When schools and teachers come together voluntarily to collaborate in learning communities there can be powerful and positive benefits to pupils' experiences of learning and their wider lives. This article summarises some of the learning from the four-year Networked Learning Communities programme, managed by the National College for School…

The spectacular development of information and communication technologies through the Internet has provided opportunities for students to explore the virtual world of information. In this article, the author discusses the necessary and sufficient conditions for successful online learning in educational institutions. The necessary conditions…

As we approach the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, the globalization and privatization of the academy is destabilizing the patterns of university professional work developed over the past hundred years (Slaughter and Leslie, 1997). To grasp the extent of changes taking place and to understand the forces of change on women in…

Two teachers participating in an online study group provided the foci for in-depth case studies. Transcripts of conversations they had with colleagues about issues related to reform-oriented pedagogy were analyzed from both acquisition and participation perspectives on learning. Both teachers exhibited mainly marginal changes to their pedagogical…

This qualitative study examines the structure and importance of communication channels in the adoption of Web-based courses by university professors. This study provides insight into the importance of informal communication among peers, the changing nature of communication networks, factors that impede communication, the role of change agents in…

In today's political and global world, it's not enough to remain a solid educational leader; leaders must become advocates for education--on Capitol Hill, in state legislatures, and within communities. In this book, Sandra Whitaker examines key issues facing education, demonstrates methods for unpacking the issues, and discusses strategies to…

With the release of the fourth edition in the annual "Horizon Report, the New Media Consortium (NMC) has undertaken a concerted, international effort to describe a research agenda and call to scholarship based on the six practices and technologies featured in the report. The community was invited to participate in this process, contribute to the…

The purpose of this study was to test a conceptual model based on theoretical and empirically supported relationships related to the influences of weight perceptions, weight concerns, desires to change weight, friends, age and location in relation to physical activity (PA) and smoking in adolescents. A total of 1242 males and 1446 females (mean…

Meaning making in new media is rapidly presenting new opportunities and new challenges for those working in formal and informal educational contexts. This article provides an overview of current theory, thinking and commentary in order to map the field of digital literacy and to identify key questions for research and policy development. It…

The purpose of this article is to describe a capstone course in undergraduate student geographical research in which GIS and other geospatial tools were used to teach undergraduate students basic geographical principles. The course uses the "cooperative learning" pedagogical approach to address one of a number of client-supplied research projects,…

The Internet has had a profound effect on education and social interaction patterns. Educators struggle to stay abreast of technological advances and navigate the maze of positive and negative aspects of students using the Internet. A new use for the Internet is the relatively recent phenomenon called blogging. Blogging is a widely used means of…

This article describes the Internet and lists resources available to community college (CC) practitioners through the Internet. The Internet is described as an international computer network which links thousands of smaller networks. The digest suggests the following hardware for Internet access: an IBM-compatible computer capable of running…

As part of its annual program review process, the Department of Engineering Technology at the Community College of Allegheny County, in Pennsylvania, conducted a study of computer usage in community college engineering technology programs across the nation. Specifically, the study sought to determine the types of software, Internet access, average…

This paper discusses video and computer technologies for extended-campus programming (courses and programs at off-campus sites). The first section provides an overview of the distance education program at the University of Kentucky (UK), and highlights the improved access to graduate and professional programs, advances in technology, funding,…

This paper argues for the inclusion of computer-based writing assignments in literature and writing courses, citing as objectives for students the fostering of collaboration; the cultivation of scholarly ideals; and the exploration of issues, ideas, and literature from varying perspectives. It explains how the instructor developed assignments…