In recent years, virtual teams have become a feature of most corporate workplaces, yet few academic programs prepare students to work in virtual teams, and few textbooks support the development of key skills for virtual teamwork. The primary purpose of this book is to enable higher education students to participate in virtual teams with students from other institutions, who potentially operate in different countries, time zones, and/or cultures. The book guides students through the process of working in virtual team projects for their classes, and helps them to engage with the learning experiences, and to respond to potential challenges. The book is directed towards students within any of the following disciplines: Business; Information Technology; Communication Studies; and Engineering. One section of the book also guides teachers through the process of organizing virtual team projects, and explores the teacher/teacher collaboration that is an inevitable consequence of organizing inter-institutional student virtual team projects. It provides advice for teachers on how to manage administrative challenges such as conflicting institutional schedules and grading mechanisms. In addition, it discusses research themes and data gathering and analysis techniques for teachers who wish to publish findings about the virtual team process and outcomes. As well as students and teachers, the book is also useful for researchers exploring any of the following themes: Technology use in virtual teams; Communication strategies and international communication in virtual teams; Communities of learning, e-learning, and virtual teams; Challenges of virtual teamwork; Planning a virtual team collaboration project; and Gathering and analyzing data about virtual collaboration.

This provocative book's starting point is a deep and profound concern about the commodification of knowledge within the contemporary university. Acts of Knowing aims to provide readers with a means of understanding the issues from the perspective of Critical Pedagogy; an educational philosophy which believes that 'knowing' must be freed from the constraints of the financial and managerialist logics which dominate the contemporary university. Critical Pedagogy is important for three key reasons: it conceptualises pedagogy as a process of engagement between the teacher and taught; secondly that that engagement is based on an underlying humanistic view about human worth and value; and thirdly that the 'knowing' which can come out of this engagement needs to be understood essentially as exchange between people, rather than a financial exchange. Cowden and Singh argue that the conception of education as simply a means for securing economic returns for the individual and for the society's positioning in a global marketplace, represents a fundamentally impoverished conception of education, which impoverishes not just individuals, but society as a whole.

What will higher education look like in 20 years? Will a bachelor's degree still be viable-or even valuable? How will we assess learning? Will it be competency based? Determined by the sum experience of individual achievement? Or measured by student peers? How will learning be delivered? In the classroom? Over the internet? Or through mobile devices untethered by time and place? And by whom? By professors dedicated to their disciplines, by volunteers driven by a passion to share, or by new kinds of learning communities, as yet unimagined?

This much is certain: education is changing. But today, the higher education community is struggling with serious challenges: budget dollars are tighter than ever; our capacity to admit students who want an education has diminished sharply; and in the U.S., our standing as the premier global provider of advanced education is slipping. Imagining a new future for higher education will require vision-a creative capacity to see what might be possible for tomorrow's learners-and resolve-the ability to assess risk, forge new kinds of partnerships, and move confidently toward goals, even under difficult circumstances.

SunGard Higher Education worked closely with Dr. Ihlenfeldt over the years as he worked tirelessly to shape a new future for Chippewa Valley Technical College. Today CVTC boasts a nationally recognized faculty, state-of-the art facilities and equipment, online and blended classrooms, and partnerships with area businesses that help to sustain a community. Visionary leadership informed by careful analysis can make a tremendous difference in people's lives. These are skills Bill shares with all of us in his book, "Visionary Leadership." Its publication couldn't be timelier and SunGard Higher Education is proud to sponsor its publication.

Higher education in the UK is in crisis. The idea of the public university is under assault, and both the future of the sector and its relationship to society are being gambled. Higher education is increasingly unaffordable, its historic institutions are becoming untenable, and their purpose is resolutely instrumental. What and who have led us to this crisis? What are the alternatives? To whom do we look for leadership in revealing those alternatives? This book critically analyses intellectual leadership in the university, exploring ongoing efforts from around the world to create alternative models for organizing higher education and the production of knowledge. Its authors offer their experience and views from inside and beyond the structures of mainstream higher education, in order to reflect on efforts to create alternatives. In the process the volume asks: is it possible to re imagine the university democratically and co operatively? If so, what are the implications for leadership not just within the university but also in terms of higher education's relationship to society? The authors argue that mass higher education is at the point where it no longer reflects the needs, capacities and long term interests of global society. An alternative role and purpose is required, based upon 'mass intellectuality' or the real possibility of democracy in learning and the production of knowledge.

Learning Communities in Educational Partnerships shows how theory and practice come into lived interplay in social spaces where theory informs practice and practice turns into theory. Drawing on their own experiences of becoming a learning community, the authors introduce the ideas underpinning self-study action research. Through a series of first-hand practitioner accounts, the chapters describe and explain how to engage in processes of inquiry and establish learning communities, how to make space for professional conversations and how to develop living theories from within daily practice. The book shows how meaningful change can take place, both in educational improvements and also in more transformative professional learning, when educators are encouraged to draw on their own personal educational values and share their idea

Advocates of religious schooling have frequently had to answer the charge that what they supported was un-American. In a book that is more than just a history, Jones tries to make sense of that charge by tracing the development of religious schooling over the last 125 years. He explores the rationale for religious schooling, not just on the part of those who choose it for their children, but also in terms of its impact on the community as a whole, and he considers the arguments of those who criticize such schools for undermining efforts to promote national unity. Near the end of the 19th century, publicly financed, publicly administered schooling emerged as the default educational arrangement for American children. But this supremacy has not gone unchallenged. The sectarian schools that, in fact, predate public education in America have survived, even thrived, over the past century. Multiple religious communities, including those that opposed sectarian schooling in earlier generations, have now embraced it for their children. The author charts the growth of this educational strategy--and the debate surrounding it--through the 20th century by focusing on the gradual embrace of sectarian schooling by different religious communities in America, particularly Catholics, Jews, and later, conservative Protestants (mainly in the form of homeschooling). He also considers Muslim schools, not currently a force in private schooling or the subject of much debate, but perhaps next in line to make their case for a place in America's educational landscape.

In the twenty-first century, learning-and the definition of education-is changing. New digital, online, and social tools have the ability to transform the classroom and engage learners like never before. Measuring and Analyzing Informal Learning in the Digital Age investigates some of the primary technologies being used in educational settings and how a less structured and more open learning environment can effectively motivate students in their studies. Bringing together a wide variety of perspectives from a global list of authors, this premier reference is a crucial source of information for educators, administrators, theorists, and other professionals in the education field.

Julie J. Park examines how losing racial diversity in a university affects the everyday lives of its students. She uses a student organization, the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) at "California University," as a case study to show how reductions in racial diversity impact the ability of students to sustain multiethnic communities. The story documents IVCF's evolution from a predominantly white group that rarely addressed race to one of the most racially diverse campus fellowships at the university. However, its ability to maintain its multiethnic membership was severely hampered by the drop in black enrollment at California University following the passage of Proposition 209, a statewide affirmative action ban. Park demonstrates how the friendships that students have-or do not have-across racial lines are not just a matter of personal preference or choice; they take place in the contexts that are inevitably shaped by the demographic conditions of the university. She contends that a strong organizational commitment to diversity, while essential, cannot sustain a racially diverse student subculture. Her work makes a critical contribution to our understanding of race and inequality in collegiate life and is a valuable resource for educators and researchers interested in the influence of racial politics on students' lives.

Discussions on the importance and impact of pedagogical practice on students as whole persons are often concentrated on the P-12 or undergraduate learning experience. In higher education, many institutions do an outstanding job of complicating the undergraduate classroom to include civic engagement, community-based learning, education abroad, social action, and project-based learning. But, what about the graduate classroom? While there are indeed numerous graduate programs that push students to interact with strong, meaningful, difficult, and sometimes harsh facts, scholarship, and ideologies, the instructional methods have largely remained stagnant. New methods of constructing deep and meaningful learning in graduate education is essential for the transformation and continued evolution of graduate school instruction. Reshaping Graduate Education Through Innovation and Experiential Learning is a crucial reference book that offers practice-based reflections on efforts to infuse creativity, social action, engaged learning, or other creative interventions into the graduate classroom. The book includes personal narratives that are grounded in pedagogical perspectives from graduate school instructors who share their experiences with innovative and transformative teaching practices. The goal of the book is to encourage graduate school professors to engage social justice education as something to be experienced and practiced in their courses and not just as a concept to be studied. As such, the book covers topics such as self-directed learning, counseling, and community mapping. It is ideal for graduate-level instructors in the field of education and other related social science areas, as well as junior faculty as they establish a teaching practice or veteran faculty seeking creative transformation.