The aim of this study was to investigate whether differences in information and communication technology (ICT) readiness and access across countries were fundamentally related to the variable of English language adoption. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was utilized to comparatively examine the developments of ICT readiness…

Intergenerational interactions have demonstrated some success at improving attitudes of college students toward older adults. This quasiexperimental study involved undergraduate college students paired with older adults for a six-week e-mail exchange. Student attitudes toward older adults were measured pre- and posttest with Polizzi's revised…

A survey of online fundraising by the "Chronicle of Philanthropy" found that 192 nonprofit organizations raised $1.1 billion online in 2007 and $1.4 billion in 2008. Given this trend, to what extent are educational institutions using and succeeding with online fundraising? Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) explored this…

When Megan Meier hanged herself in 2006 after being the brunt of a MySpace prank, followed by the subsequent trial of the adult who participated in the 13-year-old girl's harassment, cyberbullying took its place in the eye of a media storm. All the ensuing attention has translated into increased concern among parents and a heightened awareness…

This exploratory analysis examined the nature of asynchronous, text-based communication in peer-directed educational discussions. The nature of communication changed over time and women exhibited greater tendency for epistolary communication than men. Initial posts, which were expository in nature, focused on disseminating information whereas…

Twitter is quickly becoming a global faculty lounge. Sure, it's easy to waste a lot of time on the Internet-based microblogging service reading mundane details about people's days. But one can also pick up some great higher-education gossip, track down colleagues to collaborate with, or get advice on how to improve one's teaching or research. In…

In this article the author considers some aspects of the egregious error or "howler". What effects does the "howler" have as a social practice? What questions are raised when a teacher shares beyond his or her own school a student's mistake for the amusement of others?

This study analyzes gender variation in nonstandard typography--specifically, abbreviations and insertions--in mobile phone text messages (SMS) posted to a public Italian interactive television (iTV) program. All broadcast SMS were collected for a period of 2 days from the Web archive for the iTV program, and the frequency and distribution of…

The information technology educational programs at most universities in Egypt face many obstacles that can be overcome using technology enhanced learning. An open source Moodle eLearning platform has been implemented at many public and private universities in Egypt, as an aid to deliver e-content and to provide the institution with various…

There has always been a debate around the issue of what it is that improves learning: the instruction itself or the media used for it (Clark 1983; Kozma 1994). It has also been said (Kulik and Kulik 1991; Andrewartha & Wilmot 2001) that computer mediated learning, as opposed to traditional instruction, positively influences the students'…

This paper highlights the findings of a study examining the contextual factors that mediated distance learners' participation in an online forum (OLF). Contextual factors are elements that emerge as a result of distance learners' interaction with their social environment. The study drew on a sociocultural perspective that encompassed the concepts…

Research on the use of software programs and tools such as pedagogical agents has peaked over the last decade. Pedagogical agents are on-screen characters that facilitate instruction. This meta-analysis examined the effect of using pedagogical agents on learning by reviewing 43 studies involving 3,088 participants. Analysis of the results…

Chilean youth are currently demanding access to better-quality education for all: greater democracy and curricula that respect the country's indigenous cultural roots form part of their petitions. This article puts forward a twofold pedagogical proposal for English Language Teaching intended to foster intrinsic motivation and democratic…

Studies of informal language learning and self-instruction with online materials have recently come into prominence. However, those studies are predominantly focused on more commonly taught languages and there is a gap in the literature on less commonly taught languages (LCTL), precisely the languages that are often studied outside of formal…

Facebook is, in most countries, a very popular Social Network Service (SNS). Since the launch of its service in Japan in 2008, it has been growing rapidly. As a platform for a link to the world, Facebook can also be used effectively for language learning in English as a foreign language (EFL) environments. The purpose of this project was to…