This paper utilizes a model of technology-mediated interaction to highlight the importance of social interaction in the construction of a collaborative online learning community. Learning communities are built around relationships. There are many factors that impact on the ability of social interaction to create social comfort and the capacity for…

Rapid technological development in the last decade has made it easier than ever to use technologies as collaborative learning tools. Computer video conferencing as a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) technology brings learners closer to real-world environments and it provides increasing opportunities for learners to share…

It is assumed that cooperative learning continuously constructs and extends the shared knowledge of a group of learners with respect to a specific learning domain. Experiences with Computer-Supported Collaborative/Cooperative Learning (CSCL) environments indicate that an explicit representation of the shared knowledge is helpful with regard to two…

This paper discusses stigmergy (i.e., the effect of communication through the environment) in relation to the Internet, especially with regard to World Wide Web-based learning. The paper begins by examining ways in which stigmergy occurs on the Web and then goes on to describe its use in the construction of a continually evolving system, CoFIND…

The development and use of communication and information technologies, notably the Internet, have stimulated huge changes in the organization of work and daily life in Europe, leading to a process of transition from the "Industrial" to the "Information" society. The ultimate aim of the Information Society should be the…

This paper reports on a two-year exploratory study to determine the viability of voice-based threaded discussions forums as a means of stimulating discussion and understanding of weekly readings as part of a large undergraduate communications course. From March to June 2001, 600 students participating in a large introduction to communication…

This book presents information specialists--researchers, librarians, and students who work with information--with an accessible approach to finding information on the World Wide Web and the Internet. Each of the chapters contains one or more step-by-step activities to demonstrate fundamental skills and concepts. The book has an accompanying Web…

Noting that forms of distance education have been available for 150 years, this paper gives an overview of distance education designed to help educators understand how distance education can be used. Sections of the paper address: (1) background of distance education; (2) methods and technology for delivery of distance education (including…

The interactive Web site pilot project is a cross-lab project involving 10 regional educational laboratories. The primary goals are to help Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) schools gain and share information, and help build national capacity in comprehensive school reform. The interactive Web site is an online CSRD community…

This paper is particularly concerned with the authorial text with its single, usually male, frequently European, inspired and objective voice. Enabled by a discourse of clarity, a reader of this text may identify with a single author's mind. While much has been done to displace this construct in schools over the last few decades, the paper…

This book is an introduction to the practical and theoretical concepts of information science. The author draws on recent research into the field of information science, as well as from scholarly and trade publications, and includes articles by Harold Borko, Klause Otten, and Anthony DeBons to emphasize the long-standing dissension in the field.…

This paper traces the range of literacy events that occur in one cybercommunity whose members are participants in the ongoing role play, "Cybersphere." A sample text produced by users within the community serves as the focus for critical analysis and offers a rich example of the ways in which language is being used within cyberculture.…

Instructors who have put together a course to reach the distant learner can tell the nightmares of preparing and delivering a syllabus. Many are the instructors who have attempted and failed to teach a distance learning course when little or no thought was given to modifying the method of delivery or how to connect the distant and remote site…

This paper presents a case for applying information competency (IC) standards to digital reference services at academic libraries. Practical reasons for applying standards or guidelines to e-mail and online chat reference services are given with some insight to the nature of digital reference interactions. The standards that arose from the…

Part book, part CD-ROM, this publication offers new ideas for transforming advanced writing courses. The 33 essays in the publication describe and offer concrete examples of curriculum that incorporates discipline-based theory and history, that situates writers in public discourse, and that fully prepares students for careers as writers. The…