New social technologies offer new opportunities for creating online communities of praxis in the preparation of preservice teachers. In this design research study, 22 preservice teachers in a social studies methods class conducted online class discussions inside the National Council of the Social Studies Network Ning, a social network for social…

The addition of video capabilities to portable media playing devices has engendered a broader definition of the term podcast to include video files. Current research designs on podcast use in education are neglectful of the considerations of cognitive load on student learning. Podcasting is the process by which multimedia learning objects (MLOs)…

Drawing on previous research that focused upon the formation and mediation of teacher professional identity, this paper develops a model for conceptualising teacher professional identity. Increasingly, technical-rational understandings of teachers' work and "role" are privileged in policy and public discourse over more nuanced and holistic…

Contextual learning starts from the premise that learning cannot take place in a vacuum, but should somehow be connected with real world attributes to make sense to learners. Today, digital media tend to bring about new dimensions of context: internet connections and mobile devices enable learners to overcome restrictions of time and location, and…

In this article, we outline the differences between a monolingual and multilingual orientation to language and language acquisition. The increasing contact between languages in the context of globalization motivates such a shift of paradigms. Multilingual communicative practices have remained vibrant in non-western communities for a long time. We…

We implemented two local area network (LAN) projects in our introductory data communications and networking course. The first project required students to develop a LAN from scratch for a small imaginary organization. The second project required student groups to analyze a LAN for a real world small organization. By allowing students to apply what…

This article reviews the use of several valuation methods as they relate to drug abuse and places them within the context of U.S. policy. First, cost-of-illness (COI) studies are reviewed and their limitations discussed. Second, three additional economic methods of valuing drug abuse are reviewed, including cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA),…

The public policy of numerous nations, including Australia, articulates a clear expectation that schools will develop young people's capacities to participate in civic society and its democratic structures and processes. A romantic policy rhetoric hides a reality that is both more complex and less well understood than is typically acknowledged.…

Drawing on primary data and adjunct material, this article adopts a critical self-reflexive approach to a three-year, Australian Research Council-funded project that explored themes around "employment citizenship" for high school students in Queensland. The article addresses three overlapping areas that reflect some of the central…

The research-teaching nexus is central to higher education as well as students' intellectual development. Staff identity can be developed by departments focussing on the nexus. In the context of an increasing interest in developing firmer relationships between research and teaching, there has been an acknowledgement that understanding students'…

This reaction article comments on the major contribution titled "Motivation and Autonomy in Counseling, Psychotherapy, and Behavior Change: A Look at Theory and Practice." It first points out the article's strengths, the primary of which was to move the construct of motivation to the center of focus in the discussion of counseling. In addition,…

An Illinois district brings a local university into the district to craft advanced learning embedded in the needs of specific schools. Community High School District 155 in Crystal Lake, Ill., and Northern Illinois University (NIU) College of Education engaged in a partnership that has provided significant benefits, posed limited challenges, and…

This article details a field-based methods course for preservice teachers that has been designed to integrate shared teaching experiences in elementary classrooms with ongoing critical dialogues with a focus on highlighting the complexities of teaching. I describe the structure of the course and explore the use of coteaching and cogenerative…

In our research and educational practice we sometimes use songwriting as an alternative way to acquire and communicate insights about the social world. While this approach differs markedly from scientific ways of knowing, it offers valuable and perhaps unique opportunities, in keeping with turns towards narrative/performative methodologies in…

Research into learning technology has developed a reputation for being driven by rhetoric about the revolutionary nature of new developments, for paying scant attention to theories that might be used to frame and inform research, and for producing shallow analyses that do little to inform the practice of education. Although there is…