For more than a decade practitioners have promoted professional learning communities (PLCs) as an effective structure for providing teachers with professional development (Chappuis, Chappuis, & Stiggins, 2009; DuFour, Eaker, & DuFour, 2005). These collaborative networks are believed to be effective because they expose teachers to new ideas…

Professional learning communities (PLCs)--teams of educators who get together regularly to exchange ideas--have sprung up to meet school districts' growing interest in promoting professional development that engages teachers and administrators. PLCs meet to develop lesson plans, monitor student progress, assess instructional effectiveness, and…

This study examines the online writing and revision behaviors of university language learners. In small groups, 53 intermediate German students from three classes at three different universities created wiki pages with background information about a novel read in class. All meaning- and language-related revisions were analyzed to determine whether…

For language learning, online environments allowing for user generated content are becoming increasingly important since they offer possibilities for learners to elaborate on assignments and projects. This study investigates what wikis can do as a means to enhance group interaction, when students are encouraged to participate in constructing text…

One-to-one computing environments change and improve classroom dynamics as individual students can bring handheld devices fitted with wireless communication capabilities into the classrooms. However, the screens of handheld devices, being designed for individual-user mobile application, limit promotion of interaction among groups of learners. This…

A common challenge in many situations of computer-supported collaborative learning is increasing the willingness of those involved to share their knowledge with other group members. As a prototypical situation of computer-supported information exchange, a shared-database setting was chosen for the current study. This information-exchange situation…

This exploratory study investigates the potential of Wiki technology as a tool for teaching and learning. Wikis are a component of Web 2.0 technology tools that provide collaborative features and active learning opportunities in a web-based environment. This research study sought to empirically determine the pedagogical value of using Wiki…

This whitepaper outlines the development and use of the Zing team learning system (TLS) and suggests this tool represents a new breed of collaborative tool for the development of useable knowledge arising from group learning and problem solving. A key feature of this tool is that it scaffolds the learner's use of the thinking and decision making…

Residential universities are increasingly integrating online interaction within courses in the form of synchronous online chats, asynchronous online discussions and access to interactive resources. This article evaluates the educational effectiveness of online chats within a Humanities postgraduate course and a final year Commerce course. We…

In this paper an analysis is made about how awareness in digital learning environments relates to communication, coordination and cooperation and, consequently, collaboration. A collaboration model, where awareness occupies a central position, is presented. The awareness elements of the AulaNet environment are also analyzed, seeking to identify…

"Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning in Higher Education" provides a resource for researchers and practitioners in the area of computer-supported collaborative learning (also known as CSCL); particularly those working within a tertiary education environment. It includes articles of relevance to those interested in both theory and practice in…

Used ethnographic methods to examine, over six months, the relationship between gender and open-ended computer software use to compose stories for 36 first graders. Found that females in mixed-gender groups were more likely to have their competence or work laughed at or criticized than when working alone or in all-female groups. Females used…