Wikis have the potential to change learning environments from traditional knowledge transmission models to knowledge transformative ones where students generate, share, and reshape knowledge. In this three-part study, graduate students created wikibooks across institutional settings. One of these projects extended to universities in China, Taiwan,…

This article sets out to identify key competencies which language tutors need to develop in order to manage synchronous online teaching. In order to aptly monitor interactions with distant learners, it is proposed that three types of regulation pertaining to socio-affective, pedagogical and multimedia aspects are required. On the one hand, this…

Like any infrastructure technology, Virtual World (VW) platforms provide affordances that facilitate some activities and hinder others. Although it is theoretically possible for a VW platform to support all types of activities, designers make choices that lead technologies to be more or less suited for different learning objectives. Virtual World…

Pre-laboratory activities have been known to improve students' preparation before their practical work as they assist students to make available more working memory capacity for actual learning during the laboratory. The aim of this investigation was to compare two different teaching approaches which supported a pre-laboratory session by using the…

Researchers investigated if early childhood teachers could become reflective practitioners when they studied culturally specific constructs within a digital collegial environment. Three female African American early childhood teachers within three different settings (a faith-based primary school, a home school, and a government-funded pre-school…

As schools are increasingly encouraging students to use the Internet and web-based technology at home and in the classroom, concerns among some parents have increased. Today's parents have learned about computers as adults and did not receive guided participation as children either from their parents or from their teachers. The essence of this…

Computer-supported discursive learning (CSDL) systems for the support of asynchronous discursive learning need to fulfill specific socio-technical conditions. To understand these conditions, we employed design experiments combining aspects of communication theory, empirical findings, and continuous improvement of the investigated prototypes. Our…

While some geographers have embraced active learning as a means to engage students in a course, many others stick to conventional teaching methods. They are often deterred by suggestions that it can be difficult to implement active learning where students have no prior knowledge of a subject, that active learning requires too much work of…

Based on four years of experience teaching computers to 8-12 year olds, media scholar Ellen Seiter offers parents and educators practical advice on what children need to know about the Internet and when they need to know it. "The Internet Playground" argues that, contrary to the promises of technology boosters, teaching with computers is…

This essay examines three issues that emerge from the literature on computer-mediated instruction and from the experience of teaching online oral communication courses: (1) To what extent can online courses realize economies of scale to reduce cost and increase enrollment? (2) What productive potential does tracking and monitoring online…

With online education continuing its meteoric rise, some educators continue to debate the efficacy of the medium--in particular, the ability to discuss complex subjects online. However, the online asynchronous discussion environment seems to offer some advantages over the traditional classroom including increased time for students to research and…

Meaning making in new media presents new opportunities and challenges for those working in formal and informal educational contexts. How this impacts on a literacy curriculum that attempts both to deliver "the basics" and to respond to new technology demands careful exploration. This paper examines what we mean by digital literacy and how it…

Nearly a decade ago the author wrote in one of the first widely-cited academic articles, Educational Researcher, about the educational role of the web. He argued that educators must be able to demonstrate that the web (1) can increase access to learning, (2) must not result in higher costs for learning, and (3) can lead to improved learning. These…

The gaps between students' and faculty members' use of technology have widened. Many faculty members today have become so inundated with digital communications from students that it is not unusual for communication protocols and limitations to be specified in course syllabi. Most faculty members have home access to campus resources and use a…

The purpose of this study is to understand how beginning teachers actually utilize online resources in their everyday teaching contexts. Using a qualitative interview study design, the researchers investigated beginning teachers' use of online resources in three dimensions: professional tasks, emotional/personal support, and teaching practice. The…