Free and open access journal on development

The International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT) - http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/ - is an e-journal that provides free and open access to all of its content.

IJEDICT aims to strengthen links between research and practice in ICT in education and development in hitherto less developed parts of the world, e.g., developing countries (especially small states), and rural and remote regions of developed countries.

The emphasis is on providing a space for researchers, practitioners and theoreticians to jointly explore ideas using an eclectic mix of research methods and disciplines. It brings together research, action research and case studies in order to assist in the transfer of best practice, the development of policy and the creation of theory. Thus, IJEDICT is of interest to a wide-ranging audience of researchers, policy-makers, practitioners, government officers and other professionals involved in education or development in communities throughout the world.

Vol. 4, No. 1 (2008) of International Journal of Education and Development using ICT has been published online at http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewissue.php?id=15

The contents are as follows:

Editorial

Editorial: Using ICT in education for development
Stewart Marshall, The University of the West Indies, Barbados, West Indies
Wal Taylor, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa
http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=485


Refereed Articles

Teaching using information and communication technology: Do trainee teachers have the confidence?
Ab. Rahim Bakar and Shamsiah Mohamed, Universiti Putra Malaysia
http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=374

School-based Technology Coordinators and Other Human Factors in the Implementation of ICT in Primary Schools: A Comparative Study
Kit-pui Wong, Lingnan University, Hong Kong SAR, China
http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=368

The Use of Intranet by Omani Organizations in Knowledge Management
Khamis Nasser Al-Gharbi, Sultan Qaboos University
Syed Jafar Naqvi, Sultan Qaboos University
http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=351

The use of interactive wireless keypads for interprofessional learning experiences by undergraduate emergency health students
Brett Williams and Malcolm Boyle, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=405

The Internet in developing countries: A medium of economic, cultural and political domination
Abdulkafi Albirini, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=360

Drivers For and Obstacles To the Development of Interactive Multimodal Technology-Mediated Distance Higher Education Courses
Dawn Birch and Michael D Sankey, University of Southern Queensland, Australia
http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=375

eLearning for international agriculture development: Dealing with challenges
Buenafe R. Abdon, University of Tsukuba, Japan
Robert T. Raab, UNICEF
http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=415

A survey on the application of computer network technologies and services over heterogeneous environment in higher educational institutes
Mohd Nazri Ismail and Mohd Zin Abdullah, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=410


From the Field

Enhancing quality in e-Learning by knowledge-based IT support
Priti Srinivas Sajja, Sardar Patel University
http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=435


Notes from the Field

Prospects and challenges of an online teacher training project in Oman
Gregory C Sales, Seward Incorporated
Thuwayba Al-Barwani, Sultan Qaboos University
Shirley Miske, Miske Witt & Associates, Inc.
http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=408

Call for Papers: Open Educational Resources

It seems like I am constantly writing about Open Educational Resources (OER) these days. But they are so important for the future of education, especially in developing countries, that I think they warrant lots of publicity.

Remember, OER are learning and teaching materials that are offered freely to anyone under licenses that allow to use, modify and distribute the items. But that's not all. Through the world-wide movement of OER, magnified with user-generated content and underlying Web 2.0 technologies, the advantages and opportunities are numerous for teachers, authors, eLearning practitioners, developers and content providers, researchers and decision-makers, and last but not least: the learners.

Different models to develop, use and make OER content available have evolved. Examples vary from leading educational institutions that have made their content available for users who otherwise would be deprived of it, to communities of educators who collaboratively create content and share it. Moreover, new effective technical architectures are now in place to enable better discovery of Open Educational Resources across learning repositories on the international level, which allows users to access larger and more varied collections. Also, easy-to-use ways to acquire re-mix and mash-up user-generated content are around, examples of which are seen in the educational context too.

Against this background, the eLearning Papers invites contributions in the area of Open Educational Resources.

With this issue, we want to support the establishment of a new kind of ecology of Technology Enhanced Learning that focuses on Open Educational Resources as a chance to make a real difference in education and lifelong learning. We want to give a possibility to share OER-related practices and experiences that support people in acquiring the competences, knowledge and skills they need as individuals in the political, economic, social and cultural life of a modern society.

The papers should focus on one or more of the following themes:

• Lessons learned and best practices of OER projects, tools and initiatives
• New findings, facts and figures of OER development and usage
• Discussion and position papers on how the OER movement can be supported
• Pedagogical innovations and OER, does OER make any difference?
• Transferability and usability of OER
• OER as a way to create and support sustainable development
• Business models around OER

Please consult the eLearning Papers website for writer guidelines:
http://www.elearningpapers.eu/index.php?page=collab_guide

The deadline for article submissions is June 30, 2008
Authors will be notified by July 27
The provisional data of publishing is September 30, 2008.

For further information and to submit your article, please contact: editorial@elearningeuropa.info

Invited Editors:
Sandra Schaffert
Riina Vuorikari

OpenLearn: New OERs

OpenLearn - the UK Open University's portal for its own open educational resources - has released some new resources for May.

One that I found particularly useful is Creating open educational resources - which is a unit that looks at the pedagogical issues involved in the creation and selection of self-study educational resources for a set of intended learning outcomes.

The other units released are:

• Creating musical sounds
• Revolutions in sound recording
• Voice-leading analysis of music 1: the foreground
• Voice-leading analysis of music 2: the middleground
• Ratio, proportion and percentages
• Working life and learning
• BSE and vCJD: their biology and management
• The MMR vaccine: public health, private fears
• Composition and improvisation in cross-cultural perspective
• Structural materials in cells
• Numbers, units and arithmetic
• Rounding and estimation
• Vectors and Conics
• An Introduction to Information Security
• Scattering and Tunnelling
• Am I Ready to Study in English?
• Exploring the English Language
• Personal and Career Development
• Operations, technology and stakeholder value
• Complex numbers
• Number systems
• The big bang
• Introduction to active galaxies
• Jupiter and its moons

Given that I will going to Ghana in a couple of weeks, I found the previously published unit Textiles in Ghana to be very interesting.

As always, I recommend a visit to the OpenLearn portal.