The following material, adapted from the new IRA book "Getting Beyond "I Like the Book"" (second edition), highlights how podcasting specifically and technology in general can be used as tools for thinking about the world and for learning and communicating.

When one has a child with special needs, chances are he or she is the only one in his or her immediate circle of family and friends. It can be downright frightening to be this isolated, given the profound severity of the situation. With neither friends nor family to connect with in Colorado, the author and his wife Renee reached out to the online…

In this article, centrality is explored as a measure of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in networked learning. Centrality measure is quite common in performing social network analysis (SNA) and in analysing social cohesion, strength of ties and influence in CMC, and computer-supported collaborative learning research. It argues that measuring…

The author has been encouraging teachers, students, and others to join Twitter and build their personal learning networks (PLNs) ever since she delved into this great social networking site. In this article, she offers a few other tools and tips that can improve the Twitter experience of those who have opened up an account and dabbled a bit but…

This study explored the paradigmatic differences in perceptions of community college faculty employed at select Virginia and West Virginia community colleges collected via a web-based survey. The study is framed within the faculty self-classification along the "hard" and "social/behavior" science paradigm continuum. Given the…

Solving ill-structured problems is regarded as an important learning outcome in education as it allows learners to apply theories learnt into real practice. An asynchronous online discussion, with extended time for reflection, is an appropriate learning environment to engage learners in solving ill-structured problems. However, scaffolds may be…

This article discusses the centrality of reflexivity in qualitative research through examples from my study on the role new media play in the lives of Italians in London. My hypothesis was that Italians were "in transit" in London and they were using new media to build "temporary" communities. I conducted in-depth interviews…

In 2008 and 2009, a series of online professional development communities for groups of teacher-leaders in digital pedagogy was run. In each of the first two iterations, there was an early dropout of individuals who felt they "did not belong". Contributing to this sense of isolation was the immediate emergence of online networks in the…

Digitalk, the language that teenagers use when writing texts and other electronic communications, is not deficient. It is just a different language used in special contexts. However, some students have difficulty with Standard English and mistakenly use the conventions of digitalk in academic writing. By helping students to be aware of those…

All employers occasionally must deliver bad news to their employees, but few bad news situations can compete with the delicate task of announcing layoffs. In an electronic age, when layoff notices delivered via email are quickly leaked to outsiders, CEOs must take into account not only the employees who will be affected by the layoffs but also the…

Recently, the rising of Web 2.0 has made online community gradually become popular, like Facebook, blog, etc. As a result, the online knowledge sharing network formed by interpersonal interaction is now a major character of Web 2.0, and therefore, by this trend, we try to build up a collaborative service mechanism and further set up an analysis…

Communication through technology occupies an increasingly greater role in people's lives, whether by way of cell phones and other handheld communication devices, such as Blackberries and iPods, or Internet access using computers. Not surprisingly, students and young adults have devised unanticipated applications for technology that raise…

Colleges of education are not using Facebook and other social media to their best advantage. Instead of building online communities, colleges of education tend to use social media merely for press releases. The innovative Facebook pages of five large corporations can serve as models for colleges wishing to improve their command of these media.

Deaf adults' access to smoking cessation programs is limited due to cultural, linguistic, and geographic barriers. Web-based stop-smoking interventions have demonstrated cessation rates comparable to other interventions. The Internet is widely used by Deaf adults, but difficulties with online English text remain. We found no published accounts of…

Texted English is a hybrid, technology-based language derived from standard English modified to facilitate ease of communication via instant and text messaging. We compared semantic processing of texted and standard English sentences by recording event-related potentials in a classic semantic incongruity paradigm designed to elicit an N400 effect.…