This article assesses the pedagogic value of the "chat" facility in the Blackboard integrated learning platform. It draws on a case study carried out by the author in the 2001-2 academic session. A level three class in research methods involved students in group working away from class and student feedback indicated that more support was needed to…

Most educators increasingly regard ill-structured problem solving as an important objective of learning and have sought various means to achieve it. In this article, we describe a learning environment to help pre-service teachers in Singapore solve ill-structured problems. There are four key dimensions in our learning environment: tutor-led…

This article outlines the evolution of a unique distance education program that began as a hybrid--combining face-to-face instruction with asynchronous online teaching--and evolved to become an innovative combination of synchronous education using live streaming video, audio, and chat over the Internet, blended with asynchronous online discussions…

Although computer-mediated discussions (CMDs) have the potential to be ideal forums for fostering dialogue, research on listservs and in college composition classes has found that the discourse tends to be dominated by a few individuals, often men, and is sometimes abusive. In contrast, results of our study in a teacher education course revealed…

Telementoring, also referred to as e-mentoring or online mentoring, has been carried out in a wide range of K-12 environments and continues to grow in popularity. Through a review of several studies, we argue that the potential for telementoring to support deeper and more authentic school learning will not be fully realized unless researchers pay…

This article reports on the development of measures of attitudes toward online and face-to-face counseling. Overall, participants expressed more favorable evaluations of face-to-face counseling than of online counseling. Significant correlations were found between online and face-to-face counseling with traditional help-seeking attitudes, comfort…

Computer-assisted language instruction is no longer new, and language teachers are now poised to move forward as they witness shifts in ways of thinking about the authenticity of using electronic media to communicate with language learners, the difference between using and thinking with a technology, and the hypervisibility of language students'…

Electronic mentoring programmes at colleges and universities and especially in engineering and science are a relatively new phenomenon. Electronic mentoring has been developed based on the possibilities unique to information and communications technology. The common feature of electronic mentoring programmes is the independence from geography and…

Due to the now widespread use of the Internet, most companies now require computer aided design (CAD) tools that support distributed collaborative design on the Internet. Such CAD tools should enable designers to share product models, as well as related data, from geographically distant locations. However, integrated collaborative design…

Since 2001, the author has researched the value of asynchronous discussion for student learning, with the support of the Visible Knowledge Project. Many of the author's observations about the value of asynchronous discussion were previously documented by other researchers. The author has found that asynchronous discussion can involve more…

In this article, the authors work across issues of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education to explore the meaning of emotional experience in the context of online learning. In light of Mestrovic's (1997) notion of a "post-emotional" society and the increasing role of ICT in education, it is argued that educators need to…

This essay explores contemporary accounts of the significance of the Internet and the intersections of these cyberspace narratives with theoretical and material construals of queer identity, agency, and community. The author discusses evidence of the ongoing mediative role of artifacts in the fashioning of identity in community in order to explore…

This paper reports an empirical study comparing the role of discourse and knowledge representations (graphical evidence mapping) in face-to-face versus synchronous online collaborative learning. Prior work in face-to-face collaborative learning situations has shown that the features of representational notations can influence the focus of…

Documenting collaborative knowledge construction is critical for research in computer-supported collaborative learning. Because this is a multifaceted phenomenon, mixed methods are necessary to construct a good understanding of collaborative interactions, otherwise there is a risk of being overly reductionistic. In this paper I use quantitative…

Two contrasting additions to the online audio market are reviewed: "iVocalize", a browser-based audio-conferencing software, and "Skype", a PC-to-PC Internet telephone tool. These products are selected for review on the basis of their success in gaining rapid popular attention and usage during 2003-04. The "iVocalize" review emphasizes the…