This paper explores how "personal web technologies" (PWTs) can be used by learners and the relationship between PWTs and connectivist learning principles. Descriptions and applications of several technologies including social bookmarking tools, personal publishing platforms, and aggregators are also included. With these tools,…

Friendship is highly significant during the university years. Facebook, widely used by students, is designed to facilitate communication with different groups of "friends". This exploratory study involved interviewing a sample of student users of Facebook: it focuses on the extent to which older adults, especially parents, are accepted as Facebook…

Postgraduate coursework is now delivered to a largely mature age study population, in what may be an unfamiliar mix of online and distance learning to many students. This paper reports on a novel approach to student orientation in this new environment. Orientation is conceptualised as a process of transition between the domain of everyday life and…

The purpose of this study was to examine how online social networking facilitates adolescent grieving following the sudden death of a peer. Researchers reviewed 20 profiles authored by adolescents who had died between 2005 and 2007 collecting information from commentary posted to the profiles posthumously. Observed themes included adolescent…

For the fortieth time, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Jacksonville, Florida. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two volumes.…

The rapid growth and interest of college students in Computer Mediated Communication and social media have impacted the second language learning and teaching process. This article reports on a pilot project that attempts to analyze the use of Skype as a synchronous communication tool in regard to the attitudes of students in learning a foreign…

Problem Statement: Cyberbullying is associated with significant psychological issues among young people such as depression, emotional distress, low self-esteem, and poor academic achievement. It is also regarded as an increasingly emergent problem in educational settings, putting learners' psychological health, safety, and well-being at risk.…

Social work is a discipline that emphasizes personal contact and has traditionally been taught face-to-face. This paper examines whether online learning is appropriate for educating social workers about family violence. It describes a newly-developed online course in family violence and evaluates its effectiveness. Two surveys of the class and an…

This study investigates teacher stress, anxiety, and burnout through my experience teaching music in a suburban Toronto secondary school between 2002 and 2008. Primary data sources include a rich collection of journal entries I have written over a six-year period, which were retrospectively analyzed in this study. Hence, this study is principally…

This qualitative study explores large, urban, mid-western principal perspectives about cyberbullying and the policy components and practices that they have found effective and ineffective at reducing its occurrence and/or negative effect on their schools' learning environments. More specifically, the researcher was interested in learning more…

The ability to interact with peers and coworkers in online digital networks is essential in learning and business environments. Our digital participatory culture is based on communication in response to purposeful activity and is facilitated by information and communication technologies (ICT). Students with emotional, behavioral, and learning…

This mixed-methods study was designed to determine how principals perceived the ethicality of sanctions for students engaged in sexting behavior relative to the race/ethnicity and gender of the student. Personality traits of the principals were surveyed to determine if Openness and/or Conscientiousness would predict principal response. Sexting is…

Cyberbullying has a negative influence on academic grades, school attendance, and graduation rates, and occurs more frequently among female high school students. The purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of cyberbullying on the college objectives of female undergraduates who were victims in high school. Goleman's theory of…

This dissertation investigates the practice of blogging by multilingual graduate students in a TESOL program in an American context. The focus of the study is to understand the relationship between the practice of blog writing and the sense of authorship of the participants. The sense of authorship in this study mainly refers to how students see…

This study explored undergraduate teacher candidates' multicultural identity development. Forty-three participants were in two sections of the course Introduction to Education. The research questions investigated the ways in which candidates examine their cultural awareness, knowledge of diverse learners, and effective practices for 21st century…