Editorial: Participation, Collaboration and Effective Use of ICT (2007)

Welcome to Volume 3 Issue 3 of the International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT). This issue brings articles from and/or about Bangladesh, China, Greece, the Netherlands, Oman, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom. In E-learning data warehouse maintenance system for collaborative learning availability resources optimization, JaIeI Akaichi studies the issues of using agent's based architecture to achieve e-learning data warehouse maintenance under schema changes by repairing automatically affected view definitions. This implicitly optimizes e-learning resources availability by automatically finding replacements for affected components belonging to view definitions. Teaching history using a Virtual Reality Modelling Language model of by Demetra Eggarxou and Sarantos Psycharis presents a Virtual Reality Modelling Language VRML exploration of the Erechtheum in Athens. The design principles of the applications are described in detail as well as the technical characteristics of the application. A pilot evaluation of the teaching approach is also presented and the results indicate a strong positive impact on students' performance. 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. Issues forming successful ICT integration were identified according to competencies stated by UNESCO (2002). Besides, each competency sheltered further sub-components which were adapted from UNESCO (2002) and Odabasi et al. (2006). Poor internet connectivity is hampering the transition of developing countries to the global information society. 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. She goes on to argue that collaboration amongst tertiary education institutes in Africa is essential to make them key players in the enhancement of ICTs for society. The University of Nottingham, UK and the Beijing Foreign Studies University, China have been engaged on a collaborative project to develop a generic module for the training of online tutors as part of the eChina-UK programme. 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 explores 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 studied 26 teachers from 23 South African disadvantaged to report on evaluation strategies that could be used to introduce an educational computer programme (ECP) in disadvantaged schools. His 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. …