Blended learning can facilitate many opportunities about usage of online discussion for different purposes. As a tool in blended learning, online discussions widen the walls of classroom discussions in a virtual manner. Especially, in teacher education programs case based discussions are very helpful for pre-service teachers to practice real-life…

Notions of what it is to be knowledgeable and skilled in one's profession have evolved in recent decades. For instance, medical practitioners are expected to think critically and creatively, communicate effectively, and to be a professional and community leader. While these attributes have always been well regarded, it is only relatively recently…

This study explored the use of the Web-based virtual environment, Adobe Connect Pro, in a postgraduate online teacher education programme at the University of Waikato. It applied the tenets of Moore's Theory of Transactional Distance (Moore, 1997) in examining the efficacy of using the virtual classroom to promote quality dialogue and explored how…

This study verified the efficacy of the intentional repetition technique in improving interaction in asynchronous online discussions by taking into account the learning styles of the participants. A conceptual framework served for the development of the technique, which conceptualises efficient and cohesive interaction on a continuum of process…

This study examined the relationship between community cohesion and computer-mediated conferencing (CMC), as well as other variables potentially associated with the development of a learning community. Within the context of a graduate-level course in instructional design (a core course in the Masters of Distance Education program at Athabasca…

The experience that will be described in this paper is based on work carried out during the Chance Project, an experimental programme designed to re-integrate teenage drop-outs from difficult areas of the inner city into mainstream school. The Project, which has been running in Naples, southern Italy, since 1998, comprises three school centres…

Sex offenders have used the Internet to identify and contact minors for sexual exploitation (Armagh, 1998; Hernandez, 2000; Lamb, 1998; Lanning, 1998). Yet little is known about how these individuals select their online victims. In order to gain a better understanding of this behavior, the online activity of 31 men who perpetrated or attempted to…

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is currently used in language teaching as a bridge for the development of written and spoken skills [Kern, R., 1995. "Restructuring classroom interaction with networked computers: effects on quantity and characteristics of language production." "The Modern Language Journal" 79, 457-476]. Within CMC…

Despite emphasis and progress in developing collaborative inquiry in computer-supported collaborative learning research, little attention has been given to examining how collective learning can be assessed in computer-supported collaborative learning classrooms, and how students can have agency in assessing their own collaborative process. We…

A facilitator or moderator is often responsible for supporting processes and their progress in learning communities. In this article we present an approach for supporting moderators of asynchronous processes in learning communities. This approach follows the socio-technical perspective: it includes a theory-based development of moderator tasks and…

In this article, we explore how members of a teacher conversation group, focused on primary students' learning, circulated and instantiated a cultural model of what teaching for literacy meant and how young children learned. We show how, over time, particular discourses around literacy as a quantifiable and measurable skill populated teachers',…

As proposed by social constructive theorists, meaningful learning and individual development were achieved through social interaction. To foster social interaction among students, this study formed an online learning community in which they played multiple roles as writers, editors and commentators. In playing different roles, they read peers'…

Project-based learning engages students in problem solving through artefact design. However, previous studies of online project-based learning have focused primarily on the dynamics of online collaboration; students' knowledge construction throughout this process has not been examined thoroughly. This case study analyzed the relationship between…

The present study attempted to investigate whether young learners who were new to knowledge building approaches could work towards advancing both individual and collective knowledge, and whether knowledge building could be beneficial to both high-achieving and low-achieving students. Findings reported in this paper are from one and a half-year…

These proceedings contain the papers of the IADIS International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2013), October 22-24, 2013, which has been organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS), co-organized by The University of North Texas (UNT), sponsored by the…