, and a lack of familiarity all contribute to the paucity of faculty who regularly blog for public audiences. In this article, several prominent…

This article features the WebQuest, an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet. WebQuests, when properly constructed, are activities, usually authentic in nature, that require the student to use Internet-based resources to deepen their understanding and…

Voice Communications are critical for the proper functioning of primary, secondary and higher education environments. At the K-12 level, teachers and staff must be able to communicate with each other between classrooms and the school office. Also, teachers often need to communicate between schools within a district as well as with the district…