M. Tech. Business Information Systems.Tshwane University of Technology / E-collaboration supports the accomplishment of learning tasks and activities, and thus, may be employed as a significant platform for learning and postgraduate studies at universities. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that South African universities have not yet tapped into e-Collaboration as a way to facilitate learning at the postgraduate level. Learning interactions between postgraduate students and their supervisors or subject instructors are often confined to formal learning spaces and time periods. This, then, means that postgraduate students tend not to have the necessary anytime, anywhere platform to address their on-demand problems or challenges, as they move away from university spaces. The limited and inconsistent learning support from instructors or research supervisors hinders a smooth learning experience, often leading to delayed or incomplete learning tasks, including research works. This constraint leaves postgraduate students with no alternative but to seek learning support from knowledgeable peers with shared background. Underpinned by theories of Activity and Social Presence, this dissertation argues that an e-Collaboration environment may provide the just-in-time learning support needed by postgraduate students. Following on the interpretive philosophy, a case study was conducted at Tshwane University of Technology, using the contextual Inquiry approach – where contextual interviews, textual interactions and observations were used as empirical data collection techniques. Informed by the empirical evidence, the framework for an e-Collaboration environment that may support sharing of learning experiences amongst postgraduate students was conceptualised.

In an effort to increase access to public prekindergarten programs, many states are linking school- and community-based early childhood education (ECE) providers together to jointly deliver services. This strategy leverages existing ECE programs as part of the ongoing expansion of state-funded prekindergarten. Understanding how these efforts unfold at the local level is important for future policymaking that seeks to address the provision and improvement of publicly funded ECE programs. This dissertation explores how prekindergarten collaboration members work together, influence one another, and contribute to increased alignment within the field of ECE. This research presents findings from a case study that examined prekindergarten collaboration in one Texas community. Data were collected primarily through semi-structured interviews with individuals directly involved in prekindergarten collaboration implementation or with families served through public prekindergarten. Findings show that the depth and nature of the partnerships in this effort varied by the location of services and level of support made available to collaboration members. Key program features, such as classroom structure, instruction, and curriculum, were aligned across all three programs. Based upon these findings, I discuss the potential implications for policy and practice and suggest further topics of study related to these issues. / text

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / Designing successful collaborative learning activities is a new focus of research within the E-Learning community. The social dimension inside the traditional face-to-face collaborative learning is important and must be included in the online learning designs. In this thesis, we introduce the concept of Pedagogical Application Frameworks, and describe Beehive, a pedagogical application framework for synchronous collaborative learning. Beehive guides teachers in reusing online collaborative learning activities based on well-known pedagogical designs, to accomplish their educational objectives within a certain educational setting, and also simplifies the development of new pedagogical collaboration designs. Beehive’s conceptual model has four abstraction layers: Pedagogical Techniques, Collaboration Task patterns, CSCL Components, and CSCL script. By following the framework’s guidelines and specifications, developers will place the control of designing pedagogical collaboration tools in the teacher’s hand rather than in the software designer’s.

In the past decade, Appropriate Education Programming for students with disabilities was mandated in Manitoba. Consequently, there are now both legal and ethical reasons why educators must endeavor to provide inclusive school settings for all students, including students with special needs. Recent school reforms have been influenced by societal change, educational restructuring, and increasingly diverse students needs. These factors also affect the inclusion mandate and, to a worrisome extent, create confusion about practices related to the education of students with special needs. Many researchers strongly suggest that collaboration is a key to creating and maintaining successful inclusive schools. However, professional development in collaboration skills and collaborative service delivery models has been offered to education professionals, specifically resource teachers and counselors, with mixed results. This study is an examination of resource teachers’ and counselors’ perceptions of the barriers to and facilitators of collaboration in inclusive schools.

In the past decade, Appropriate Education Programming for students with disabilities was mandated in Manitoba. Consequently, there are now both legal and ethical reasons why educators must endeavor to provide inclusive school settings for all students, including students with special needs. Recent school reforms have been influenced by societal change, educational restructuring, and increasingly diverse students needs. These factors also affect the inclusion mandate and, to a worrisome extent, create confusion about practices related to the education of students with special needs. Many researchers strongly suggest that collaboration is a key to creating and maintaining successful inclusive schools. However, professional development in collaboration skills and collaborative service delivery models has been offered to education professionals, specifically resource teachers and counselors, with mixed results. This study is an examination of resource teachers’ and counselors’ perceptions of the barriers to and facilitators of collaboration in inclusive schools.

Spatial information is increasingly acknowledged as a national resource essential for sustainable development. Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is part of the basic infrastructure that needs to be efficiently coordinated and managed in the interests of the nation. However, there is no framework or adequate knowledge available for users, providers and administrators of SDI to collaborate effectively to build National SDI. In countries that are a federation of states, administration is dispersed across multiple tiers of government. The system of governance and constitution in a federated country makes the coordination of spatial activities in the national interest complex. (For complete abstract open document)

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / Designing successful collaborative learning activities is a new focus of research within the E-Learning community. The social dimension inside the traditional face-to-face collaborative learning is important and must be included in the online learning designs. In this thesis, we introduce the concept of Pedagogical Application Frameworks, and describe Beehive, a pedagogical application framework for synchronous collaborative learning. Beehive guides teachers in reusing online collaborative learning activities based on well-known pedagogical designs, to accomplish their educational objectives within a certain educational setting, and also simplifies the development of new pedagogical collaboration designs. Beehive’s conceptual model has four abstraction layers: Pedagogical Techniques, Collaboration Task patterns, CSCL Components, and CSCL script. By following the framework’s guidelines and specifications, developers will place the control of designing pedagogical collaboration tools in the teacher’s hand rather than in the software designer’s.

Teacher collaboration is one of the strategies for encouraging teaches to work together to achieve their common ends. In a complex modern world, teachers rarely have time to collaborate with each other. E-mail and Internet technology encourages teacher collaboration to emerge with personal interaction. E-mail is rapid, permitting responses within the same day or even a few hours. On the network, teachers can seek advice from teachers on other campuses and around the world, and at the same time, they can build their relationship with other users. In Western Australia, an e-mail network for science curriculum leaders was established in both primary and secondary schools. In 1998, a study showed that 93 heads of science departments in government high schools were connected to this e-mail network, and more than two-thirds of them had their computers connected to the World Wide Web. This study aims to: firstly, test Fishbough’s models of collaboration among high school science teachers in an electronic environment (e-mail and Internet); and secondly, presents a detailed science web site analysis in terms of the potential of these websites to foster collaboration. The investigation is divided into two distinct studies: Study One is a survey of the teachers’ perceptions of collaboration via the Internet and Study Two is a detailed science website analysis. Study One employed both mail questionnaire and face-to-face interview techniques as methods of data collection. The Science Teacher Collaboration via E-mail and Internet Questionnaire was developed and used to collect data on models of collaboration and interaction perspective of collaborative relationships via the Internet of science teachers at the selected schools. The information from quantitative analysis was used to compose the interview schedule. The follow-up interview was conducted with science teachers who agreed to be interviewed at the sample schools. Study Two adopted a content analysis technique for analysis of data collected from the two kinds of science websites, specific science websites for science teachers and science websites for general audiences from five chosen continents, Australia, Asia, Europe, America and Africa. The study found that the Consulting model of collaboration is frequently used by science teachers and science web sites from five chosen continents.

Thèse (M.A.)--Université Laval, 2003. / Ce texte est donc d'une part, différentes réflexions face au travail en collaboration et d'autre part, un texte accompagnant notre exposition de fin de maîtrise en arts visuels à l'Université Laval intitulée Sacré Cerveau.--p. [3]. Nous avons mis sur pieds un système de charte de couleurs permettant au lecteur de reconnaître à tout moment qui est l'auteur de ce qu'il a devant les yeux. Ainsi les textes écrits par Jean-François Cooke seront en bleu, ceux par Pierre Sasseville en vert et ceux réalisés conjointement, donc sous le nom Cooke-Sasseville, en mauve.--p. 7. Bibliogr.: f. 30-31. Publié aussi en version électronique.

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