This book presents research on the effects and effectiveness of ICT applications in lifelong learning in relation to digital competences of educators. It sketches recent and future evolutions in higher education, explores whether universities have adjusted policies and business models in line with the rapid development of ICT technologies, and analyses whether the adjustments made are merely cosmetic or truly future-proof. The book specifically deals with such topics as digital competencies of teaching staff, the development and implementation of MOOCs and other E-learning tools, virtual classrooms, online tutoring, and collaborative learning. It presents case studies of innovative master’s programmes, projects and methods, and processes of standardization and validation used in various countries as illustrations. The book explains the rapid transition of the knowledge society to the "society of global competence" and shows the necessity of an active implementation of innovative forms and effective methods of education, and above all, distance learning at all levels of education.

This first book in Castells' groundbreaking trilogy, with a substantial new preface, highlights the economic and social dynamics of the information age and shows how the network society has now fully risen on a global scale. Groundbreaking volume on the impact of the age of information on all aspects of society Includes coverage of the influence of the internet and the net-economy Describes the accelerating pace of innovation and social transformation Based on research in the USA, Asia, Latin America, and Europe

24/7 is the first collection of essays dealing with the nature and our experience of temporality in the network society.

An essay collection addressing computer networking and scholarly communication in higher education offers a broad array of insights from the technical and academic points of view. Many of the 25 contributors have been influential in establishing computer mediated communication in their universities and colleges. Their advice and experience cover on-line costs, administration, research issues, classroom networking across the curriculum, electronic library resources, and even a brief introduction to "navigating the network." Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

How maturing digital media and network technologies are transforming place, culture, politics, and infrastructure in our everyday life. Digital media and network technologies are now part of everyday life. The Internet has become the backbone of communication, commerce, and media; the ubiquitous mobile phone connects us with others as it removes us from any stable sense of location. Networked Publics examines the ways that the social and cultural shifts created by these technologies have transformed our relationships to (and definitions of) place, culture, politics, and infrastructure. Four chapters—each by an interdisciplinary team of scholars using collaborative software—provide a synoptic overview along with illustrative case studies. The chapter on place describes how digital networks enable us to be present in physical and networked places simultaneously—often at the expense of nondigital commitments. The chapter on culture explores the growth and impact of amateur-produced and remixed content online. The chapter on politics examines the new networked modes of bottom-up political expression and mobilization. And finally, the chapter on infrastructure notes the tension between openness and control in the flow of information, as seen in the current controversy over net neutrality.

In the early twentieth century, Chinese Buddhists sought to strengthen their tradition through publications, institution building, and initiatives aimed at raising the educational level of the monastic community. In The Huayan University Network, Erik J. Hammerstrom examines how Huayan Buddhism was imagined, taught, and practiced during this time of profound political and social change and, in so doing, recasts the history of twentieth-century Chinese Buddhism. Hammerstrom traces the influence of Huayan University, the first Buddhist monastic school founded after the fall of the imperial system in China. Although the university lasted only a few years, its graduates went on to establish a number of Huayan-centered educational programs throughout China. While they did not create a new sectarian Huayan movement, they did form a network unified by a common educational heritage that persists to the present day. Drawing on an extensive range of Buddhist texts and periodicals, Hammerstrom shows that Huayan had a significant impact on Chinese Buddhist thought and practice and that the history of Huayan complicates narratives of twentieth-century Buddhist modernization and revival. Offering a wide range of insights into the teaching and practice of Huayan in Republican China, this book sheds new light on an essential but often overlooked element of the East Asian Buddhist tradition.

The Network Society is now more than ever the essential guide to the past, consequences and future of digital communication. Fully revised, this Third Edition covers crucial new issues and updates. This book remains an accessible, comprehensive, must-read introduction to how new media function in contemporary society.