This study investigated novice mathematics teachers participating in an online teacher education course focused on covariational reasoning and understanding the behavior of functions. The analysis centered on documenting the emergence of participants' sociomathematical norms for engaging in online asynchronous discussions. In this paper, we…

The present study investigated the experiences of educators who taught in the virtual world Second Life®. Second Life has shown promise in the field of higher education but identified gaps exist: the identification of a set of best practices, a foundational theory, and educators' experiences using Second Life in higher education. Using a single…

With technological development, social networking has become a powerful resource for building relationships, improving collaboration and facilitating learning processes. However, while the majority of educational research on this topic has focused mainly on university students' use of social media, less is known about the potential of social media…

Emotion has long been a question of great interest in a wide range of fields. As a general rule, emotions are categorized as positive, which we seek, and negative, from which we turn away. However, empirically-backed connectivists claim that even negative emotions produce positive effects on student performance. What is less clear is how this…

This study investigated the impact of using a discussion strategy with learning analytics on the level of student cognitive presence and interaction. The study used a quasi-experimental design with control and experimental groups. The experimental group applied open-ended discussion and elaborated feedback with learning analytics while the control…

Social networking service platforms and social media have generated a significant amount of discussion and debate regarding their use in second or foreign language learning. However, leveraging digital tools with pedagogical constructs to enhance accessibility and engagement in teaching and learning English idiomatics has not received equal…

Discussion forums are used to support socio-collaborative learning processes among students in online courses. However, complex forum structures and lengthy discourse require that students spend their limited time searching and filtering through posts to find those that are relevant to them rather than spending that time engaged in other…

With the permeation of the Internet in teachers' personal and professional lives, teachers are going online to connect, share ideas and expand their learning opportunities. This qualitative study focuses on the use of digital applications that leverage opportunities for teachers in the design phase, that is, at the time they are developing and…

Research finds that student effectiveness can be related to how well a student interacts and communicates in the classroom, supporting the notion that student-student interaction is important (Frymier, 2005; Poulou, 2009). According to Sidelinger and Booth-Butterfield (2010), student-student connectedness (defined as "a supportive and…

The research studied the effectiveness of the integration of Facebook as a flexible ubiquitous learning space into the educational process for speaking skills development of undergraduate students learning English as a second language. For this purpose teaching was organised via a specially created and moderated Facebook group where various media…

Encouraging learners to engage in learning activities outside of formal class time is an ongoing challenge for language teachers. It has been argued that the social aspect of technologies can used as a support for learning, but how to achieve this remains a challenge. There is evidence that from a theoretical perspective, social networking appears…

As an emerging interest area, positive communication scholarship focuses on issues of happiness and well-being in a variety of social contexts. Borrowing from positive psychology and happiness literature (Lyubomirsky, 2008), positive communication research explores expressions of gratitude, kindness, compassion, and forgiveness, as well as issues…

Approaching the new media literacies as social practices through the lens of Participatory Culture Framework, the present study adapted new media literacies to online social networks and examined the social media literacy practices of international graduate students (IGSs). The data was collected through an online survey of 90 IGSs,…

Young people's interaction online is rapidly increasing, which enables new spaces for communication; the impact on learning, however, is not yet acknowledged in education. The aim of this exploratory case study is to scrutinize how students frame their interaction in social networking sites (SNS) in school practices and what that implies for…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the benefits and challenges using laptop computers (hereafter referred to as laptops) inside and outside higher education classrooms. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 156 university students (54 males, 102 females) enrolled in either education or communication studies. Benefits of…