This rise in the use of social networks presents new ethical, legal, and professional challenges for educators. Pre-service teachers need professional development to be cognizant of the content they are posting to personal social networks. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to develop professional development guidelines to help…

Students must be proficient readers of nonfiction texts to be successful in school and life. Since engaging students in this genre can be challenging, this article focuses on how students can respond digitally and socially to nonfiction through the use of free, secure social networks. Not only can students become more engaged in learning when…

Engaging students with primary sources fosters inquiry, critical thinking, and deductive reasoning skills, all of which are vitally important to success in school and beyond. Simply inserting primary sources into the classroom is not enough. This resource uses the best of emerging Internet applications (Web 2.0) to capture the interest of today's…

Professional learning (PL) opportunities are essential for PreK-12 literacy educators, but too often these efforts fail to help teachers develop and deeply engage with their work. This forward-looking book describes keys to providing effective, sustainable literacy PL that values teachers over test scores and capitalizes on social networks and…

A fundamental challenge for all instructors in higher education is demonstrating the relevance of the material for our students. With the implementation of new technologies, and facing ever-increasing challenges, instructors need to adapt their approach, especially in the teaching of theory. This presentation provides one such approach. Instead of…

The benefits of social learning have been recognized by existing research. To explore knowledge distribution in social learning and its effects on learning achievement, we developed a social learning platform and explored students' behaviors of peer interactions by the proposed algorithms based on social network analysis. An empirical study was…

In the digital age, numerous technological tools are available to enhance educational practices. When used effectively, student engagement and mobile learning are significantly increased. "Social Media in Education: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice" contains a compendium of the latest academic material on the usage, strategies, and…

Recent contentions about "fake news" and misinformation online has shed light on the critical need for media literacy at a global scale. Indeed, digital stories are one of the main forms of communication in the 21st century through blogs, videos-sharing websites, forums, or social networks. However, the line between facts and fiction can…

Despite increased attention to tackling bullying and the use of effective anti-bullying programs that can reduce victimization for many, some children remain victimized. Preventing persistent victimization requires that teachers identify victims and intervene at an early stage, but this is often difficult because teachers cannot always recognize…

Induced by a literature review, this paper presents a framework of dimensions and indicators highlighting the underpinning aspects and values of social learning within teacher groups. Notions of social networks, communities of practice and learning teams were taken as the main perspectives to influence this social learning framework. The review…

New teachers need support from their peers and mentors to locate resources, information, new ideas, emotional support, and inspiration. This timely book explains the research and theory behind social networks (face-to-face and online), describes what effective social networking for educators looks like, reveals common obstacles that new teachers…

Research on the use of experiential exercises to encourage exploration of professional networks shows that such exercises are effective and provide value for students seeking to enter or navigate careers. Often students in the early phase of their undergraduate experience are unaware of the process involved in building a professional network or…

A number of recent studies have shown that teachers are unevenly distributed across schools: compared to other students, students who are low-income, minority, limited-English proficient, low-performing, and/or from urban contexts tend to be taught by substantially less qualified teachers. Consequently, many researchers have analyzed how teachers…

How can social media help transform a student's learning experience and promote active engagement with learning content and peers? "Social Media for Active Learning" helps instructors achieve this goal. Many people use social media in their everyday lives, seeking information and informal learning opportunities via their online networks.…

In recent years, the use of social networking sites has grown tremendously especially among the teens and high school students. However, very little is known about the scale of use, the purpose, how students use these sites and, more specifically, whether these sites help or hurt their academic progress. This study investigates how high school…