Shows how a classic experiential exercise in management education was modified to allow participants to use networked computers as well as face-to-face interaction. Suggests ways facilitators can examine their own assumptions about computer-mediated communication and help participants deal with its impact. (SK)

Business students (n=80) participated in a face-to-face, collaborative writing activity, then groups of 4 worked on activities using teleconferencing software. Students saw no differences between the two methods in socialization, brainstorming, conflict resolution, or quality of work. (SK)

Proposes a set of elements that can be taken to constitute the social context of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and digital information. This "digital information environment" can be useful in guiding research into the structure of the social context and its influences on ways in which people in different social and…

Discusses gaps between traditional and virtual organizational environments and suggests that electronic communication training is necessary to lessen the chance for unclear messages, to enhance faceless interactions, and avoid communication overload. Topics include interpersonal skills; verbal and nonverbal communication competencies; written…

Presents a case study that examined communication patterns, participation, the epistemological character of interactions, knowledge construction, and learning processes of college students who used two forms of computer mediated communication to discuss class topics: an asynchronous electronic bulletin board, and a synchronous text chat…

Describes Euroland, a virtual world that was generated within the context of a joint research project between The Netherlands and Italy aimed at the facilitation of cross-cultural communication and collaborative knowledge building between schools using a variety of communication formats, including text-based versus visual and synchronous versus…

Proposes the use of specific coaching strategies to facilitate student use of expert-like problem-solving strategies while analyzing and solving instructional design case studies. At two universities, 37 students analyzed 6-10 case studies in class and in online discussions. Findings suggested primary influences on the incidence of expert…

Describes the Career Portfolio, a tool designed to guide students in developing strategic career plans and marketing their professional qualifications to employers and graduate/professional schools. Provides an overview of the Career Portfolio, including the principles on which the program is based and the features that distinguish it. (GCP)

Investigates the practice of critical literacy through asynchronous computer networking as students in a school-college collaboration examined assumptions relating to gender issues. Finds the medium proved to be an apt environment--students named experiences relating to gender issues that touched their lives, and students felt free to share ideas…

Studied the effects of a combination of student collaboration, concept mapping, and electronic technologies with 26 students in a graduate level learning theories class. Findings suggest that concept mapping and collaborative learning techniques complement each other, and that students found the combined approach useful. (SLD)

Community participation is central to achieving sustainable natural resource management. A prerequisite to informed participation is that community and stakeholder groups have access to different knowledge sources, are more closely attuned to the different issues and viewpoints, and are sufficiently equipped to understand and maybe resolve complex…

This article addresses the question of how to build human relations in web-based collaborative learning. Although the field of web-based education/training (WBE/T) has grown rapidly in the last few years, there has been little systematic research on the issue of group formation in such environments. It is the difficult to build human relations in…

Digital literacy involves more than the mere ability to use software or operate a digital device; it includes a large variety of complex cognitive, motor, sociological, and emotional skills, which users need in order to function effectively in digital environments. The tasks required in this context include, for example, "reading" instructions…

This case study of an online graduate course determines the message characteristics of the instructor, volunteer teaching assistants, and students in online discussions, and proposes a mentoring, coaching, and facilitating model for online discussions. The researchers developed a coding system based on the literature of mentoring, coaching, and…

You probably think instant messaging (IM) as something teenagers do to chat up friends online, whether across the street or across the world. But IM has some buttoned-down business benefits, as well as some risks you may not be aware of. Unlike e-mail, in which you fire off messages to recipients who read them when they next check their in-box,…