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Heeding the call in the literature on access to justice issues for researchers to extend their gaze beyond official sources of law, this article describes research detailing the use of social media for legal research and information sharing. While it is possible to look at social media as behind-the-scenes spaces for legislative and judicial activity, this research shows that they are above all else places for the reception and production of juridical information, bringing to the centre ground the voices and practices of citizens often neglected in legal research. However, such informal fora bring to the fore not only the speech, but also the legal know-how of the unitiated, local know-how because of its nature and the way it comes into being, know-how that is every bit as neglected in the legal research. This question of the recognition of the legal know-how of citizens, however fraught it may be, is undoubtedly deserving of further consideration in research and policy on access to justice. Ultimately, it is a matter of trying to understand the different types of legal know-how that underlie and provide the basis for the institution or potential institution of legal proceedings by members of the public.

K-12 online learning and cyber charter schools have grown at a tremendous rate over the past decade. At the same time, these online programs have struggled to provide the social spaces where students can interact that K-12 schools are traditionally able to provide. Social networking presents a unique opportunity to provide these kinds of social interactions in an online environment. In this article, we trace the development and use of social networking at one cyber charter school to extend the space for online instruction and provide opportunities for social interaction that online schools are often unable to provide.

Keywords: K-12 online learning, virtual school, cyberschool, social networking

The adoption of social media in e-learning signals the end of distance education as we know it in higher education. However, it appears to have very little impact on the way in which open and distance learning (ODL) institutions are functioning. Earlier research suggests that a significant part of the explanation for the slow uptake of social media in e-learning lies outside of conventional factors attributed to distance learning reforms.This research used the conceptual framework for online collaborative learning (OCL) in higher education. Social media such as blogs, wikis, Skype or Google Hangout, Facebook; and even mobile apps, such as WhatsApp; could facilitate deep learning and the creation of knowledge in e-learning at higher educational institutions.This metasynthesis is an interpretative integration of peer-reviewed qualitative research findings on social media in e-learning. It includes a synthesis of data, research methods, and theories used to investigate social media in e-learning. Seven themes emerged from the data which have been recrafted into a framework for social media in e-learning as the final product. The proposed framework could be useful to instructional designers and academics who are interested in using modern learning theories and want to adopt social media in e-learning in higher education as a deep learning strategy.

Keywords: Open distance learning, social media, e-learning, qualitative research, metasynthesis, online collaborative learning

This article presents a case-study of two distance learning courses, in order to address the question of universal adoption of mobile devices and applications by students, and the impact of these devices in personal learning environments (PLEs). First, a critical discussion of the value of these concepts in the current technological context was carried out, followed by an analysis of their impact on educational use, based on data collected in online courses on physics and statistics at Universidade Aberta, the Portuguese Open University. The results indicated that all students have adopted mobile learning, and the make-up of an individual's PLE depends more on the learning resources available rather than on gender or age. These findings can help provide more efficient ways to implement learning by connecting current social needs to learners' mobile PLEs, particularly when flexibility of time and space are of utmost importance. Further studies at the Portuguese Open University will address a larger and more balanced sample of students across more course units.

Keywords: mobile learning, personal learning environment, social media, open university

This paper examines the predictors of online participation and compares them to classic theories which emphasize sociodemographic and cultural resources. It also considers the impact of digital skills and some political attitudes like confidence in political parties. The study is based on two online surveys conducted among citizens who used Internet for electoral purposes during the 2012 French presidential and Quebec legislative elections. Age, confidence in political parties, and digital skills are significant predictors of online participation. In contrast, online participation is not positively related to education level and job category.

Keywords: participation, Internet, inégalités politiques, inégalités numériques, sondage, régression ordinale, France, Québec, participation, Internet, political inequalities, digital inequalities, survey, ordinal regression, France, Québec

This research is about how Canadian women's groups use digital media to advocate for gender parity in politics. The study, based on the analysis of Facebook and Twitter accounts of eight groups—and completed with interviews—focuses on two elements: the discourse about women in politics and the logics of digital advocacy mobilized by the groups. The results illustrate an access to politics and media by means other than the digital media as well as a construction of the groups' image and discourse on women's political representation guided by the information politics.

Keywords: groupes d'intérêts, médias socionumériques, parité, représentation politique, digital advocacy, gender parity, interest groups, information politics, social media, politics representation

This article examines challenges associated with the sustainability of the digital sector in key sectors such as cloud computing, targeted advertising, online video, cryptocurrencies, and generative artificial intelligence. Firstly, it explores the innovation strategies that globally impactful companies (Google, Facebook, Netflix, and OpenAI) adopt to mitigate their environmental impact. The study highlights the evolution of innovation objectives, shifting from enhancing product performance to optimizing production processes within often collaborative frameworks. Secondly, it analyses the dissemination of digital sobriety practices among IT service providers, putting their efforts into perspective and addressing the limitations of their actions to tackle sobriety challenges. Finally, the article investigates the relationship between digital sobriety and the nature of technological platforms, highlighting the specific challenges posed by cryptocurrencies and advertising platforms. The study concludes with a set of recommendations regarding information, training, incentives, and regulation to foster a more digitally sober sector.

Keywords: stratégie, open innovation, données massives, sobriété numérique, GAFAM, strategy, open innovation, big data, digital sobriety, GAFAM, estrategia, innovación abierta, datos masivos, sobriedad digital, GAFAM

Since the mid-1990s, the Internet has been perceived as a tool to support democracy. However, recently the media has paid more attention to its negative impact on public debate. The evolution of the collective imagination of the Internet requires that we go beyond the simple binary analysis (“advantages/limits”) of its sociopolitical issues and think about how it shapes the practices and forms of public debate according to its own standards. Seven aspects of online debate are systematically analysed in this article: the replacement of the traditional gatekeepers by the algorithms developed by search engines and social media, the disappearance of authority-based arguments that are driven by popularity indicators, the anchoring of political practices in daily discussions, the identity issues associated with information-sharing, the “push button” forms of citizen expression, the mechanisms of self-belief, and the privatisation of regulatory bodies. These changes have had an impact on media and information education that information systems professionals will have to consider in the future.