In this mixed-methods study, we investigated how doctoral students used asynchronous online discussions that were added to a face-to-face research methods course. We focused specifically on what sociocognitive tools the students used and what they thought about the value of the online discussions for their learning. Our data included three online…

This study tried to ascertain a possible relationship between the number of student moderators (1, 2, and 3), online interactions, and critical thinking of K-12 educators enrolled in an online course that was taught from a constructivist approach. The course topic was use of technology in special education. Social network analysis (SNA) and…

Digital communication increases students' learning outcomes in higher education. Web 2.0 technologies encourages students' active engagement, collaboration, and participation in class activities, facilitates group work, and encourages information sharing among students. Familiarity with organizational use and sharing in social networks aids…

The objectives of this project were to: i) describe the experience of implementing Problem-Based Learning in an online course over three consecutive academic years, ii) analyse the learning environment generated, iii) discuss impacts on students' active participation, based on the analysis of their interactions. The participants were 30 students,…

Trust among teachers is an important aspect of the capacity for reform in schools. In previous research, trust has traditionally been considered as a monolithic variable that characterizes this special element as a relationship across a school (Bryk & Schneider, 2002, 2003; Goddard, 2003; Kochanek, 2005). However, this study proposes that the…

In the past 35-45 years, college and university faculties have changed considerably and there is no longer a single profile that fits all professors in U.S. higher education. These demographic changes within the professoriate suggest that research is needed to understand faculty work life and careers. This study explores one particular aspect of…

The Knowledge Society Network (KSN) "takes advantage of new knowledge media to maximize and democratize society's knowledge-creating capacity" (www.ikit.org/KSN). This article synthesizes the principles and designs of this network which were initiated over 15 years ago, and presents an exploratory study of interactions in the KSN over…

This study examined whether clique isolation predicted an increase in depressive symptoms and whether this association was mediated by loneliness and perceived social acceptance in 310 children followed from age 11-14 years. Clique isolation was identified through social network analysis, whereas depressive symptoms, loneliness, and perceived…

Library 2.0 literature has described many of the possibilities Web 2.0 technologies offer to libraries. Case studies have assessed local use, but no studies have measured the Library 2.0 phenomenon by searching public social networking sites. This study used library-specific terms to search public social networking sites, blog search engines, and…

A number of scholars are exploring district and site relations in organizational change efforts in the larger policy context of No Child Left Behind. These studies suggest the importance of the central office as a support to the work of reform and offer strategies for building relations between district offices and sites in order to implement and…

In this paper we present an unsupervised neural network model of bilingual lexical development and interaction. We focus on how the representational structures of the bilingual lexicons can emerge, develop, and interact with each other as a function of the learning history. The results show that: (1) distinct representations for the two lexicons…

The recent increase in short messaging system (SMS) text messaging, often using abbreviated, non-conventional "textisms" (e.g. "2nite"), in school-aged children has raised fears of negative consequences of such technology for literacy. The current research used a paradigm developed by Dixon and Kaminska, who showed that exposure to phonetically…

This paper considers the macro and micro-political forces that influenced the development of the Education for All--Fast Track Initiative in its formative years from 2002-2009. The author uses the conceptual framework of the network organisation to analyse the complex interaction of personal, political and institutional forces that shaped the FTI…

This article explores how Korean exchange students organized their studies during exchange programs in Swedish higher education. For most students, the programs became a disordered period in relation to their education. The value of exchange studies seems mainly to be extra-curricular. Drawing upon actor network theory, the article argues that the…

Thesis Statement: "Availability-dependent global predicates can be efficiently and scalably realized for a class of distributed services, in spite of specific selfish and colluding behaviors, using local and decentralized protocols". Several types of large-scale distributed systems spanning the Internet have to deal with availability variations…