<p> People are increasingly looking to online social communities as ways of communicating. However, even as participation in social networking is increasing, online communities often fail to coalesce. Noted success factors for online communities are linked to the community's purpose and culture. They are also related to structures that allow for increased volume of exchange and quality of conversation. Ravelry.com provides a case of a successful, large-scale, online community that has information exchange and conversation as its foci. These activities are supported through the work of thousands of volunteer moderators who sometimes manage groups with more than 3 million members. However, little is known about organizing and supporting volunteer groups to allow for such large-scale growth. </p><p> To find information on moderators' roles and tasks, and how they are supported in the Ravelry community, a study was conducted in 2 sequential phases. Phase I consisted of a survey of 73 moderators who led large, active groups. Phase II consisted of interviews with 8 moderators who led different types of groups within Ravelry, having purposes that range from purely social conversation to technical forums on craft-related work. </p><p> Findings indicated that the tasks moderators performed did not vary greatly, despite differences in their group's purpose and culture. Common among most moderators' duties were encouraging group participation through stimulating discussion or organizing craft-based activities, resolving conflict between group members, and maintaining their site through routine housekeeping tasks. Moderators are motivated to volunteer to do these tasks by love of their group members, and are united by a common interest in their craft. Moderators are most often supported by informal networks of moderators in their own or in similar groups. </p><p> These findings give insight into how to structure large, asynchronous, online conversation-based groups, and how to define a role for people to manage them. It provides an understanding of the work that moderators do, and how their work allows a sense of place to be established for informal learning. </p>

<p> Digital literacy is fast becoming a necessary skill for mediating life in the 21st century. Digital technologies, digital media, and digital devices have become ubiquitous and intrinsic in modern society and using one to interact with the others requires specific skills&mdash;digital literacies&mdash;be learned. The purpose of this research was to understand the extent to which Baby Boomers are digitally literate, the digital devices they understand and use, and the purposes for which they are using them. </p><p> Residents living in a specific group of age-restricted communities comprised of people 55 years of age and older were e-mailed requests to participate in an online survey. More than 8,200 homes received the invitations and 659 people agreed to participate. The survey consisted of 17 three-part, forced-choice questions and five demographic identifiers. To analyze the data, the researcher used SPSS and ran chi-square tests on each response comparing Older Boomers to Younger Boomers regarding specific digital activities in which they engaged, the device(s) they used, and the frequencies with which they engaged in those activities. </p><p> The results of this study indicate that the Baby Boomers in the study possess basic functional digital literacies. They use the Internet daily to read news, check weather, and look up recipes, directions, and medical information. While participation in the various activities was fairly even between both Boomer groups, Younger Boomers tend to send and receive text messages, bank online, pay bills online, search for recipes, save online bookmarks, visit social networks, read blogs, and take online classes more than Older Boomers. The majority of respondents were women, college educated, with annual household incomes of $75,000.00 or more. The most popular digital devices used were laptops, desktops, tablets, and smartphones, respectively and respondents averaged using three different digital devices while engaging in their digital activities. The trend is toward decreasing use of desktop and laptop computers and a corresponding increase in the use of tablets and smartphones.</p>

<p> An understanding of the impact of user avatar alteration in relation to social presence is needed to fully realize the potential of Second Life for higher education usages, which the research literature reveals as an environment that provides increased social presence. Prior studies focused primarily on the impact of system design attributes on social presence. </p><p> A social presence measurement instrument was developed that includes the ITC-SOPI Social Presence Inventory by Lessiter, Freeman, Keogh, &amp; Davidoff, J.D. (2001), the Witmer/Singer Social Presence Inventory (2005), and a portion of the Slater (1994) Social Presence Inventory accompanied by researcher developed study specific queries. The comprehensive instrument was used to collect data from a volunteer sample of 65 Dakota State University students from Summer/Fall 2012, 100, 200, and 300 level Sioux Falls, South Dakota University Center computer classes. The quantitative measures were supported by qualitative statements from a fully immersive Second Life class conducted by Glendale Community College, AZ. Computed means and standard deviations from the pre avatar change survey revealed that the respondents did not articulate perceptions of social presence at a significant level. </p><p> Computed means and standard deviations of the pre/post avatar surveys change scores documented that none of the avatar change criteria resulted in significant changes in terms of perceived social presence. A subsequent one way analysis of variance was conducted and avatar attire, construction (body structure), gender or type, and physical appearance (facial structure) did not result in a statistically significant difference in terms of predicting social presence at the .05 level on the comprehensive social presence instrument. </p>

<p> Technology continues to evolve and become accessible to students in higher education. Concurrently, teamwork has become an important skill in academia and the workplace and students have adopted established technologies to support their learning in both individual and team project work. </p><p> Given the emergence of social media technologies, I examined how these new technologies supported or interfered with group development processes underlying the development of team skills as students completed a group project. Using case studies, I examined 11 undergraduate students in an upper level blended class at a public university in the southeastern United States. Data were collected through a variety of sources including focus groups, individual interviews, reflection logs, and other group support tools provide by the instructor to see how students were using social media technologies to support their group project work. Data analysis resulted in six themes: 1) social media technology choices used to support group project work depended on individual team members' prior use and attitudes about technology; 2) social media technology is most useful for the "people" aspects of team projects; 3) certain technologies are more useful at different stages of the project; 4) lack of an explicit social media technology "contract" within a group leads to some unintended, negative consequences; 5) the immediacy associated with social media technology can blur the lines among specific team roles, ownership of tasks, and overall integrated project planning perspective; 6) social media technologies are used to produce a cooperative, not collaborative, deliverable. </p><p> For students to continue to make the best use of evolving technology, institutions may want to provide resources such as workshops and self-paced tutorials to students and instructors on how to use social media technologies to support learning outside the classroom. Instructors can enhance students' connections with their coursework by using social media technologies themselves and for class assignments. Researchers can extend this study by studying other student populations, such as adult learners and international students, as well as studying how social media is used in a variety of course delivery modalities, such as traditional classroom-based environments and distance learning.</p>

<p> The purpose of this qualitative case study research was to explore in-depth the research question, "How do texting and Textese influence students' learning of writing in Standard English in composition classes?" Yin's Five-Phase Cycle guided the research and aided in the determination of a qualitative case study research. The literature review identified that no single theory covered the phenomenon, so research was guided by five key theories: Technology Acceptance Model, Transactional Distance Theory, Media Richness Theory, Uses and Gratification Approach, and Threaded Cognition Theory. Participants included college English faculty from Illinois, 25 students enrolled in Composition I classes, and three consecutive semesters of former composition students' e-mails. Semi-structured, one-on-one interviews were held with faculty and member checked. A pilot study was conducted prior to inclusion of the 25 student volunteers completing the student questionnaires, and three consecutive semesters' e-mails from former students were analyzed for frequency data. All qualitative data were coded using MAXQDA+ software and analyzed. Results from data analysis revealed an evolving perception and usage of texting and mobile communication devices among faculty and students, a disconnect between faculty and students concerning use of texting and Textese, and frequency data revealing the influence did not permeate writing as much as previous studies implied. Results indicated most faculty and students had mixed attitudes, leading to implications that faculty needed to incorporate lessons involving texting, code switching, and detail richness into the course pedagogy. </p><p> <i>Keywords</i>: Texting, Textese, composition, social media, short message systems, formal/informal writing, Technology Acceptance Model, Media Richness Theory</p>

<p> The purpose of the study was to compare 2D and 3D visual presentation styles, both still frame and animation, on subjects' brain activity measured by the amplitude of EEG alpha wave and on their recall to see if alpha power and recall differ significantly by depth and movement of visual presentation style and by spatial intelligence. In addition, the study sought to determine whether there is any significant interaction between spatial intelligence and visual presentation style on alpha power and recall, and to determine whether any relationship exists between alpha power and recall. </p><p> The subjects in the present study were one hundred and twenty three undergraduate students at a university in the Midwest. After taking Vandenberg &amp; Kuse's Mental Rotations Test, subjects were divided into low and high spatial intelligence groups, and subjects in each spatial intelligence group were evenly assigned to four different types of visual presentation style (2D still frame, 2D animation, 3D still frame, and 3D animation), receiving an instruction on LASIK eye surgical procedure in its respective visual presentation style. During the one-minute visual instruction, subjects' brain activity was measured and recorded using a wireless EEG headset. Upon completion of the instruction, subjects were given a 10-item multiple-choice test to measure their recall of the material presented during the instruction. </p><p> Two 2 (spatial intelligence) x 2 (depth) x 2 (movement) factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were conducted, one with alpha power as a dependent variable and the other with recall as a dependent variable, to determine whether there is a significant difference in alpha power and recall by spatial intelligence and visual presentation style, as well as whether there is an interaction between these variables that affects alpha power and recall. The Pearson Correlation Coefficient was calculated to examine relationship between alpha power and recall. </p><p> The present study found (a) EEG alpha power did not differ by the difference in depth and movement, (b) 2D and animation were found to be more effective on recall, (c) alpha power did not differ by spatial intelligence, (d) recall did not differ by spatial intelligence, (e) there was a significant interaction between spatial intelligence and movement that affected alpha power; still frame resulted in higher alpha power for low spatial learners, and animation resulted in higher alpha power for high spatial learners, (f) there was a significant interaction between spatial intelligence, depth and movement on recall; for low spatial learners, 2D animation resulted in significantly higher recall than both 2D still frame and 3D animation, and for high spatial learners, 3D animation resulted in significantly higher recall than 3D still frame, and both 2D still frame and 2D animation resulted in close to significantly higher recall than 3D still frame, and (g) there was a mildly inverse relationship between alpha power and recall, brought on by a strong inverse relationship in 2D still frame revealing a 'higher alpha power-lower recall connection' for low spatial learners and a 'lower alpha power-higher recall connection' for high spatial learners.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to investigate how intelligent tutoring system ALEKS, which was implemented in remedial Basic Algebra courses, affected students' success in subsequent lecture courses and how former ALEKS students and instructors in lecture courses perceived ALEKS learning environment. ALEKS courses were delivered in emporium style: instructors were available to answer students' questions, while ALEKS guided students through online exercises individually based on their skills and knowledge. </p><p> The participants were students from four mathematics lecture courses and their instructors. Some students took remedial courses in ALEKS prior to the lecture courses while some students did not. The quantitative part of the study compared ALEKS and non-ALEKS students on the final examination and students' self-reported-preparedness. The qualitative part of the study discussed students' and instructors' perceptions of ALEKS based on student surveys and instructor interviews. </p><p> No difference between ALEKS and non-ALEKS students was found in final examination scores and self-reported-preparedness. Students rated learning experience in ALEKS emporium on average at 2.74 on the scale of one to five, with five being the highest. One third of students liked studying at their own pace and ALEKS content (they rated ALEKS emporium at 3.29), while one fourth claimed that &ldquo;nothing was good&rdquo; in emporium courses (they rated ALEKS emporium at 1.55). Although ALEKS emporium was very different from lecture courses, only one fifth of students reported changes in their study habits. The instructors did not observe any difference between ALEKS and non-ALEKS students and mentioned benefits of ALEKS-like tool for drill-and-practice. One instructor observed positive shifts in student attitude towards mathematics but advised longer study to be conducted to confirm this observation. </p><p> Providing a choice to students between online and lecture courses, while increasing the role of instructors in online courses, may result in better student satisfaction. Students could also be gradually trained to effectively use online resources. The design changes in ALEKS could include the replacement of the &ldquo;pie&rdquo; with the bar chart, different types of feedback, explanation of how assessments are done, and ability to revisit problems on assessments. </p>

<p> In 2000, President Bill Clinton enacted the <i>Children's Internet Protection Act</i> (CIPA) which requires all K-12 schools and publicly funded libraries to use Internet filters to protect children from pornography and other obscene or potentially harmful online content as a stipulation for receiving E-Rate funding. The varying interpretations of CIPA and E-Rate guidelines may impact the learning opportunities of secondary students. </p><p> The purpose of this study was to examine the interpretations of federal policy (CIPA), state policy (La. Rev. Stat. Ann. &sect;17:100.7), and district policy on E-Rate funding as related to Internet filtering and secondary student learning opportunities in Region III school districts in Louisiana. The works of Heins (2001, 2003, 2006), Cho (2001, 2003, 2006), Feldman (2006), and Willard (2000, 2003), leading researchers in the fields of Internet safety and Internet filtering, were reviewed so that the issues surrounding Internet filtering and opportunities for student learning could be better understood. </p><p> Using a mixed methods research approach, the researcher explored state interpretations of the<i>Children's Internet Protection Act</i> through examining Louisiana's PreK-12 Educational Technology Standards. Through interviews and administration of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) survey on Internet filtering, district interpretations were solicited. Following survey administration, the researcher led two focus groups to solicit perceptions of district technology personnel and secondary teachers on the impact of Internet filtering on student learning opportunities at the secondary level. Follow-up interviews were also conducted to garner further information on policy interpretations and perceptions. Findings from this study shall serve as a resource for participating districts to ensure maximum opportunities for all students to learn in the 21^st century. </p>

<p> Thoughts drift in everyday life and in the classroom. The goal of this study was to investigate how often students reported off-task thinking while watching online lectures. These findings were related to working memory capacity, topic interest, and achievement goal orientations. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate how all of these factors were related and predicted performance in the course. </p><p> In the presented findings, 126 participants completed three complex span tasks, answered a 2x2 goal orientation questionnaire, responded to eight mind-wandering probes while watching two online lectures, and rated interest in the lecture topics. </p><p> In the reported models, higher levels of mind wandering predicted lower levels of academic performance. Lower levels of working memory capacity predicted higher levels of mind wandering and lower levels of academic performance. Higher levels of topic interest predicted lower levels of mind wandering. Higher levels of mastery approach orientations (those who learn to master content) predicted higher levels of task-related interference. A novel mind wandering probe, <i>thinking about or using another technology, </i> accounted for 29% of off-task thinking. Implications of these findings and considerations for future research are discussed.</p>