This collaborative paper, created online by Ph.D students in a three-year cohort learning program at the California Institute of Integral Studies, explores the development and felt experience of distance learning. The purpose is to give a sense of how it feels to learn online and to describe the essence of learning. Results of this collaborative…

Children are born with an impressive ability to learn language, therefore the educational process is able to build on a dynamic that is already present. The principles that apply to the development of English language are equally applicable to all language learning. Good nursery education provides a microcosm of effective language development.…

Describes the Dublin model, a program which uses thematic units or individualized reading assignments to focus on popular adolescent literature and includes projects that demonstrate students' comprehension of text. Discusses the formulation, implementation, and assessment of this program. (RS)

Theoretical foundation of Response mechanisms in networks of online learners are revealed by Statistical Analysis of p* Markov Models for the Networks. Our comparative analysis of two networks shows that the minimal-effort hunt-for-social-capital mechanism controls a major behavior of both networks: negative tendency to respond. Differences in…

After reviewing the literature on interaction in distance education/online learning contexts, I offer some suggestions for balancing students' and teachers' needs for greater interaction with the economies of scale often achieved in such learning contexts. Specifically, I suggest that instructors' use of threaded online discussions and student…

A Pennsylvania district used study groups to help teachers districtwide change their science teaching to standards-based practice of inquiry. Standards-based inquiry instruction requires that teachers have a deeper content knowledge as well as understand the process of inquiry. Making those changes requires support and a collegial environment.

An educational leadership preparation program for the 21st Century not only makes use of innovations in teaching and learning, but pushes the educational experience forward through the effective use of advanced technologies. This idea frames the delivery methodology for a blended online principal preparation program. The blended online program was…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of voluntary discussion forums in a higher education setting. Specifically, we examined intrinsic forum participation and investigated its relation to course performance across two experiments. In Experiment 1 (N = 1284) an online discussion forum was implemented at the beginning of an…

This paper focuses on the implications of two emerging digital technologies on the act of field birding, and the implications of these objects for thinking about wild birds. While the adoption of new immaterial technologies promises to improve the ease with which birding is practiced, their use leads to new ethical considerations. Using the…

In this article, we describe a project on reasoning about socio-scientific issues (SSIs), involving French and Australian pre-service science teachers engaged in on-line discussion and development of a wiki. In the research, we developed frameworks for looking at the quality of reasoning about "socially acute" sustainability questions.…

Lifelong learning programs continue to grow in span and scope. Few studies, however, have investigated how older adults themselves participate in group learning. The central question explored in our study was as follows: Does gender play a role in group dynamics for older adults? Two groups of volunteers (age 62 to 96 years) enrolled in a 16-week…

This project analyzed results of 16 focus group interviews with 144 special and regular education teachers concerning inclusive education of students with disabilities, including their concerns, obstacles they had encountered, effective strategies, inservice training they found helpful, suggestions for addressing inclusion in teacher preparation…

This monograph describes results of focus group interviews with 53 regular and special education teachers in Tennessee concerning their experience with inclusion of students with disabilities in regular education classrooms. An introduction notes the trend toward inclusion of students with disabilities in regular programs while providing needed…

This book presents a systematic approach to developing a new college course involving, first, global analysis; second, thought, planning, and methodical preparation; and, third, evaluation of results. Chapter 1 recommends that the teacher examine the conditions of the teaching situation including reasons for the course, resources available, and…

This study was designed to combine the voices of advocates for a multicultural teacher education curriculum with the voices of advocates for the case study method in order to explore the possibilities of addressing multicultural issues in preservice teacher education coursework. To examine how preservice teachers make sense of diversity through…