The link between students' spelling level and their text-messaging practice gives rise to numerous questions from teachers, parents and the media. A corpus of 4524 text messages produced in daily-life situations by students in sixth and seventh grade (n?=?19, 11-12 years of age) was compiled. None of the participants had ever owned or used a…

This study examined the extent to which fifth-grade students participate in online argumentation and the argument patterns they produced about the inquiry-based investigations completed using the Science Writing Heuristic approach in their science classes. One hundred twenty-nine students from five classes of two teachers in a Midwestern public…

In the context of researchers' and educators' concerns about the pervasive use of technology to communicate with one another, this study explored whether the frequency of emerging adults' computer-mediated communication (CMC) is correlated with their perceptions of intimacy, relationship, and sexual satisfaction. The sample included 298 young…

This study examined several types of teen behaviors, specifically bullying, being bullied, and witnessing bullying, and analyzed teens' judgments of the seriousness of the bullying. A Bullying Behaviors Scale (BBS) was designed to investigate both traditional bullying (TB) and cyberbullying (CB) behaviors among teens in grades 5 through 11. The…

This paper brings together the reflections of the authors on their shared and individual experiences of virtual action learning. Whilst many conclusions are shared, there are also some points of difference in practices.

Multiple forms of support for teachers new to the profession are important and necessary. The use of an online community by 11 novice instrumental music teachers at the middle school and high school levels was investigated in this case study. The teachers exchanged messages and information within the online community during the 2010-2011 school…

Following Rogers's theory of the diffusion of innovations, the author questions whether youth entering the workforce will act as change agents to evolve primary business communication channels from email to text-messaging. Expanding on research performed in 2009, the author investigates three communication scenarios: scheduling meetings,…

Numerous attempts have been made to use Second Life (SL) as a platform for language teaching. As a result, the possibility of SL as a means to promote conversational interactions has been reported. However, research has thus far largely focused on simply using SL without further augmentations for communication between learners or between teachers…

Although lots of studies have investigated collaborative knowledge construction in online courses, the factors influencing this process are yet to be fully determined. This study provides quantitative and qualitative types of evidence on how (naturally emerged) student facilitation and quality of initial postings influence collaborative knowledge…

This study experimentally manipulated the way students submit their assignments and tested the number of new words that are learned in each condition. The results showed that students who submitted their assignments through Facebook learned as much as those who submitted their assignment in a traditional way. In the light of these findings, we can…

The downturn of the global economy requires universities worldwide to do more with fewer resources. These conditions have presented an opportunity for two universities, the University of the Western Cape and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, to collaborate on a research course offered to postgraduate students. The purpose of this article is to…

This paper presents ForumMiner, a tool for the automatic analysis of students' posts in asynchronous discussions. ForumMiner uses a text mining system to extract graphs from texts that are given to students as a basis for their discussion. These graphs contain the most relevant terms found in the texts, as well as the relationships between them.…

The "language barrier" is a common buzzword in Russian-English teaching discourse that has not yet been critically investigated. This study contemplates a recently emerging phenomenon of private online language tutoring in Russia through investigation of this popular phrase. The paper draws on Critical Discourse Analysis to explore…

"How to" guides and software training resources support the development of the skills and confidence needed to teach in virtual classrooms using web-conferencing software. However, these sources do not often reveal the subtleties of what it is like to be a facilitator in such an environment--what it feels like, what issues might emerge…

Project-based learning may enhance students' cognitive skills and knowledge construction. Online discussion stimulates the social interactions of project-based learning, and appropriate cognitive tools (such as concept maps) facilitate the coordination, planning, and implementation of projects. Currently, related studies on project-based learning…