The digitally marginalised communities are in focus in the EU-funded Rural Wings project 2006-2008. The aim is to identify and analyse the user learning needs in non-connected communities and to meet these needs by providing satellite Internet broadband connections, education and tools. This article reports the findings of the user needs…

This article elaborates a model for understanding pedagogy in online educational forums. The model identifies four key components. Intellectual engagement describes the foreground cognitive processes of collaborative learning. Communication processes operating in the background accumulate an ever richer store of shared understandings that enable…

Finding the perfect vendor partner for any campus initiative takes more than patience and planning; it takes an open mind. In the case of the two institutions and their software initiative leaders profiled in this article, a careful assessment of need--coupled with a good deal of out-of-the-box thinking--led to innovative approaches to vendor…

What are the most significant factors that motivate and inhibit faculty with regard to teaching in online environments? And what are the specific kinds of experiences that underlie and explain the importance of these factors? One goal of this study was to add to understanding of these issues, but the primary purpose of this study is determining…

This longitudinal study compared business faculty's use of information technology in distance education as well as their perception of the technology's impact on their productivity and technology preferences between 2000 and 2006. Data were collected from 81 professors in 2000 and 140 professors in 2006 at AACSB-accredited business colleges across…

This article profiles the winners of this year's competition for outstanding technology innovation on US college and university campuses. The winners are: (1) Rice University, Texas (virtualized networks); (2) Drexel University, Pennsylvania (rich media); (3) Harvard Business School, Massachusetts (network management); (4) Louisiana State…

Professionals in the field of special education are constantly being asked about efficacy and outcome-based practice. The tragic event that took place at Virginia Tech shocked the world. This article uses the Virginia Tech tragedy as a base to discuss the need for all professionals to develop cultural competence. Furthermore, it discusses the…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to explore the beliefs of 15-17 year-old Dutch adolescents about starting or quitting smoking and to explore their preferences regarding education concerning this topic. Design/methodology/approach: The paper shows that a total of 12 group interviews were held with 101 students in the highest classes in secondary…

Developing countries face a number of challenges in their efforts to compete successfully in the new global economy. Perhaps the most critical resource needed to achieve these goals is trained human capital. While many developing countries are trying to address this need through traditional means, this may not be the most effective or efficient…

Student retention in open and distance learning (ODL) is comparatively poor to traditional education and, in some contexts, embarrassingly low. Literature on the subject of student retention in ODL indicates that even when interventions are designed and undertaken to improve student retention, they tend to fall short. Moreover, this area has not…

Children in the back seat on a long trip are not the only ones asking the question "Are we there yet?" At Murray State University (MSU) and other universities starting new programs, the question becomes one of validation of the program. In the late 90s, MSU, a midsize university, was entrusted with the responsibility of developing a program of…

Winter 2007 marked an episode of high anxiety in the library science profession, when the latest Newbery winner, "The Higher Power of Lucky," triggered discussion about words and their suitability for young readers. It seems that the entire world now knows that the word "scrotum" appears on the first page of the book. School…

This study investigates opportunities for conducting electrical engineering experiments via the Internet rather than in an actual laboratory. Eighty-four French students of electrical engineering (semester 1, 2004) at Bordeaux University 1 participated in practical courses. Half of the students performed experiments in a laboratory while the other…

Second language acquisition is a hard task for teachers, since to achieve the motivation from students to practice a language simulating a real context is very difficult. On the one hand, students are often influenced by their mother tongue and more when they are practising a second language with a partner from the same nationality. On the other,…

This paper provides a history of the "Pachyderm 2.0 Project," a partnership led by the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMONA), and funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The project brings software development teams and digital library experts from six NMC universities together with…