This study examined relationships between faculty computer self-efficacy and integration of electronic communication when teaching. Results showed computer self-efficacy scores differed on age, gender, college, integration, and computer experience. Recommends faculty development efforts to increase self-efficacy by providing hands-on experiences…

Discusses Floyd College's (Georgia) Information Technology Project (ITP), which began in 1997. Reports that every student and faculty member at the college is given a laptop, network connections have been implemented all over campus, and a help desk service provides technical support. The project has been successful, but student headcount fell…

A survey and in-depth interviews in an isolated British coastal town examined adolescents' computer and Internet use at home and in school. Adults had ambitious, future-oriented notions about how such technologies would expand children's educational opportunities and social and spatial horizons; in contrast, adolescents actually used technology in…

This article describes a program linking American and Japanese schools that reveals the ability of international collaborative projects to knock down traditional barriers to learning. At Callisburg Independent School District, located 70 miles north of Dallas, near the border of Texas and Oklahoma, students are no longer limited by geographical…

This article describes a case study of an international collaboration between two classes of fifth grade students through an online discussion platform with one group more experienced in online knowledge building activities than the other. Before the collaboration, the novice class tended to produce isolated notes filled with information and…

Using content analysis to analyze transcripts from a graduate course conducted via computer conferencing, this study confirmed that students exhibit self-direction as indicated by both the variety and the extent of concrete self-directed activities. Furthermore, the study explained how students are self-directed in a computer conferencing course…

In October 1981, an article appeared in "The American Biology Teacher" with the catchy title, "Bio-Bull." In it, author, Dale Carlson, described a powerful form of communication that he employed successfully in his community college classes. Each week students received what he called a "Bio-Bull" that included current biological topics,…

The Internet is no longer only a place to research information. It is now also a forum through which users can publish and disseminate their own writing. Richardson describes some of the main tools that make this new "Read/Write Web" work--blogs, wikis, really simple syndication, and podcasting--and gives examples of how each can be used to…

Web 1.0 has demonstrated immense powers for connecting learners, teachers, and materials. How much more broadly will this connective matrix grow under the impact of the openness, ease of entry, and social nature of Web 2.0? This article examines openness, microcontent, social software, and social bookmarking (blogs, wikis, trackback, podcasting,…

This study explores three teachers' perceptions and developments as a result of experiencing learning and teaching in a knowledge-building community (KBC). To understand the teachers' views, in-depth interviews were conducted. The transcripts were coded using a grounded theory approach. The findings indicate that KBC is reportedly viewed by the…

This paper reports a phenomenographic investigation into students' experiences of learning through discussion--both online and face to face (F2F). The study context was a second-year undergraduate course in psychology for social work in which the teacher had designed discussion tasks to begin in F2F mode and to continue online. A combination of…

We integrate available and new technologies to strongly enhance student engagement in upper division undergraduate courses on human evolution and history. First, we use peer-mentored discussion groups through the Blackboard system--appropriately scaled, constructed, and incentivized. These allow day-to-day monitoring of student understanding.…

The authors investigated the effects of online discussion embedded within metacognitive guidance on mathematical literacy and self-regulated learning (SRL). They compared 4 instructional methods: online discussion embedded within metacognitive guidance (Online+Meta), online discussion without metacognitive guidance (Online), face-to-face…

The provision of feedback to students is an important aspect of teaching and learning processes. It is often a necessary requirement for the stimulation of self-reflection. This paper describes the use of video-enabled, web-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) for the provision of feedback to pre-service, trainee teachers who were involved…

This paper describes how information and communication technology (ICT) is used in the modular Open University course "T209 Information and Communication Technologies: People and Interactions", first presented in 2002. In this course ICT is used to provide students with practical experience and to support an active and collaborative approach to…