Amid the increasing digitisation of schools, relatively little work has examined the ways in which digital technologies are reconfiguring the work of school principals. With an approach based on the sociology of work, this paper draws on 19 in-depth interviews with Australian school principals to examine their everyday experiences of digital…

What do we see when we observe an excellent English lesson? What's going on in the room? Perhaps what stands out is a collaborative making of meanings inspired by stimulating texts. Perhaps what's most important is an ever-deepening knowledge about, and facility with, the many ways that language works. Maybe what we're seeing is a carefully…

In the study described in this article, fourth-grade teachers and students of different abilities and language backgrounds were interviewed before, during, and after participating in an Internet pen pal program. Results reveal that the program's authentic tasks and texts facilitated communication and enabled students to learn about a different…

This article focuses on the kinds of work that language does in contemporary workplaces, the discursive resources that are available to workers, and the challenges that they face, as they learn to build on established language practices, and develop new language practices, in order to do their work. In particular, we are interested in the ways in…

Discusses telecommunications services used in Australian education. They include Minerva (electronic mail), Midas (database accessing), Viatel (interactive videotext), and Telememo (electronic mail used to exchange information between schools. (JN)

Discussion of the value of online information services in schools reviews recent reports from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, and describes some of the available cataloging, bibliographic, full text/statistical, videotex, local, and electronic bulletin board services. Four examples of current applications in Australian…

Profiles mentoring programs sponsored by the Australian Library and Information Association. Topics include informal support as well as structured training sessions; group mentoring for new graduates; the use of e-mail; peer circles for newer professionals; and a facilitated mentoring pilot project in Queensland. (LRW)

Edith Cowan University (Perth, Western Australia) has introduced a Bachelor of Science degree in Library Technology, a three-year distance education program with no residency requirement and the first Australian degree for library technicians. This article describes the program and its use of the World Wide Web for flexible course delivery,…

E-mail provides a medium for maintaining dialogs between university colleagues that is rapid yet allows reflection, that is spontaneous yet provides a permanent and accurate record. This article describes e-mail communications between "reflective colleagues" in Australia and Oregon during a 10-week course and discusses the benefits to…

Describes the modernization of the administrative building of the Sacred Heart College Senior School in Adelaide, South Australia. Reviews one professor's personal experiences of writing an article for publication in an electronic journal. Discusses the concept that electronic publishing allows interaction via electronic mail between an author and…

Describes two projects: the first linked teacher-education students in Australia and Indonesia through e-mail and then grew into a link between primary students; the second project was a prize-winning publication by the primary students on the Internet. Gives a list of different materials and guidelines for teachers. (CMK)

Three documents are presented which describe the Australian Open Learning Information Network (AOLIN)--a national, independent, and self-supporting network of educational researchers with a common interest in the use of information technology for open and distance education--and discuss two evaluative studies undertaken by the organization. The…

Examines the pedagogical uses and implications of asynchronous e-mail exchanges by reporting on a pilot project involving student-to-student penpal correspondence between the Departments of Italian at two Australian universities. Students were matched by their linguistic proficiency, then given writing tasks in pairs. The project was successful in…

A rural health care staff development unit in New South Wales (Australia) switched from face-to-face teaching to a model encompassing competency-based training, recognition of prior learning, portfolio assessment, and flexible delivery using telecommunications technologies. Recommendations for ongoing implementation and marketing of…

This case study examines the motivation of two intermediate foreign language learners engaged in a remote language exchange partnership. A learner of English in Japan and a learner of Japanese in Australia completed language exchange activities using the telephone, Internet text chat, and e-mail over 10 weeks. Quantitative and qualitative methods…