Monitoring one's own performance accurately is essential for information-processing and self-regulation, which are indispensable in an online learning environment. In this article, the effect of metacognitive monitoring (MM) on interaction in an asynchronous online discussion forum was investigated. Transcripts of this forum, which was integrated…

This article presents an interview with two effective spokespeople, notable school librarian Sara Kelly Johns and retired public library administrator Molly Raphael, who compete to be American Library Association (ALA) president. One of them will be elected president of ALA for a year's term beginning in July 2011. Each candidate comes from a…

Substantial efforts have been made recently to compare the effectiveness of traditional course formats to alternative formats (most often, online delivery compared to traditional on-site delivery). This study examines, not the delivery format but rather the evaluation format. It compares traditional paper and pencil methods for course evaluation…

Teachers have used many different techniques in efforts to augment engagement given the strong engagement-learning link. Teacher-student contact is one of the most effective tools for fostering engagement; however, some teachers find it hard to initiate contact in a way that seems natural. I present one method of initiating student-teacher…

This article explores the use of multiple digital tools for mediating communications, drawing on two recent empirical studies in which students and researchers in UK higher education worked on collaborative activities: how different tools were used and the quality of the communications and their contributions to collaborative working and knowledge…

There are widespread concerns that on the internet, adolescents are especially vulnerable and take more risks than adults. However, research supporting this concern is still missing. The aim of this study was to explore whether (a) unwanted online sexual solicitation, (b) risky sexual online behavior, and (c) the perception of risks and benefits…

In this article, the author talks about telepresence, a combination of real-time video, audio, and interactive technologies that gives people in distributed locations a collaborative experience that's as close to being in the same room as current technology allows. In a culture that's still adjusting to iPhone-size screen displays and choppy cell…

Penich-Thacker points to the increasing digital presence of the U.S. military, not only on official dot.mil sites but also on commercial social networking sites, and suggests that the interactions and intersections of military and civilian personnel online challenge the notion of "fundamental differences" between these populations.

Background: Interest in and use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the United States is increasing. However, CAM remains an area of nascency for researchers and western practitioners. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine U.S. health educators' attitudes toward CAM and their use of common CAM therapies. Methods: A…

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which students' self-regulated learning predicts peer social presence, instructor social presence, sense of connectedness, and sense of learning in asynchronous online learning environments. Self-regulated learning has been measured with self-regulation for learning tasks (SRLT) and…

Blogs, short for Weblogs, began to show up in the late 1990s, based on online discussion boards centered on threaded topics. Currently, a blog typically refers to a Web site in which an individual posts entries and then allows for commentary from the readers. If scholars look to some educational theory, both novice and experienced bloggers can use…

When Matthew Slaughter stood before a roomful of staff, community members, and former and current students at Minnetonka High School to receive the Distinguished Alumni award, the honor was not only his, but belonged in part to the effectiveness of a coordinated, integrated, multi-pronged online communication strategy. He reconnected with this old…

Although there is strong evidence that massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) constitute environments of social interactions and effective learning, we currently lack the tools for investigating the effectiveness of the social networks emerging as well as the cognitive aspects and knowledge acquisition such environments involve. Within this…

This article discusses the future of reading and writing. It includes a brief history of reading and writing, shows the reader how digital text has quietly evolved and threatens to take over traditional notions of what it means to be literate, and suggests that speech will emerge as a dominant way of communicating. The three ideas developed here…

Death and bereavement are human experiences that new media helps facilitate alongside creating new social grief practices that occur online. This study investigated how people's postings and tweets facilitated the communication of grief after pop music icon Michael Jackson died. Drawing on past grief research, religion, and new media studies, a…