(2013). An Exploratory Examination of Social Media, Informal Learning, and Communities of Practice in the Workplace. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University. In organizations of any size, communication, collaboration and informal learning among employees can be critical contributors to meeting goals and succeeding in the marketplace (Mason & Lefrere, 2003). When done well, over time these groups of employees form loose bonds and evolve into communities of practice that promote shared learning and increased understanding among the membership. Unfortunately, achieving this state can be a challenge for many organizations. Differing communication styles and practices, isolated business functions, and even geographic disbursement can lead to a disconnected workplace, and have an impact on the organizational members' ability to all work toward the same goal, with the same information at their disposal. Innovations in communication over time have contributed to increased employee engagement, and with the advent of Web 2.0 technologies, there are even more tools that allow for the exchange of ideas and knowledge sharing between co-workers in… [Direct]
(2010). MoLeNET Mobile Learning Conference 2009: Research Papers. Learning and Skills Network (NJ3) The Mobile Learning Network (MoLeNET) is a unique collaborative approach to encouraging, supporting, expanding and promoting mobile learning, primarily in English post-14 education and training, via supported shared cost mobile learning projects. Collaboration at national level involves participating institutions and the Learning and Skills Council (now the Skills Funding Agency, www.skillsfundingagency.com) sharing the cost of projects introducing or expanding mobile learning and the LSN (www.lsnlearning.org.uk) providing a support and evaluation programme. The LSC and institutions have invested over 16 million British pounds in MoLeNET during the period 2007-2010. The MoLeNET support and evaluation programme includes technical and pedagogic advice and support, materials development, continuing professional development, mentoring, facilitation of peer-to-peer support, networking and resource sharing, research and evaluation. MoLeNET's 2009 mobile learning conference… [Direct]
(2009). Induction Programs that Work. Phi Delta Kappan, v91 n2 p42-47 Oct. The Comprehensive Teacher Induction Consortium, a group of similar teacher induction programs, has used a highly successful model for over 15 years. Four crucial aspects of that model are a full year of mentored support for first-year teachers, coursework leading to a master's degree, opportunities for sharing with other beginning teachers, and action research projects. Teachers who completed these programs tend to stay in education longer and were more successful in their careers than do those who did not participate in an induction program…. [Direct]
(2020). Psychological Applications and Trends 2020. Online Submission This book contains a compilation of papers presented at the International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends (InPACT) 2020, organized by the World Institute for Advanced Research and Science (W.I.A.R.S.), that this year had to be transformed into a fully Virtual Conference as a result of the Coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic. Modern psychology offers a large range of scientific fields where it can be applied. The goal of understanding individuals and groups (mental functions and behavioral standpoints), from this academic and practical scientific discipline, aims ultimately to benefit society. The International Conference seeks to provide some answers and explore the several areas within the Psychology field, new developments in studies and proposals for future scientific projects. The goal is to offer a worldwide connection between psychologists, researchers and lecturers, from a wide range of academic fields, interested in exploring and giving their contribution in… [PDF]
(2018). Teams and Organizing in the Digital Age: How Team Networks Form and Why They Perform. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Northwestern University. This dissertation explores the relationship between how teams form and what they need to perform. It adopts the perspective that technology is fundamental to organizing in modern workplaces and examines how technology may both enhance and constrain teamwork. By adopting this perspective, two questions naturally follow. First, how do teams organize using technologies? Second, how can technologies enable teams to organize effectively? Addressing these two questions are of utmost importance due to two recent trends in contemporary organizations. The first trend is the rise of teams in the workplace, whereby firms are reorganizing as team-based structures to promote agility and fluidity. A 2018 Deloitte report that surveyed over 11,000 businesses found that an astounding ninety-one percent of executives ranked redesigning their organizations as a "network of teams" their number one priority (Deloitte Insights, 2018). The second trend is the rise in social media use for… [Direct]
(2013). Collaborative Behaviors Practiced by Teachers and Their Administrators Resulting in Increased California High School Exit Exam Pass Rates for Students with Learning Disabilities. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, University of La Verne. Purpose. The purpose of this replication study was to describe the extent to which seven collaborative behaviors were demonstrated by general education teachers assigned students with disabilities, education specialists, and their administrators in selected California high schools that exceeded the state average pass rate for 10th-grade students with disabilities on the math portion of the California High School Exit Exam during the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 testing cycle. Methodology. Six administrators, 10 math educational specialists, and 49 general education math teachers from the Bay Area in California comprised the sample for this descriptive ex post facto baseline study. Online questionnaires and telephone interviews were used to gather data. Questionnaire data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Interviews were analyzed using qualitative methods. Findings. Administrators, general education math teachers, and math educational specialists (a) demonstrated collaborative… [Direct]
(2013). Enabling Easier Information Access in Online Discussion Forums. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University. Online discussion forums have become popular in recent times. They provide a platform for people from different parts of the world sharing a common interest to come together and topics of mutual interest and seek solutions to their problems. There are hundreds of thousands of internet forums containing tens of millions of discussion threads and are thus, an important source of human generated information that needs to be efficiently managed. In this dissertation, I focus on following three specific problems: 1. "Searching for relevant discussion threads in an online forum archive." A typical discussion thread is different from a generic web page in its structure, linking patterns, and creates content contributed by a large number of participating contributors. A probabilistic retrieval model is proposed that takes into account the structural properties, content properties, and various nontextual relevance indicators such as thread popularity, user expertise, etc. The… [Direct]
(2013). Examining the Impact of Collaboration Technology Training Support on Virtual Team Collaboration Effectiveness. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Nova Southeastern University. Businesses and governmental agencies are increasingly reliant on virtual teams composed of team members in different location. However, such virtual teams face all the interpersonal challenges inherent in working in a group, plus additional challenges that are a consequence from communicating through electronic methods. Numerous technological tools are available to facilitate electronic communication, and some organizations provide Collaborative Technology Skills Training (CTST) to virtual team members to help them select and use these tools. In this study, the researcher investigated whether CTST improves virtual team effectiveness by quantifying relationships between CTST and five components of team effectiveness: knowledge sharing, trust, cohesion, performance, and satisfaction. The researcher designed a survey based on an extensive literature review to allow respondents to quantify and describe their virtual team experiences, including information on any CTST they received and… [Direct]
(2013). Leading the Way: Success. 2013-18 Master Plan. West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission This is the second paper in the West Virginia State Higher Education Policy Commission's series concerning the major areas of the Commission's new master plan and compact process. Each paper elaborates on a particular theme sharing additional best practices and insights. It is the intention of the Commission that these additional resources assist in fostering discourse among institutional administrators, faculty, staff and students, enabling them to develop a common understanding of the challenges, goals, and the mechanisms necessary to meet them. Highlights of this report include the following: (1) College degree completion is not only a critical facet of West Virginia's economy, but has a profound impact on the lives of individual students; (2) A large population of students who enroll in the system each year enter West Virginia's institutions with academic and socio-economic challenges.; (3) Institutions have to embrace a common philosophy of supporting our most at-risk students… [PDF]
(2011). Maternal Acceptance and Adolescents' Emotional Communication: A Longitudinal Study. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, v40 n6 p744-751 Jun. With substantive evidence suggesting that adolescents' disclosure is likely a protective factor against problem behaviors, as well as evidence that many adolescents will go to great lengths to \avoid\ sharing information with parents, one may conclude that parents' face a formidable task. Previous studies have identified parental acceptance as a concurrent correlate of adolescents' \behavioral\ disclosure, but have neglected to investigate potential ways that parents could encourage their adolescents to feel comfortable disclosing \emotional\ information. The present study extends the literature by using a longitudinal, multi-method, multi-reporter design to examine whether maternal acceptance is predictive of emotional disclosure \over time\ among a racially/socioeconomically diverse sample of 184 adolescents (53% female). Results indicate that adolescents who perceive their mothers as high in acceptance during early adolescence exhibit greater relative increases in both… [Direct]
(2010). Promote Problem-Solving Discourse. Teaching Children Mathematics, v17 n1 p32-37 Aug. Fourteen fifth-grade students gather at the front of the classroom as their summer school instructor introduces Jonathan Bostic as the mathematics teacher for the week. Before examining any math problems, Bostic sits at eye level with the students and informs them that they will solve problems over the next four days by working individually as well as collaborating in small groups and as a whole class. A supportive environment where students feel comfortable sharing their solution strategies with one another is crucial for developing a positive classroom culture. Such a culture promotes \problem-solving discourse,\ which is student-centered, problem-focused dialogue among small groups or as a whole class. This article discusses how a four-day intervention proved highly successful and offers practical, specific guidelines for teachers to quickly develop a similar classroom culture…. [Direct]
(2010). Debriefing in Moodle: Written Feedback on Trust and Knowledge Sharing in a Social Dilemma Game. Simulation & Gaming, v41 n3 p374-389. This article describes a new approach to debriefing that uses the discussion forum feature of the Moodle open source course management system to debrief a simulation game with undergraduate business students. The simulation game allowed the students to experience the fragility of trust when sharing knowledge in a global virtual project team. I found using the Moodle forum for gathering written feedback on the task to be an improvement over verbal feedback sessions used with previous classes. The Moodle forum provides spontaneous and simultaneous rich feedback from a larger number of students and increases their awareness of the complexity of the task. It became clear to the students that there was no blueprint for success in the game but that participants each had to make sense of the experience in their own way. (Contains 3 tables.)… [Direct]
(2013). Learning to Write in the Digital Age: ELLs' Literacy Practices in and out of Their Western Urban High School. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Michigan State University. The definition of literacy is constantly changing and expanding. A sociocultural view of Literacy considers literacy to be multiple, multimodal, and multilingual as situated in and across the social and cultural contexts. As technology, new media and social network has reformed many aspects of writing, they provide ELLs (English language learners) with supports and resources while at the same time raising new challenges. Although adolescent ELLs are a very active group that use technology, new media and social network, they remain an under-represented group in the L2 writing research; and very little is known about the social practices of these writers as they use technology and digital media to develop and maintain social relationships in the local and global contexts. It is important to examine their writing practices across the school, home, and community contexts as they are immersed in technology and digital literacy practices. In the light of a sociocultural and socio-critical… [Direct]
(2014). Building a Higher Education Area in Central Asia: Challenges and Prospects. Tuning Journal for Higher Education, v2 n1 p31-58 Nov. In recent years, for a variety of reasons, higher education has begun to be considered much more frequently than previously in terms of 'regions', or 'macro-regions'. Although for decades countries sharing some characteristics, or perceived as geographically or culturally closely related to each other, have promoted forms of cooperation between their higher education institutions (with varying degrees of success), it is now widely accepted that to 'count' on the world stage, it is useful for single countries, and especially for smaller countries, to work together with a view to making their systems better able to interact and hopefully to promote, increase and make visible their merits. Of course, in higher education as in many other fields, the regions or macro-regions are not defined once and for all, but are the result of stronger or weaker ad hoc groupings which take into account different factors in different contexts. Central Asia is one such potential region: it does not have… [Direct]
(2017). Developing a Knowledge Network for Applied Education Research to Mobilise Evidence in and for Educational Practice. Educational Research, v59 n2 p209-227. Background: The importance of "evidence-informed practice" has risen dramatically in education and in other public policy areas. This article focuses on the importance of knowledge mobilisation strategies, processes and outputs. It is concerned with how these can support the adaptation and implementation of evidence from research and professional knowledge to inform changes in educational practices. It presents a case study of the Knowledge Network for Applied Education Research (KNAER), a tripartite initiative in Canada involving the Ontario Ministry of Education, University of Toronto and Western University and 44 KNAER-funded projects. Purpose: The purpose of the article is to analyse the developing approach towards supporting knowledge mobilisation by the KNAER provincial partners through the governing body of the Planning and Implementation Committee and strategic and operational work of the university teams, and also the knowledge mobilisation strategies, challenges… [Direct]