The trend towards the use of the Internet in academia is clear with a number of courses using the Web for the delivery of course material. Flexible access to information and resources are key attributes of online educational technologies, and learner choice is at the heart of the concept of flexible access. This incorporates the facility to access…

VisSearch is a collaborative Web searching environment intended for sharing Web search results among people with similar interests, such as college students taking the same course. It facilitates students' Web searches by visualizing various Web searching processes. It also collects the visualized Web search results and applies an association rule…

To demonstrate how qualitative methods can be used to guide the planning of online learning within the cultural and intertextual milieu of the Internet, this project gives the data, methods and the results of the contextualization and conceptualization of an online learning environment. The learning environment addressed and invited people with…

In "The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture," sociologist Manuel Castells argues that information and communication technologies are associated with a new kind of economy, society, and culture that he calls "informationalism." In this new economic order, knowledge generation, information processing, and symbolic communication--"the…

There is a sense of anticipation in higher education technology circles these days, a feeling of prickly excitement that hasn't been experienced since the heady days of the dot-com boom. For the past five years, the landscape has been littered with funding shortfalls, problems with network capacity and security, and the never-ending scramble of…

Many language education scholars and professionals consider that the ideal way to connect their classrooms to the Internet is to use Internet-connected computer labs in the school. Many publications cater to the needs of teachers who work in such ideal environments (Dudeney 2000; Eastment 1999; Teeler and Gray 2000; Warschauer, Shetzer, and Meloni…

The purpose of this article is to analyze, discuss, and assess some of the competing viewpoints and factors regarding the role of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) within civil society. By outlining the various actions that civil society organizations (CSOs) need to take in order to maximize the positive impacts and mitigate…

On July 5, 2003, the author landed in Qatar, a newly minted CIO from College Station, Texas. His charge is to design and implement the required IT infrastructure--including telecommunications, networking, computing, and instructional technology--necessary to support Texas A&M University's newest branch campus, Texas A&M University at Qatar…

Eleven years experience with the running of web-based projects for final year undergraduate students of the Faculty of Life Sciences at Manchester University, along with an example of one project, is described. Application of the scientific method was emphasised to students. Technical support workshops were provided for them. Project performance…

In this paper theoretical perspectives for analyzing the pedagogical meaningfulness of using videos in teaching, studying and learning are presented and discussed with a special focus on using digital and online video materials. The theoretical arguments were applied in the international Joint Inserts Bank (JIBS) for Schools project. Out of…

Contemporary transitions in political and economic globalization are being used to press universities into becoming "transnational businesses," seemingly driven by a primary concern for marketing educational commodities. The neo-liberal politics driving these currents in universities are increasing the multiple online and offline…

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…

Even though distance education has a long and diverse history, dating back to 1840, in the last ten-to-fifteen years it has been completely transformed by the emergence of Web-based technology. This technology has had an enormous impact on all aspects of distance education (or distance learning as it is increasingly called). In addition to…

Arguably, the profoundest classical treatment of literary truth, and by extension, of truth in the arts, can be found in Aristotle's "Poetics." But as the writings of two twentieth-century theorists show, Aristotle's insights can be taken in very different ways. In this essay, the author contrasts John Hospers's anti-cognitivist reading of…

What do poker and bridge have in common? Both are card games that originated in Europe (although poker's modern form developed in the frontier towns of the American West, while bridge still reflects its British heritage). Both use a regular 52-card playing deck, both involve bidding, and both have experienced renewed popularity in recent years.…