Computer-mediated education : the relationship between computer access, tutorial attendance and student grades

One of the problems faced by Australian academics in the 21st century is to facilitate learning with a changing profile of students, in bigger and bigger classes. As educators at tertiary institutions, our environment is undergoing major changes as increasingly business and commerce programs are offering courses either partially (Web enabled) or totally (Web exclusive) online. This study has developed an important model allowing the prediction of students' overall results and indicates that a student's final grade is dependant, in part, on accessing the study materials and study tools available to them via WebCT and attending face-to-face tutorials.

Building equitable literate futures : home and school computer-mediated literacy practices and disadvantage

This paper examines the complex connections between literacy practices, the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and disadvantage. It reports the findings of a year-long study which investigated the ways in which four families use ICTs to engage with formal and informal literacy learning in home and school settings. The research set out to explore what it is about computer-mediated literacy practices at home and at school in disadvantaged communities that make a difference in school success. The findings demonstrate that the 'socialisation' of the technology - its appropriation into existing family norms, values and lifestyles - varied from family to family. Having access to ICTs at home was not sufficient for the young people and their families to overcome the so-called 'digital divide'. Clearly, we are seeing shifts in the meaning of 'disadvantage' in a globalised world mediated by the use of new technologies. New definitions of disadvantage that take account not only of access to the new technologies but also include calibrated understandings of what constitutes the access are required. The article concludes that old inequalities have not disappeared, but are playing out in new ways in the context of the networked society.

Building equitable literate futures : home and school computer-mediated literacy practices and disadvantage

This article examines the complex connections between literacy practices, the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and disadvantage. It reports the findings of a year-long study which investigated the ways in which four families use ICTs to engage with formal and informal literacy learning in home and school settings. The research set out to explore what it is about computer-mediated literacy practices at home and at school in disadvantaged communities that makes a difference in school success. The findings demonstrate that the 'socialisation' of the technology--its appropriation into existing family norms, values and lifestyles--varied from family to family. Having access to ICTs at home was not sufficient for the young people and their families to overcome the so-called 'digital divide'. The article concludes that old inequalities have not disappeared, but are playing out in new ways in the context of the networked society.

Building equitable literate futures: home and school computer-mediated literacy practices and disadvantage

This five-volume collection lays out the foundations and nuances of literacy studies. Beginning with the theoretical and epistemological perspectives that have been influential in shaping contemporary approaches in literacy studies, the set further explores new digital literacies, literacy in educational and institutional contexts, and the crucial issues of literacy in relation to social mobility, multilingualism and globalization. With a full introduction to the set and to each volume, researchers will find in this set a comprehensive guide to this crucial area of study.
Chapter 4 in volume 3(Angus, Snyder and Sutherland-Smith) is a research chapter exploring literacy practices and the use of technology in the context of disadvantage. In four contexts it examines the 'digital divide' in home and school literacy and what makes a difference in learning success. 

A Faceted Classification Scheme for Computer-Mediated Discourse

This article describes a classification scheme for computer-mediated discourse that classifies samples in terms of clusters of features, or “facets”. The goal of the scheme is to synthesize and articulate aspects of technical and social context that influence discourse usage in CMC environments. The classification scheme is motivated, presented in detail with support from existing literature, and illustrated through a comparison of two types of weblog (blog) data. In concluding, the advantages and limitations of the scheme are weighed.

Sequential incoherence in a multi-party synchronous computer mediated communication for an introductory Health Informatics course.

Online courses will play a key role in the high-volume Informatics education required to train the personnel that will be necessary to fulfill the health IT needs of the country. Online courses can cause feelings of isolation in students. A common way to address these feelings is to hold synchronous online "chats" for students. Conventional chats, however, can be confusing and impose a high extrinsic cognitive load on their participants that hinders the learning process. In this paper we present a qualitative analysis that shows the causes of this high cognitive load and our solution through the use of a moderated chat system.

The pragmatics of computer-mediated communication between South African and Mexican drug traffickers

South Africa and Mexico are ripe with drug trafficking. The gangs and syndicates running the drug businesses in these two countries collaborate occasionally. Communication between these international drug business partners takes place on social media. Their main language of communication is English, mixed with some limited use of Spanish and Afrikaans. The key purpose of the interactions between the South African and Mexican parties is the organisation of their business activities. This study aims at examining how the drug traffickers position each other and themselves regarding their common business interest and how their relationship evolves throughout their interactions. Moreover, it is of interest to look at how these people make use of different social media and their affordances. For this a qualitative analysis of the interaction between two drug traffickers (one South African and one Mexican) on Facebook, Threema and PlayStation 4 was performed. Computer-mediated communication between these two main informants was studied at various stages of their relationship. Results show that at first the interaction between the South African and Mexican drug traffickers consists of interpersonal negotiations of power. The high risk of the drug business and gang/syndicate membership paired with intercultural frictions causes the two interlocutors to be extremely cautious and at the same time to mark their position. As their relationship develops and they gain trust in each other a shift to interpersonal negotiations of solidarity takes place. In these discursive practices diverse linguistic strategies are employed for creating relational effects and for positioning the other and the self. The discursive activities of the interactants are also identity practices. Thus, the two drug traffickers construct identities through these social practices, positioning and their interpersonal relationship.

Niederdeutsch im Internet. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen computervermittelter Kommunikation für den Spracherhalt:possibilities and limitations of computer-mediated communication for language preservation

Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht die Frage, in welchem Maße sich Institutionen, die niederdeutsche Kulturszene und individuelle Sprecher des Niederdeutschen moderne Kommunikationstechnologien wie das Internet zunutze machen und ob computervermittelte Kommunikation helfen kann, dem Rückgang des Niederdeutschen Einhalt zu gebieten. Die grundsätzliche Herangehensweise ist eine soziolinguistische, die das Internet als sozialen Handlungsraum versteht, in dem Individuen und Institutionen kommunizieren. Für eine derartige Perspektive stehen weniger das Medium oder das Genre im Mittelpunkt des Interesses als vielmehr das kommunizierende Individuum und die Sprachgemeinschaft, in diesem Fall die virtuelle Sprachgemeinschaft. Based on studies that analyse the potential of computer-mediated communication (cmc) to help fight language shift in lesser-used languages, this paper discusses the situation of Low German in Northern Germany. Over the last three decades, Low German has lost more than half of its active speakers. The article raises the question of whether and, if so, how Low German speakers make use of cmc to stem this tide. Following a sociolinguistic approach focussed on the individual speakers who use the Internet as a space for social interaction, it gives an overview of the discursive field of Low German on the internet and analyses in detail the most popular Low German discussion board. It shows that one of the main obstacles to a more successful use of cmc can be found in speakers' complex attitude toward written Low German. © Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart.