This article reports on how a social sciences instructor teaching contemporary global issues implemented collaborative learning among students in a virtual environment. A substantial part of this particular course was delivered at a distance with the help of the Web. The bulletin board feature of WebCT was used to implement a simulation game where…

Web 2.0, the term coined for the next generation Web, moves the Internet from being simply web sites and search engines to a shared network space that offers students a place to publish and broadcast their own writing, collaborate on projects, and engage in conversations. Students with their mobile and non-mobile devices are always online and…

This article describes the Quest Atlantis (QA) project, a learning and teaching project that employs a multiuser, virtual environment to immerse children, ages 9-12, in educational tasks. QA combines strategies used in commercial gaming environments with lessons from educational research on learning and motivation. It allows users at participating…

Technology and means of communication need an ethical analysis, which should be developed in educational contexts, so that they can be used suitably. This idea is materialized in the concept of "educational technoethics," which deals with the following two parameters: the intrinsic values including technology and means of communication…

At first glance, education provided over the Internet appears to be an improvement over that provided face to face. For busy adults juggling careers, courses and family obligations, learning via a Web site looks more convenient than attending classes face to face. Web-based courses are also reputed to educate better. Equity is another…

This submission contains the Proceedings of the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group (CMESG), held at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. The CMESG is a group of mathematicians and mathematics educators who meet annually to discuss mathematics education issues at all levels of learning. The aims…

"FACTC Focus" is a publication of Faculty Association of Community and Technical Colleges (FACTC) with the purpose of presenting diverse views on faculty issues. Included in this issue are: (1) Teaching Underwater (Jill Stukenberg); (2) The Ready Made Audience (Jason Nix); (3) Success or Insanity (J. Salas); (4) U Tube and Flickr…

This paper examines the practice of online discussion in a course specially tailored for in-service teachers who are pursuing their basic degree qualification at a teacher training institute. Analyses of postings to the asynchronous electronic discussion group were made according to the type of postings as proposed by Poole (2000). Four focus…

This study investigates differences in use of, and attitudes toward the Internet and computers generally for Chinese and British students, and gender differences in this cross-cultural context. Two hundred and twenty Chinese and 245 British students' responses to a self-report survey questionnaire are discussed. Significant differences were found…

With the increasing number of online courses within many higher education institutions, experienced instructors are facing the possibility of teaching online. These faculty members may face the task of converting their well-established face-to-face teaching strategies into an online environment. To better understand this transition, we analyzed…

The analysis of the process of collaboration is a central topic in current CSCL research. However, defining process characteristics relevant for collaboration quality and developing instruments capable of assessing these characteristics are no trivial tasks. In the assessment method presented in this paper, nine qualitatively defined dimensions of…

Major changes in mathematics pedagogy include writing as pedagogy and the role of community in learning. The classroom community is naturally extended by the use of online discussion boards. In this article several models for student use of online discussion boards that have been successfully used to promote mathematical discourse are presented.…

Studies and commentary from the United States suggest that current undergraduates, part of the so called Net Generation, are high end users of emerging technologies such as mobile devices and new communication tools. This paper reports results from an Australian study of first year undergraduates which confirms these assertions: ownership of…

Although protocol analysis can be an important tool for researchers to investigate the process of collaboration and communication, the use of this method of analysis can be time consuming. Hence, an automatic coding procedure for coding dialogue acts was developed. This procedure helps to determine the communicative function of messages in online…

Each new media revolution forces adjustments for both the producers of messages and the receivers of those messages. Integral to the communication process is an understanding of what it means to be literate in an eclectic communication environment and of how the new media may enhance or impede literacy. An important premise for this discussion is…