<p> Despite high levels of global connectedness, which is characteristically representative of our 21st century society, United States citizens have been found to be significantly unaware of global affairs. Though the Department of Education has named social media as a viable option for improving the internationalization of classroom curricula, little research exists to quantitatively support such a claim. As what little research does exist exclusively investigates Facebook, no research looks into the viability of other popular social media platforms, such as Twitter or Instagram. The purpose of this study was be to probe, through an experimental design, the extent to which the presentation of globally-related information, textually-based in the case of Twitter and visually-based in the case of Instagram, as well as the source of such information, whether it be from a professional news outlet or a casual social media user, may play in effecting the way American college students consume and process digital information pertaining to global affairs. Such findings will help to pioneer the relatively under-investigated digital intersection of communication and education.</p>

<p> This qualitative, exploratory study grouped together and explored custom-built environments for communities of online informal learning (COILs) with a special lens on the socio-technical relationship of platform tools, structures, and strategies that lead to social learning. The study was conducted through a three-phase process. First, a list of possible candidate sites was analyzed for appropriate fit based on the defining terms of a custom-built COIL environment. Second, an observational content analysis was implemented on 10 of the sites to aggregate a list of the tools, structures, and strategies used in the sites. Lastly, the same 10 sites and the lists of tools, structures, and strategies were researched through both pre-established codes for sociability, usability, and community-building designs and an open exploratory observation of their uses with a focus on the way these features support COILs. Social learning and informal learning were also purposefully scrutinized while themes regarding personalized learning and sustainability also emerged from the exploration. All design themes were found represented within the sites, as were social learning, informal learning, personalized learning, and efforts toward sustainability. </p>

<p> Considerable research provides clear evidence for the relationship between student achievement and the engagement of parents and community members with their local schools through meaningful involvement of parents, families, and members of the community. The purpose of this mixed-methods research study is to find evidence supporting building principals in communication efforts which engage students&rsquo; families thus contributing to student learning and achievement. The growing expectation that educational leaders use digital communications and social media to engage others has been met with some success by some building administrators and school district leaders. </p><p> This study focuses on the communication skills and behaviors of principals and the resulting effects on public perception and engagement. Qualitative, focus-group interviews were conducted with principals at both the elementary and secondary levels. Survey data was gathered from parents and community members measuring attitude and perspective. Results suggest effective principals are aware of the impact of digital communications and social media and are becoming more strategic in their use of such tools. Participants report increased involvement in school activities as a result of their efforts. Survey results indicate most parents and community members (83%) rank their local school most favorably. Principals effectively using digital communications and social media meaningfully engage a variety of parents and community members knowing their involvement can lead to improved student achievement.</p>

<p> This 20 minute film explores the use of hybrid lesson plans, those consisting of traditional in-class teaching and interactive video outside of the classroom. Using six voluntary Graduate Teaching Assistants as participants, the documentary follows the participants as they give their ideologies on teaching, perform either a traditional lesson plan or the hybrid lesson plan, and participate in a focus group to give their opinion on the perceived benefits or drawbacks of having hybrid lesson plans in the classroom.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Syracuse University, 2008. / "Publication number: AAT 3333583."

<p> Since the early 2000s, a new type of working environment has developed in which individual workers&mdash;usually in a technology profession&mdash;share office space in a large, open, nontraditional environment that transcends traditional organizational boundaries. These new environments, called coworking spaces, present opportunities for communication, information sharing, and knowledge creation because of their open physical environments, the reduced presence of organizational barriers, and as a result of intentional efforts of the leaders of coworking spaces to encourage collaboration. While there is a substantial body of knowledge focused on how workers share information and build knowledge in traditional workplaces, there is little academic research on these novel coworking environments. This study examines the lived experiences of members of a specific coworking space located in the Phoenix, Arizona area in the United States. </p><p> Through interviews with key informants, this study evaluates the communication channels that members of a coworking space use to share information and uses the Nonaka SECI model to determine the types of information sharing and knowledge creation that happen at the space. </p><p> This study finds that members of the coworking space heavily lean toward using in-person communication and next-generation instant messaging to share information, and that they primarily create knowledge through combining the explicit knowledge of members to create new explicit knowledge. The findings of this study lead to specific implications for researchers to further examine the communication channels used in coworking spaces, especially next-generation instant messaging tools. The researcher also recommends specific steps that leaders of coworking spaces can follow to improve the level of involvement of members of their spaces, and to position non-profit spaces favorably against competing for-profit coworking spaces.</p><p>