Editorial: Critical Success Factors for ICT Usage in Learning

Welcome to Volume 10 Issue 1 of the International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT). This issue brings articles from or about Denmark, Ghana, Kenya, Qatar, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania.The adoption of e-learning systems is becoming popular in higher learning institutions across the world including African universities. The author Lwoga examines "Critical success factors for adoption of web-based learning management systems in Tanzania". The results of the study showed that quality-related factors (instructor and system) were a key predictor of perceived usefulness and user satisfaction, and that information quality was found to significantly affect perceived usefulness. Further, perceived usefulness was a key determinant of user satisfaction, which in turn predicted continual usage intention of students within the e-learning system under the analysis.The article by Smith and Hardman reports on a study of "The impact of computer and mathematics software usage on performance of school leavers in the Western Cape Province of South Africa: A comparative analysis". The findings indicated that there was no significant difference between the final Senior Certificate mathematics results of the schools with the computers and those without; no significant change in the results after the Khanya labs were installed; no significant change in the percentage of pupils that passed Senior Certificate Mathematics; and no significant change in Higher Grade Maths enrolment rates. This finding points to the need for caution in the implementation of ICT's into schools as a potential panacea for mathematical failure in our context.In the article "Prevalence of online reading among high school students in Qatar: Evidence from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2009", Cheema reports on the results of a study using a nationally representative sample of 8,089 students. The results suggest small but significant differences in mean prevalence of online reading between boys and girls. Prevalence of online reading was found to be strongly associated with both entertainmentand schoolworkrelated use of computers at home but weakly associated with computer use at school.Liyanagunawardena, Adams, Rassool and Williams explore the implementation of online learning in distance educational delivery at a university in Sri Lanka in their article "Blended learning in distance education: Sri Lankan perspective". The lack of access to computers and the Internet, the lack of infrastructure, low levels of computer literacy, the lack of local language content, and the lack of formal student support services at the University were found to be major barriers to implementing compulsory online activities at the University.In their article "Promoting proper education for sustainability: An exploratory study of ICT enhanced Problem Based Learning in a developing country", Roy, Kihoza, Suhonen, Vesisenaho and Tukiaianen describe a pedagogical framework, Children as Agents of Social Change (CASC), as a possible vehicle to facilitate appropriate education about social issues. …