The educational role of the worldwide web has been cast in a new light by the emergence of so-called ‘web 2.0’ technologies and, in particular, ‘social software’ where users are connected to and collaborate with each other in a variety of group interactions (Shirky 2003). Current research indicates that social networking has the potential to bring individuals together into new relationships and friendships, into new communicative flows, and even perhaps into communities of their choosing. Can social networking tools, integrated into the requirements and learning objectives of a course, offer some benefits towards meeting the needs of students? The average Indiana University Purdue University-Indianapolis student experience can vary greatly when compared to campus life at a traditional, four-year residency college or university because the student body is comprised of an assorted group of learners: commuting students, older adult students, online students, on-campus students, and first-generation college students. These students come from a range of diverse backgrounds. Using N100: Introduction to Digital Media Principles as my primary case study, I assess the implementation and development of social media tools, specifically the use of a closed Ning network, in this diverse college classroom environment. This paper evaluates the use of social networking tools to enhance student learning and improve student engagement as well as comparing social networking software to other types of learning managements systems such as Indiana University’s Oncourse CL.

The study investigated the creation of a community of learners to integrate environmental education into early childhood curriculum. Two centres were used for the study (one kindergarten, one childcare centre). The participants were four kindergarten teachers, eight childcare staff, along with five focus group parents and six focus children from each centre. The qualitative research was conducted in two phases over one year. In phase one a case study approach was employed to allow teachers to gain confidence in the research process. During this time a two week environmental education integrated curriculum was implemented at both centres. At the conclusion of phase one a nascent community of learners was emerging. After a transition stage when the research was shared with the researcher, the teachers at both centres made the decision to lead the research in phase two using a participatory action research approach. This resulted in a growth in professional knowledge of research processes. The teachers aimed to collaboratively create a community of learners with the parents by valuing their involvement, social capital and funds of knowledge. A project approach to environmental education based on children’s environmental interests, the emergent curriculum, and the use of documentation was implemented at both centres. A conceptual artefact in the form of a community of learners was created. Bereiter’s knowledge creation metaphor and the sociological concepts of parental social capital and funds of knowledge guided the data analysis. Environmental knowledge creation by all participants in the community of learners was a significant finding. The research process resulted in all the participants (teachers, children and parents) creating their own environmental knowledge and gaining a heightened awareness of environmental education in early childhood curriculum.

This study investigates the development of a community of learners by observing the changes in teachers' and children's participation in four Year 3 / 4 classrooms. The study also explores the teachers' and children's perspectives of learning and teaching and the impact of these on the development of a community of learners. Factors enabling and constraining this developmental process are also identified. These research foci respond to a synthesis of research revealing the importance of teachers and children learning together in cohesive learning communities (Alton-Lee, 2003); a sociocultural approach that is uncommon in New Zealand primary classrooms.Sociocultural theory also informs the generation, analysis and presentation of data. Participant observations, sustained conversations and interviews with the teachers and target children were used to generate data across three cycles of collaborative action research over one school year. Analyses of these data were made by observing the teachers' and the children's transformation of participation through Rogoff's (2003) personal, interpersonal and institutional lenses. The results of this analysis process are presented according to the lens through which the transformation was observed.The findings showed a community of learners as comprising reciprocal connections across cognitive, social, emotional, spiritual and physical dimensions. Transformations of the teachers' and the children's participation in these five reciprocal connections were observed as evidence that a community of learners was developing. These new forms of participation in the classroom shaped, and were shaped by, new identities as learners and teachers, new perspectives about learning and teaching, as well as new culturally authorised values and practices for learning together. Multiple factors constrained the development of a community of learners. The most pervasive constraint was the persistence of teachers' and children's traditional perspectives that prevented understanding of the reciprocity and responsivity of shared activity. A range of factors also enabled the development of a community of learners. The opportunity for professional dialogu in this collaborative action research most enabled the teachers' to develop a community of learners in the classroom: the opportunity for guided participation with teachers and peers in shared classroom activity most enabled the children to learn together.These findings reveal the demanding, complex and mutually constituting nature of developing a community of learners in a primary classroom. The transformation of participation observed in this study provides evidence of the positive contributions sociocultural theory can make to both teachers' and to children's learning. Implications based on these findings are considered for teachers, children, researchers and education providers who together share responsibility for developing and sustaining a community of learners as accepted instructional practice in primary classrooms.

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The United States is home to hundreds of thousands of refugees and immigrants who desire to learn English. In contrast to academically-focused English language learners (ELLs), or international students, refugee and immigrant ELLs are often dealing with the stresses of poverty and/or a precarious immigration status, giving them a diverse and complex set of needs that are often not adequately met by ESL programs. Building off a foundation of Activity Theory, Sociocultural Theory, and Language Ecology, which emphasizes an approach to language learning and teaching that does not separate language from the authentic contexts from which it arises (Van Lier, 2002; Leather & Van Dam, 2003; Pennycook, 2010; Swain & Watanabe, 2012; among others), I seek to uncover and address these needs in-context through an ethnography of six Spanish-speaking immigrant ELLs in the western United States. I detail the results of an in-depth analysis of 116 hours of participant observation with these women, paying special attention to their daily routines and how, where, and why they employ English or Spanish. I show how the women's daily routines and participation in Latinx communities curtail much of their need for daily English, how they employ various strategies to get by when they do need English, and how their expressed motivations to learn English are often thwarted by their current life circumstances. I end by summarizing key observations about the ELLs in the study and making general recommendations to ESL programs for how to apply these observations.

Submitted by Mariana Dornelles Vargas (marianadv) on 2015-03-17T18:35:58Z No. of bitstreams: 1 teatro_como.pdf: 725560 bytes, checksum: 89c959a8efcd98fa0f19d33812223d69 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-17T18:35:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 teatro_como.pdf: 725560 bytes, checksum: 89c959a8efcd98fa0f19d33812223d69 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Nenhuma / O projeto DRAMA CLUB, do Colégio de Aplicação da UFRGS, consiste na elaboração de um espetáculo teatral em língua inglesa a partir de textos adaptados para aquele grupo. Esta pesquisa-ação propôs-se a investigar de que maneira a construção coletiva de um espetáculo teatral em Língua Estrangeira (LE) estimula sua aprendizagem pelos alunos participantes. Para tal, buscou-se observar a ocorrência de eventos de regulação e a autorregulação nas interações do professor com os alunos e entre pares. Outra hipótese da pesquisa diz respeito ao papel do referido projeto na formação de uma comunidade de aprendizes. A base teórica desta pesquisa foi a Teoria Sociocultural de Liev Vigotski e os estudos dela decorrentes desenvolvidos na área de Linguística Aplicada, bem como outros conhecimentos subsidiários como a Pedagogia de Projetos, os estudos sobre Motivação e Autonomia, a formação de Comunidade de Aprendizes, a Educação Humanística e o Teatro no Ensino de LE. A geração de dados foi feita a partir do registro em vídeo dos ensaios e espetáculos do grupo no ano de 2010, bem como de entrevistas semi-estruturadas com alguns dos participantes. Os dados gerados permitem afirmar que a atividade teatral em LE pode propiciar a ocorrência de eventos de regulação e autorregulação em ambiente mais favorável a uma aprendizagem mais contextualizada e ao estabelecimento de uma comunidade de aprendizes. / The DRAMA CLUB Project of Colégio de Aplicação da UFRGS consists of elaborating a theater presentation in English based on long-duration plays adapted to that specific group. This action research aims at investigating in which way the process of colectively organising a theater presentation in a foreign language stimulates its learning by the participant students. Thus, regulation and self-regulation occurances, both in the teacher-student and peer interaction, were observed. Another hipothesis is about the role of such Project in the creation of a community of learners. The theoretical approach of this research was Lev Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory and other studies in the area of Applied Linguistics, as well as Project Pedagogy, motivation, autonomy, Comunity of Learners, Humanistic Teaching and Drama in Foreign Language Learning. For this study, the students' interactions were recorded in video, both those occured in rehearsals and presentations; semi-structured interviews with some of the students were also used. The data analysis suggests that the theatrical activity in a foreign language may allow the occurance of regulation and self-regulation events in an ambience friendlier to a more contextualized learning and to the creation of a community of learners

Extant literature indicates that web-based blended learning will become the most accepted mode of delivery in the near future as an alternative to traditional face-to-face instruction particularly in the higher education landscape due to its potential to provide increased access to education for more people, increased student engagement with the tutor, rich learning resources, peers, and external experts, and flexibility beyond the limits of classrooms without compromising quality. The study focused on developing a web-based blended learning model that could help reap the benefits of blended learning at the University of Botswana (UB). With this in mind, the research question, "How can a web-based blended learning environment be designed, developed and implemented at the University of Botswana?" was formulated. In order to address the research question, a six-dimensional model called LAPTEL was developed. The six dimentions are: Digital Leadership, Equitable Access, Active Participation, Authentic Tasks, Intellectual Engagement and Learning (LAPTEL); the first five dimentions are requisites to enable studnets to progress towards successful learning which is the sixth dimension. The LAPTEL model depicts guidelines on how to ensure equitable access for students to learning contexts, motivate and enable them to participate in meaningful educational processes, design and develop effective online as well as classroom learning materials (tasks), and engage students in active 'communityes of practice' in order to help them construct their own knowledge (learning) collaboratively under proper leadership. The Researcher considers it essential to have a complex interplay between the three components - active participation, authentic tasks and intellectual engagement to facilitate active, non-linear learning, and it will be catered for in the design, development and delivery of courses based on the LAPTEL model. The fact that these three dimensions have got features of both face-to-face and onlilne learning, integrated seamlessly, makes the LAPTEL a Web-based learning model. The overall aim was to develop a model of curriculum (re)design based on the student-centred pedagogical approaches that combine synergistically the effectiveness of traditional classroomwith technologically enhanced socialization and active learning oppotunities of the online environment in order to support student learning more effectively than what is possible in a typical lecture room. In a case study to evaluate the effectiveness of the LAPTEL model in the context of UB, the Researcher found that it could provide students with opportunity for increased interactive engagement (more than that is normally possible in 'face-to-face-only' or 'online-only' environments), flexibility and cognitive scaffolding that enhanced their learning experience. The Researcher concludes that the LAPTEL model fits well in the UB context, and it may be adopted by other institutions working under similar contexts. / Teacher Education / D. Ed. (Didactics)

Extant literature indicates that web-based blended learning will become the most accepted mode of delivery in the near future as an alternative to traditional face-to-face instruction particularly in the higher education landscape due to its potential to provide increased access to education for more people, increased student engagement with the tutor, rich learning resources, peers, and external experts, and flexibility beyond the limits of classrooms without compromising quality. The study focused on developing a web-based blended learning model that could help reap the benefits of blended learning at the University of Botswana (UB). With this in mind, the research question, "How can a web-based blended learning environment be designed, developed and implemented at the University of Botswana?" was formulated. In order to address the research question, a six-dimensional model called LAPTEL was developed. The six dimentions are: Digital Leadership, Equitable Access, Active Participation, Authentic Tasks, Intellectual Engagement and Learning (LAPTEL); the first five dimentions are requisites to enable studnets to progress towards successful learning which is the sixth dimension. The LAPTEL model depicts guidelines on how to ensure equitable access for students to learning contexts, motivate and enable them to participate in meaningful educational processes, design and develop effective online as well as classroom learning materials (tasks), and engage students in active 'communityes of practice' in order to help them construct their own knowledge (learning) collaboratively under proper leadership. The Researcher considers it essential to have a complex interplay between the three components - active participation, authentic tasks and intellectual engagement to facilitate active, non-linear learning, and it will be catered for in the design, development and delivery of courses based on the LAPTEL model. The fact that these three dimensions have got features of both face-to-face and onlilne learning, integrated seamlessly, makes the LAPTEL a Web-based learning model. The overall aim was to develop a model of curriculum (re)design based on the student-centred pedagogical approaches that combine synergistically the effectiveness of traditional classroomwith technologically enhanced socialization and active learning oppotunities of the online environment in order to support student learning more effectively than what is possible in a typical lecture room. In a case study to evaluate the effectiveness of the LAPTEL model in the context of UB, the Researcher found that it could provide students with opportunity for increased interactive engagement (more than that is normally possible in 'face-to-face-only' or 'online-only' environments), flexibility and cognitive scaffolding that enhanced their learning experience. The Researcher concludes that the LAPTEL model fits well in the UB context, and it may be adopted by other institutions working under similar contexts. / Teacher Education / D. Ed. (Didactics)