In this paper, the Gartner Group's hype cycle is used as the basis for categorizing and analyzing research on the educational use of ubiquitous computing. There are five phases of the hype cycle: the technology trigger, the peak of inflated expectations, the trough of disillusionment, the slope of enlightenment, and the plateau of productivity.…

Amidst rapid socio-economic change, higher education (HE) academics across the world face major challenges to its organisation, finance and management. This paper discusses the role of transnational networking in higher education. Data from 40 interviews with geographically distributed academics engaged in learning and teaching transnational…

The debate relating to the place and value of the arts in Irish Education is one that has dominated educational policy, provision, and practice down through the history of Irish educational policy from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Indeed, interest in this topic has been re-ignited with the recent publication of two educational…

Social media is a dynamic tool capable of helping music teachers in various capacities. This article will explore two levels of involvement, including the personal learning network and the social classroom. When teachers use social media to its fullest potential in the music classroom, it allows for many new possibilities for the classroom,…

The formation of social ties is a major factor in the international student experience (Ramsay et al. in High Educ 54(2):247-265, 2007), influencing student wellbeing and adjustment to the new academic and sociocultural environment (Ward et al. in The psychology of culture shock. Routledge, Hove, 2001). Although a significant body of research in…

Purpose: Scholars agree that evaluation of participatory action research is inherently valuable; however there have been few attempts at evaluating across methods and across interventions because the perceived success of a method is affected by context, researcher skills and the aims of the participants. This paper describes the systematic…

This ethnographic case study investigates social networks and forms of social capital accessed by a group of five urban male youth (ages 15-19), from diverse racial backgrounds, who were disenfranchised economically. We refer to the youth as "disenfranchised" because they were disconnected from forms of institutional support, especially…

This case study is the first iteration of a large-scale design-based research project to improve Pepper, an interactive discussion-based learning environment. In this phase, we designed and implemented two social features to scaffold positive learner interactivity behaviors: a "Like" button and linking tool. A mixed-methods approach was…

In 2014 the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) published a research report titled "What Really Counts Next: Action Learning Project with Numeracy Tutors" (Sellers and Byrne, 2014). The report provided an in-depth insight into the way tutors made changes to their practice, and offered practical tips on how to teach numeracy to adult…

There are diverse social networking sites which range from those that provide social sharing and interaction to those that provide networks for professionals within same and other fields. Social networking sites require a user to sign up, create a profile and begin sending short messages about what the user is doing or thinking. The study sought…

A range of different constructs are used to describe and define the way that leadership operates in education settings. This range can be presented as binary categories of leadership, in which either one, or the other form of leadership is preferred, but not both. An example of this is the contrast made between solo and distributed leadership. A…

In a changing knowledge society, many workplaces experience a great number of reforms, implying improvement, new ways of working and professional learning. When a reform is introduced, however, does a professional act as an ever-moving machine--a "perpetuum mobile"--always learning with full energy? In this article, I ask the following:…

Effective time-management skills and interpersonal interactions with familiar friends for learning matters on Facebook are desired characteristics for adolescents attempting to improve their academic achievements. This study identifies the relationships between time-management skills and Facebook interpersonal skills with the academic achievement…

As conceptions of academic development expand to encompass a more diverse and flexible set of supports, traditional approaches to evaluation, including impact studies of formal programming, become insufficient. A program may appear ineffective when evaluation ignores additional supports that interact to counteract implementation or alternatively…

As an educator for thirty-four years, the author describes several great changes she has seen in the field of education since she started in the 1970s. The author gives advice to educators just beginning their careers. Old and new ways of receiving professional development are explained along with the limitations and benefits of these options.…