Recently embraced by the legal profession to make justice more accessible, social media (SM) is fast becoming the primary tool of communication for the courts. In Australia today the Supreme Court of Victoria uses SM to share judgments, media releases, publications, speeches and other information. On the County Court of Victoria home page, one can…

Recently, professional learning communities (PLCs) have been advocated as a promising approach in higher education (Eaker & Sells, 2015) for faculty development that can improve student learning outcomes and help students graduate with demonstrable skills, yet the field is still lacking in research on this phenomenon within higher education…

This quasi-experimental, non-equivalent groups study investigated the effects of instructional text messages on the academic achievement and sense of connectedness of high school students enrolled in economics classes in north Georgia. Previous research on text messaging has shown that it (a) is the preferred method used by adolescents for…

The number of students being enrolled in distance learning institutes is huge, which is a token of success for this mode of education. But literature showed that many students could not complete their degrees due to various reasons. Some of the reasons are common but can vary in different regions according to resources available and socio-economic…

After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, China implemented the largest online education practice in human history. In the process, different teaching models coexist. Through a quasi-natural experiment, a total of 1,024 samples from Guiyang No.8 Middle School and another comparable school with the same conditions and students were enrolled for…

The present article describes a study that analyzed practical applications of informal online spaces in formal instruction. It was conducted in an intermediate ESL course at an American University. The concept of affinity spaces was used to guide the research. Students in the course were instructed to play the video game, Pokémon Go as an…

The Internet has offered many opportunities for interactions and participation. The current study positioned YouTube as a possible affinity space (Gee, 2003, 2004) for students to showcase their personal talents. The participants were recruited from a group of senior students in a Taiwanese university who volunteered to participate in this study.…

Virtual exchange, or telecollaboration, is a well-known pedagogical approach in foreign language education that involves engaging classes in online intercultural collaboration projects with international partners as an integrated part of their educational programmes. This article focuses on the role of the teacher as pedagogical mentor in virtual…

After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, China implemented the largest online education practice in human history. In the process, different teaching models coexist. Through a quasi-natural experiment, a total of 1,024 samples from Guiyang No.8 Middle School and another comparable school with the same conditions and students were enrolled for…

Navigating the shift towards blended learning in Higher Education (HE) provides opportunities for enhancing language teaching in the classroom. This paper will present a Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL)-based project which aims to create a more collaborative and interactive classroom using open access file sharing services which focuses on…

Information communication technology (ICT) that is used in instruction has attracted the attention of researchers with many studies having looked at the factors affecting how university instructors apply it in their teaching. Yet little is known about whether the gender of university teachers can impact their ICT use. This research relies on…

Purpose: Innovative use of information and communications technology (ICT) requires (new) knowledge and skills for the group that has the biggest impact on the quality of education--instructors. Facilitating professional development (PD) of instructors is crucial for the quality of one's education system(s), perhaps even more so in times of a…

The inclusion of new digital literacies in the ESL classroom has been growing lately. This study presents information about how beneficial it can be for emergent bilinguals to use an online platform, Blackboard, to engage in thoughtful and meaningful discussion boards. Findings from this qualitative case study show that such online discussion…

This study investigated the content learning of fourth graders (N = 92) randomly assigned to complete electronic Frayer Models on life science vocabulary by themselves or while engaging in synchronous online discussions with a partner. The use of the graphic organizers was interspersed with other science activities. After seven weeks, all students…

The current study investigated the quality of feedback produced via anonymous online peer feedback activity in a Thai EFL writing classroom. It also explored how the students perceived the anonymous online peer feedback activity. Peer feedback tasks, questionnaires, and an interview were used to collect the information. The results from the peer…