(2011). Civil Society Organizations in Post-War Liberia: The Role of Education and Training in Strengthening Organizational Capacity. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University. The purpose of this study was to understand the role of non-formal education and training in the organizational change process of Civil society organizations (CSOs) in post war Liberia. CSOs are the local foundation for democracy and development in Liberia, and serve a wide range of roles in local communities. For example, in post-war Liberia, CSOs provide services in communities that the government does not reach due to limited resources. They educate disenfranchised groups such as women in micro-credit and small business practices that ultimately increase their self-sufficiency and independence. They engage youth in community projects and build the younger generation's civic capacities. They engage fragile communities on the issue of ethnic based conflict and religious intolerance, and they engage government on all spheres of development issues, ranging from governance, transparency, accountability, to grassroots empowerment. However, the capacities of CSOs to achieve these… [Direct]
(2009). 2008 Principal/Vice Principal Survey Results for Evaluation of the Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC). Final Report. Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. In 2006 and 2007, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) awarded Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grants for the development of systems to compensate teachers and principals in part based on increases in student achievement. New Leaders for New Schools (NLNS) received five of these grants and is using them to implement its Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) intervention in Memphis City Schools (MCS), the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), a consortium of charter schools, Denver Public Schools, and Prince Georges County Public Schools. EPIC offers performance-based awards to staff in high-performing elementary, middle, and high schools in return for their agreement to work with NLNS in documenting and sharing effective practices. During the 2007-2008 school year EPIC provided over $3 million in financial awards to more than 1,000 educators in 62 schools nationwide. Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (MPR) was hired to evaluate the EPIC initiative. MPR's full study… [PDF]
(2010). iPLE Network: An Integrated eLearning 2.0 Architecture from a University's Perspective. Interactive Learning Environments, v18 n3 p293-308 Sep. Universities can offer eLearning 2.0 tools and services to learners while obtaining clear benefits from releasing the control over some learning content. This means a shift from the institution centred and monolithic model of traditional virtual learning environments (VLEs) to a more heterogeneous and open model. This article tries to plot an architecture to be put in practice by universities to give learners the control of their learning processes by using eLearning 2.0. We propose an institutionally powered personal learning environment (iPLE) that constitutes our vision of how Web 2.0 tools (blogs, wikis, starting pages), services ("del.icio.us, Flickr, YouTube") and people arrangement and data sharing (social networking, learn-streaming) could be applied in an integrated manner to learning processes. First, this article justifies the suitability for a PLE in the context of eLearning 2.0 and European Higher Education Area. Second, an overview of the evolution from VLEs… [Direct]
(2010). Integration of the Internet into a Language Curriculum in a Multicultural Society. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – TOJET, v9 n1 p107-113 Jan. The rapid growth of the Internet, the global collection of interconnected computer networks, is both stimulative and instructive. The Internet has become one of the most powerful resources in accessing information. It is used for entertainment, sharing items, collecting and analyzing data, conducting interviews, chatting, downloading, and so on as well as education. Among the users of the internet, there are the educational researchers who try to enhance exploring of this rich resource. Using the Internet in language teaching has been practiced for a while. Exploiting videoconferencing for teaching the language online, on the other hand, is relatively a new and exciting innovation in education. Using such tools as the skype or msn allows people or groups of individuals to see each other and talk to one another over the internet without a long distance telephone charge as well. It is almost inevitable to ignore the necessity of the Internet in educating the new generation who utilize… [PDF]
(2013). Today's Lesson: Self-Directed Learning . . . for Teachers. Phi Delta Kappan, v95 n3 p16-21 Nov. Thousands of teachers are exploring the boundaries of their practice together on Twitter, in blogs, and at seminars, and they represent a new generation of educators who are actively redefining how innovation occurs in the schoolhouse. For many of these educators, exposure to adjacent possibilities–the first step toward innovation–starts in the strangest of places: Twitter. At the most basic level, Twitter allows users to curate content for one another. Drawing from a collection of over 500 education specific hashtags, thousands of practitioners are posting links, blog entries, and lesson plans at any given time. Want to learn more about project-based learning? Visit Twitter and search for #pblchat. Care about school leadership? Try #cpchat or #edleaders. Twitter can become much more than a tool for simple sharing, though. Connected educators recognize that behind every profile picture is a person walking through similar professional doors. Teachers who use Twitter to build… [Direct]
(2007). Using a Transdisciplinary Service Delivery Model to Increase Parental Involvement with Special Education Students. Online Submission, Paper prepared for the Hawaii International Conference on Education (Jan 3, 2008). Too often special education services are provided in a piece-by-piece fashion with individual support staff members each scheduling service to the child once or twice a week. Travel time and case-load numbers prohibit getting significant service time and frequency to the student. The literature suggests that transdisciplinary service delivery is a model that can remedy this situation by allowing teaching the classroom teacher and parents how to provide those services that can be shared or transferred from the primary service provider to others. Transdisciplinary involves the sharing of skills among and between staff, parents and the primary service provider. To test this proposition, 24 physical, occupational and speech therapists were sampled before, during and after implementation of a transdisciplinary model. Staff developed a list of \role-sharing\ tasks and who could take-on these tasks. Over the next school year, staff implemented these sharing plans and taught others the… [PDF]
(2018). Being an International Student: Experiences of Chinese Undergraduate Students in a Large Research University. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara. This study was designed to explore the experiences of Chinese international students attending a research university in the United States, from the time they received offers of acceptance to study abroad until they left China (pre-arrival period) through the end of their first quarter as freshmen (early post-arrival period). The researcher sought a holistic view by addressing four related areas of the students' lives: academic, social-cultural, typical daily routines and psychological. First, the study surveyed university students in the above areas with survey questions translated into Chinese. The professor of an orientation class for international students then distributed the survey electronically, and sixty-nine students responded. Second, of this population, six individual interviews were conducted entirely in Chinese. The study suggested that the Chinese international student population choosing to study abroad in the United States was different than that of prior research,… [Direct]
(2011). The Relationship between Environmental Literacy and Students' Participation in Global Online Collaboration. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Walden University. Recent concerns over global ecology have led to a renewed call for effective environmental education. Since traditional methods of teaching environmental education tend to focus on local issues and perspectives, educators are faced with the problem of providing a more global view of ecological issues. Little research exists exploring the e-learning format as an alternative of teaching environmental education, although current literature confirms that online learning increases knowledge, motivation, and critical thinking skills. The research questions focused on the implementation of online global collaboration as a means to develop environmental literacy and foster self-efficacy among middle school students. This repeated measures quantitative study merged the online venue and environmental learning to assess the combined educational impact. The sample group of 95 middle school students participated in Web-based activities with global peers for 2 months, sharing environmental… [Direct]
(2008). An Update on the Rhythmic Arts Project. Exceptional Parent, v38 n3 p50-51 Mar. The Rhythmic Arts Project (TRAP) is touching the lives of typical children and adults with various disabilities all over the world and now has programs in two Bulgarian orphanages, day programs in Australia, and, most recently, in the general hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa. TRAP is also currently approaching facilities in more than 20 states. It has come a long way since the last article in "Exceptional Parent" in March 2006. In this article, the author provides an update on the Rhythmic Arts Project by sharing the stories of three individuals with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and a rare skin disorder called Recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa or EB who have benefited from the TRAP program…. [Direct]
(2010). Cloud Computing Based E-Learning System. International Journal of Distance Education Technologies, v8 n2 p58-71 Apr-Jun. Cloud computing technologies although in their early stages, have managed to change the way applications are going to be developed and accessed. These technologies are aimed at running applications as services over the internet on a flexible infrastructure. Microsoft office applications, such as word processing, excel spreadsheet, access database and many more can be accessed through the internet, even though the files and applications are housed in the cloud. Cloud computing provides a low cost solution to academic institutions for their researchers, faculty and students. This setup provides an additional benefit because all these browser-based applications can also be accessed through mobile devices in addition to being available to a variety of laptop and desk top computers, provided internet access is available. In this paper we present a solution that is based on cloud computing and can be used for building a virtual environment both for teaching and learning. We present an… [Direct]
(2011). Developing Digital Information Literacy in Higher Education: Obstacles and Supports. Journal of Information Technology Education, v10 p383-413. The development of digital information literacy (DIL) has been slow in comparison to changes in information communication technologies, and this remains an issue for the higher education sector. Competency in such skills is essential to full participation in society and work. In addition, these skills are regarded as underpinning the ability to maintain life long learning. Evidence suggests that simple exposure to technology is not sufficient to promote adequate levels of literacy. Why has DIL development been so slow? How can we speed the process up? The purpose of this study was to identify obstacles and supports to fostering the development of DIL to staff and students in higher education. The literature identified a range of obstacles that hindered students' ability to develop their technology related skills. The issue of access and the digital divide that has been of interest to those concerned with social equity continues to generate lively discussion. The students' own beliefs… [PDF]
(2013). OMG! L2spell Online: The Creative Vocabulary of Cyberlanguage s(~_^)–b. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Increasing use of the Internet has led to a proliferation of online communication and information sharing media. These media, each with its own set of affordances and limitations, are thought to encourage new ways to communicate. Interlocutors refashion general English into abbreviated and often pictographic representations of existing concepts. Prior research has made suppositions about the effects these media have on communication; for example, that synchronous media (e.g., chat) encourage interlocutors to use more abbreviations (e.g., acronyms) than in asynchronous media (e.g., email). These suppositions, however, have not been fully tested because most studies focus on a single medium. Yet a more comprehensive understanding of this language–hereafter referred to as "cyberlanguage"–as it manifests across various online media is needed as users increasingly employ the Internet for communications. Furthermore, such an understanding may help information professionals… [Direct]
(2009). Research Collaboration and Productivity: Is There Correlation?. Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education and Educational Planning, v57 n2 p155-171 Feb. The incidence of extramural collaboration in academic research activities is increasing as a result of various factors. These factors include policy measures aimed at fostering partnership and networking among the various components of the research system, policies which are in turn justified by the idea that knowledge sharing could increase the effectiveness of the system. Over the last two decades, the scientific community has also stepped up activities to assess the actual impact of collaboration intensity on the performance of research systems. This study draws on a number of empirical analyses, with the intention of measuring the effects of extramural collaboration on research performance and, indirectly, verifying the legitimacy of policies that support this type of collaboration. The analysis focuses on the Italian academic research system. The aim of the work is to assess the level of correlation, at institutional level, between scientific productivity and collaboration… [Direct]
(2011). Concept of Supervision and Supervisory Practices at Primary Level in Pakistan. International Education Studies, v4 n4 p28-35 Nov. The study was conducted to find out the practices and problems of supervisors working at primary school level in Pakistan. The teachers, Headmasters, Area Education Officers, District Education Officers, Deputy District Education officers working in primary schools of Rawalpindi District were the population of the study. The questionnaire was developed, validated by the experts and pilot tested. Stratified Random sampling technique was used to collect the data of the study. The conclusions of the study reveal that the supervisors don't visit schools to facilitate teachers in solving classroom problems. They behave with them in an autocratic and authoritarian way, and the teachers are not able to share theirs problems with them. They do not believe in the concept of supervision as a process of sharing, helping, guiding, counseling and motivating teachers to solve problems which they face while teaching in classroom. Questioning and creative ideas are taken as breach of discipline. It… [PDF]
(2009). Microsoft or Google Web 2.0 Tools for Course Management. Journal of Information Systems Education, v20 n2 p123-127. While Web 2.0 has no universal definition, it always refers to online interactions in which user groups both provide and receive content with the aim of collective intelligence. Since 2005, online software has provided Web 2.0 collaboration technologies, for little or no charge, that were formerly available only to wealthy organizations. Academic institutions at all levels are experimenting with these technologies to improve student learning experiences, and prepare them for a world in which work can be effectively accomplished through collaboration over the Internet, and geographic and time differences become increasingly irrelevant in sharing knowledge. Web 2.0 technologies are not limited to enriching course content. They can also be incorporated into the management and the delivery of college courses as well as the coordination of virtual teams. Detailed comparisons of the two most popular Web 2.0 office technologies from Google and Microsoft are provided in this teaching tip… [Direct]