This pilot study explores the use of Internet Relay Chat facilities such as ICQ in an independent-use mode, as a vehicle for potential English language enhancement. In a small-scale study, a number of Hong Kong secondary school students (Grades 7-10) agreed to participate in an on-line "chatting" programme (in a text-only mode) for a minimum of 20…

This paper summarizes the assessment results of the Language Online project at Carnegie Mellon University. The study investigated the effectiveness of online language courses for students' learning outcomes in four hybrid online language courses (elementary and intermediate levels) and their counterpart conventional (offline) courses from Spring…

Cases are presented to illustrate effects of online communication by students in psychotherapy in a university counseling center. In the first, a student's use of instant messaging to convey suicide threats exaggerated the level of the danger. In the second, a student used e-mail messages to his therapist to modulate the expression of feelings…

In this paper we examine how the figure of the teenager is positioned within the discourses and practices of commercial online media. In particular, we explore how the popular, Australia-based web portal "ninemsn" works discursively to shape the identities of young people. Ninemsn not only constructs and circulates selected…

The academic study of Education (as a social, historical, and theoretical phenomenon) is complicated by the fact of our immersion in it. This paper combines Said's idea of "contrapuntal reading" with Bourdieu's notion of reflexivity to explore what happens when students on an Education course directly confront the fact of their everyday…

Electronic publishing and the use of electronic sources in the humanities open up new possibilities for research and the exchange of ideas while simultaneously providing solutions for how to overcome the crisis in scholarly publishing. In order to improve the usage and academic acceptance of electronic resources in the humanities, it is necessary…

Over the past three years, knowledge-based practices in higher education have advanced, driving the development of low/no-cost, mass-market tools for knowledge sharing and reducing some barriers to change. New investors in higher education are developing strategies to exploit the knowledge-driven value propositions. Existing institutions, anxious…

This study was part of a two-year review regarding the use of Web-based case conferencing to enhance, extend, and transform the learning of preservice teachers in an introductory educational psychology course. First, Web conferencing enhanced the learning opportunities within educational psychology by providing an electronically shared space for…

The aim of the study was to gain insight into the occurrence of different types of peer interaction and particularly the types of interaction beneficial for learning in different collaborative learning environments. Based on theoretical notions related to collaborative learning and peer interaction, a coding scheme was developed to analyze the…

This paper examines how context is configured in ESL students' language learning practices through computer-mediated communication (CMC). Specifically, I focus on how a group of ESL students jointly constructed the context of their CMC activities through interactional patterns and norms, and how configured affordances within the CMC environment…

This study investigated the effectiveness of combining conceptual change text and discussion web strategies on students' understanding of photosynthesis and respiration in plants. Students' conceptual understanding of photosynthesis and respiration in plants was measured using the two-tier diagnostic test developed by Haslam and Treagust (1987,…

Although a substantial literature is devoted to the professional development of teachers, emerging dimensions located around e-facilitation techniques have yet to be documented and their implications understood. This paper is based around a case study of a professional group of highly experienced teachers from the state sector who were undertaking…

Internet users continue to develop new ways of communicating online and disseminating information; one of these methods, the blog, also known as web log, has become a significant cultural phenomenon. Blogs offer an interactive medium for internet users to create and contribute content to the web. In some social studies classrooms, teachers are…

E-learning has become a significant aspect of training and education in the worldwide information economy as an attempt to create and facilitate a competent global work force. "Cases on Successful E-Learning Practices in the Developed and Developing World: Methods for the Global Information Economy" provides eclectic accounts of case…

Background: Although much has been written about the ways in which new technology might transform educational practice, particularly in the area of literacy learning, there is relatively little empirical work that explores the possibilities and problems--or even what such a transformation might look like in the classroom. 3D virtual worlds offer a…