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Digital Ethnicity is a model developed to provide an organized method to define human interaction with digital communication technologies and the result of these interactions on cultural development. The ultimate goal for the development of Digital Ethnicity as a concept is to describe those aspects of digital ethnicity that influence society. These digital ethnic aspects are intended to guide thinking and provide insight into the social and educational needs of rapidly changing societal groupings by providing guidance for leaders and educators to address the biological, social and cognitive changes brought about by pervasive use of digital communication technologies. Digital Profiles have emerged by certain demographic characteristics -- most notably, age and gender. This paper discusses these emerging profiles. [For the complete proceedings, see ED608557.]

Digital Ethnicity is a concept based on Longstreet's (1978) model of the Aspects of Ethnicity. Digital Ethnicity was developed to describe the impact human interaction with digital communication technologies is having on cultural development. The ultimate goal for the development of Digital Ethnicity as a concept is to describe those aspects of digital ethnicity to achieve profiles of various digital ethnicities. These digital ethnic profiles are intended to guide thinking and provide insight into the social and educational needs of rapidly changing societal groupings by providing guidance for educational leaders, teachers and teacher education programs to prepare candidates who will be able to address the biological, social and cognitive changes brought about by pervasive use of digital communication technologies. [For the complete proceedings, see ED600498.]

Society's relationship to knowledge and what is considered to be factual is changing. Effective teaching models focused on leveraging strategic control of the knowledge from teachers to learners in virtual learning environments are critical to insuring a positive path is charted. The Knowledge Development Model serves as the guide for determining how to move learners through stages of knowledge acquisition to knowledge application and ultimately to knowledge generation in virtual settings. Instructional strategies for fostering student engagement in a virtual learning environment are identified as critical, and a number of relevant theories focusing on student learning, affect, needs and adult concerns are presented to provide a basis for transfer of knowledge from teacher to learner. The validated (2009, Adams, DeVaney & Sawyer) Knowledge Development Model combines the dimensions of knowledge approach, knowledge authority and teaching approach to demonstrate the recursive and scaffolded design for creation of virtual learning environments. [For the complete proceedings, see ED579395.]