Abstract—This study examines how students enrolled in two Web-based sections of a technical writing class performed compared to students enrolled in a conventional version of the class. Although no significant difference in student performance was found between the two learning conditions, our data reveal intriguing relationships between students ’ prior knowledge, attitudes, and learning styles and our Web-based writing environment. One finding that we focus on here is that reflective, global learners performed significantly better online than active, sequential learners, whereas there was no difference between them in the conventional class. Our study highlights the complexity of effective teaching and the difficulty of making comparisons between the online and the classroom environments. In particular, we maintain that the transfer of active learning strategies to the Web is not straightforward and that interactivity as a goal of instructional website design requires significant elaboration. Index Terms—Active learning, distance education, educational assessment, interactivity, learning styles, online courses, technical writing instruction, Web-based instruction and training.

Introduction Keegan [1] declares that `Without a medium of communication the concept "distance education" would not be an educational process...both synchronous and asynchronous media are viable means of communication for distance education providing that they allow two-way communication' (p. 118). Discussing quality and access in distance education from theoretical constructs, Garrison [2] states that the `concern for quality in distance education has identified an emerging paradigm based upon two-way communication as a necessary and central component of an educational transaction' (p. 17). In other words, interactive two-way communication is the critical component in distance education. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) systems have been used as media of communication rather than for their technological properties. Examining CMC systems requires examining an interactive communication model. Each communicative act has a source/sender who originates the me

Telecommunication exchange projects are currently marketed as cur-riculum supplements that conveniently satisfy three key K-12 educa-tional reform objectives: better writing skills, enhanced multicultural awareness, and better job preparation for a rapidly expanding global economy. This paper analyzes the educational discourse surrounding telecommunication exchanges, and argues that much of the current research is contradictory, inconclusive, and possibly misleading. The paper also illustrates how the often overly optimistic claims about technology-based projects are problematic in light of the larger, ex-ceedingly complex role of technology in society. As more and more schools achieve Internet capabilities and as educational technology discourse increasingly promotes the necessity of technological com-petence and celebrates the promise of global connectivity, educators have been exploring ways to use--and rationalize the use of--the Internet in their class-rooms. A growing trend during the past decade, beginning with the advent of e-mail, has been the practice of global telecommunication exchange projects that encourage classroom connections between distant schools, oftentimes in differ-ent countries. As Berenfeld (1996) writes, "the ability for one class to easily and cheaply communicate with either another or many throughout the world was so powerful that educators developed a number of successful learning projects around email " (p. 76). Telecommunication exchange projects are often coordi-nated by individual teachers who locate distant partners on a number of educa-tion-oriented Internet sites. The majority of these projects occur in the public domain, where teachers are the sole organizers, but telecommunication exchanges are also sold to schools as hassle-free educational services provided by well-known corporations such as AT&T. Those who herald distant e-mail exchanges see them as an optimum way to satisfy three critical educational objectives in The authors gratefully acknowledge the invaluable suggestions and com-ments from Jim Marshall, Cynthia Lewis, and three anonymous reviewers.

CONCLUSION

Social factors, such as status differences, may prevent some members from participating in group decisions. Computerized group decision support systems (GDSSs) can reduce social influences by allowing group members to contribute anonymously and in parallel. This study explores how a simple GDSS on a wireless handheld device can augment face-to-face group decisions. Small groups of men and women brainstormed potential names for a computer game and voted for the best name using the wireless devices. The names generated were either associated with the person who produced them or not, and group member status was manipulated through the nature of the task and the proportions of men and women in the groups; men were more knowledgeable computer gamers and were always the numeric majority. We found that men and women generated more ideas when they were anonymous, and voting patterns were biased in favor of the ideas generated by men when members knew the idea's source, but not when the source was anonymous. These results suggest that a wireless GDSS can be used to reduce social bias that influences face-toface decision making tasks.

This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues. Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party websites are prohibited. In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier’s archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit:

Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) has brought about a revolution in the way the world communicates with each other. With the increasing number of people, interacting through the internet and the rise of new platforms and technologies has brought together the people from different social, cultural and geographical backgrounds to present their thoughts, ideas and opinions on topics of their interest. CMC has, in some cases, gave users more freedom to express themselves as compared to Face-to-face communication. This has also led to rise in the use of hostile and aggressive language and terminologies uninhibitedly. Since such use of language is detrimental to the discussion process and affects the audience and individuals negatively, efforts are being taken to control them. The research sees the need to understand the concept of flaming and hence attempts to classify them in order to give a better understanding of it. The classification is done on the basis of type of flame content being presented and the Style in which they are presented.

Communicative style and gender differences