New issue of open access journal published

The International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT) is an e-journal that provides free and open access to all of its content. Volume 3, Issue 3, which was published on October 30, 2007, brings articles from and/or about Bangladesh, China, Greece, the Netherlands, Oman, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom. I have given a very brief description of each article below.

In the article “The status of Omani women in the ICT sector”, Ayman Elnaggar presents a gender sensitive assessment of the ICT space in Oman and the status of women within it, and seeks to develop the seeds of an information base that provides gender analysis of opportunities and challenges in the ICT space. Joseph K. Ssewanyana and Michael Busler examined the extent of adoption and usage of ICT on one hundred and ten firms in Uganda, and established benchmarks that can be utilized in future research and comparison between firms. The results are reported in their article “Adoption and usage of ICT in developing countries: Case of Ugandan firms”.

In “E-learning data warehouse maintenance system for collaborative learning availability resources optimization”, Jalel Akaichi studies the issues of using agent’s based architecture to achieve e-learning data warehouse maintenance. “Teaching history using a Virtual Reality Modelling Language model of Erechtheum” by Demetra Eggarxou and Sarantos Psycharis presents a Virtual Reality Modelling Language VRML exploration of the Erechtheum in Athens.

In “Construct validation of ICT Indicators Measurement Scale (ICTIMS)”, Yavuz Akbulut, Mehmet Kesim and Ferhan Odabasi report on their study of the psychometric features of a scale developed to measure indicators of ICTs at an undergraduate institution in Turkey.

In her article “Can the Internet in tertiary education in Africa contribute to social and economic development?” Anna Bon discusses how the recent emergence of national and regional research and education data communication networks in parts of the developing world have shown large benefits arising from collaboration amongst tertiary education institutes.

In the article “Researching a participatory design for learning process in an intercultural context”, Gordon Joyes and Zehang Chen describe the participatory design approach in this project and explore an activity theory based analysis approach that is used to identify some of the factors that affected the design process.

Johnnie Wycliffe Frank Muwanga-Zake's article - “Introducing educational computer programmes through evaluation: A case in South African disadvantaged schools” - discusses the strategies, the concepts the ECP presents, and considers the curriculum issues around ECP use in teaching.

Babalola Isiaka reports on the “Effectiveness of video as an instructional medium in teaching rural children agricultural and environmental sciences”. In the article “The innovative elements in non-formal education of Bangladesh: Perspective of income generating programmes for poverty alleviation”, Md. Islam and Ahmadullah Mia describe a study based on a survey of the beneficiaries, focus group discussions, and documentary review.

This issue of IJEDICT concludes with a project report - “Improving production and accessibility of agricultural information through capacity-building, networking and partnerships in the South Pacific” - by Danny Hunter.

More on education and development using ICT.