The research explains wiki development and use in industry and potential benefits in higher education as a collaborative communication tool. The findings of a study conducted in a business administration class involving the use of wikis is discussed. The paper concludes with useful guidelines for college instructors incorporating wikis as a…

This dissertation examines the digital literacy practices of an urban African-American family. Using an ethnographic case study approach (Stake, 2000), this qualitative study explores the multiple ways a mother (Larnee) and son (Gerard) interacted with digital literacies in the home. Situated within the framework of sociocultural traditions from…

As organizations implement novel health promotion programs across multiple sites, they face great challenges related to knowledge management. Staff social networks may be a useful medium for transferring program-related knowledge in multi-site implementation efforts. To study this potential, we focused on the role of extra-team connections (ties…

An area of visual communication that might be classified as a "design failure" is the visual presentation of information about "prescription-only medicines" for patients. This information is provided on packaging, leaflets, brochures, labels and websites. The practical issue is that there are problems in convincing patients to…

This article used work from the writing assessment literature to develop a framework for assessing the impact and perceived value of written, audio, and combined written and audio feedback strategies across four global and 22 discrete dimensions of feedback. Using a quasi-experimental research design, students at three U.S. universities were…

Language involves the use of symbols in the form of words or signs that allow people to communicate their thoughts, ideas, and needs. Even without formal language, many children who are deaf-blind learn to communicate with gestures and object or picture symbols. Symbolic expression makes it possible to express thoughts and feelings about the…

World wide, policymakers are looking for ways to use education and communication strategies to create a world that is more sustainable than the one currently in prospect. They often find themselves trapped between instrumental (behavior change) and emancipatory (human development) uses of such strategies. This study sheds light on this apparent…

The international use of English as a lingua franca (ELF)--i.e. between non-native speakers of different nationalities, in situations where no native English speakers are present--has become an important feature of business, diplomacy, education, and personal relationships around the world. Nowhere is this more true than in Northeast Asia, where…

Samples of formal business reports and business memos were obtained from MBA students in multiple disciplines. The samples were analyzed in terms of their relative cohesion, concreteness of wording, causal relationships, intentional referencing, and readability. A classification function based on these measures was then used to identify entering…

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the teaching of conversation strategies in the EFL classroom. This is reflected in how institutional programs and textbook series regard conversation management as crucial in the learning of the L2. Classrooms, in this sense, have become spaces for active socialization, and have given the study…

This study describes the application of Bakhtin's theories of dialogism to nineteen 5-year-old preschool children's communication strategies and the ways children appropriate meaning in block play. The observed frequency of communication strategies used in three different naturally emerging social relationships--1) individuals, 2) dyads, and 3)…

In 2004 the Finnish Universities Act was amended to include a third strand as an essential part of research and teaching. This paper focuses on relationship building to explore whether this approach would be helpful in developing university-community relationships and educational public relations. By means of a dialogic community relations model…

This article presents a new computational model for the generation of multimodal referring expressions (REs), based on observations in human communication. The algorithm is an extension of the graph-based algorithm proposed by Krahmer, van Erk, and Verleg (2003) and makes use of a so-called Flashlight Model for pointing. The Flashlight Model…

In this article, the author describes the teamwork philosophy of Reggio schools and how it provides effective programming for children. The Reggio system deals with the different elements of the school and encompasses the relationships of children, teachers, parents, and the environment.

There is an ever-increasing trend in the world today to adopt English as the language of instruction in higher education. The increase is in part due to the views that such adoption constitutes the key to competitiveness in a globalized higher education market. Thus, a growing number of universities in non-English-speaking countries switch to…