The development of the Internet and the online collections accessed by it has created major adjustments in all library functions, including collection management and budgeting. The authors share how two public libraries have come full circle in electronic collection management, beginning with early selection, followed by current weeding programs…

As an increasing number of researchers have been trained to use programs such as Atlas/ti, NUD*IST, Nvivo, and ETHNOGRAPH their value in analyzing qualitative data has gained greater recognition. Drawing on the experience of two PhD candidates at the University of Tasmania, this paper reflects upon some potential uses of a suite of computer…

A central argument of this essay suggests that the truth of globalization is little known to the body politic as it is enmeshed in the dynamics of capitalist accumulation, avarice, and despotism. This project hopes to first locate, and then unmask the realities of globalization, warts and all. Gaining some knowledge of globalization, the…

Writing on contemporary culture and social life, sociologists and cultural theorists have been describing new or changing forms of movement, variously described as cultural "flows," "liquid life," or a "networked society." The change in such movements or mobilities of people, media, material goods, and other social phenomena, including the reach…

This study involved fourteen semistructured interviews with teaching staff at a Brazilian university. These interviews were aimed at unveiling possible transformations caused by distance education in classroom teaching and in medical assistance practices. The discourses collected were analyzed using qualitative methods and divided into groups with…

This study suggests equity of access goes beyond technological availability. Based on a larger exploratory study of the initial implementation stage of the Mexican government's community technology centers, CTCs ("plazas comunitarias"), adult education instructors' perceptions and diffusion practices are described as a mediating factor…

This qualitative study explored how collaborative technologies influence the informal learning experiences of virtual team members. Inputs revealed as critical to virtual informal learning were integrated, collaborative technological systems; positive relationships and trust; and organizational support and virtual team management. These inputs…

The paper addresses the question of how to design for learning taking place on mobile and wireless devices. The authors argue that learning activity designers need to consider the characteristics of mobile learning; at the same time, it is vital to realise that learners are already creating mobile learning experiences for themselves. Profound…

The world of the Net Generation is one that is mediated by technologies that serve as shapers of identity. Social networking sites, a common technological tool for this generation, are reconfiguring how this generation reads, creates, and interprets texts. By integrating text and tool in a new way, social networking sites are transforming prior…

Today's young people--the Net Generation--have grown up with technology all around them. However, teachers cannot assume that students' familiarity with technology in general transfers successfully to pedagogical settings. This volume examines various technologies and offers concrete advice on how each can be successfully implemented in the second…

The events of September 11, 2001, the terrorist attack that destroyed the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York changed the world, and while the effects were much reduced in faraway Australia, they became immediately apparent online. Any view through the global window was likely to be changed, an impossible to anticipate. To me,…

The author proposes a citizen-and community-oriented approach to using information technology, whereby people are considered as participant members of the society. This empowering approach views people as subjects and actors who have abilities to develop, not as objects who lack these abilities and need one-way help from authorities. Empowerment…

Classroom practice in the real world has become increasingly incommensurate with the lived experience of students. Young people, consisting of all age cohorts and class fractions, have never known their world to not include the Internet. They have been utilizing this technology since before they started kindergarten, whether it was in games that…

The activities surrounding the National Digital Library Program (NDLP) at the Library of Congress (1995-2000) are used to study institutional processes associated with technological innovation in the library context. The study identified modalities of successful innovation and the characteristics of creative decision making. Theories of social…

Editor-in-chief James Morrison sat down with Deneen Frazier Bowen at the 2005 National Educational Computing Conference to discuss her unique presentation "The Natives are Restless," a series of dramatic sketches dealing with the utilization of technology in educational settings. Bowen's sketches examined students' difficulties in relating school…