TAD Consortium August 1999 Information Update 2
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CONTENTS
NEWS
--- Asian internet
users may soar by 40 percent in five years
--- SA Government's E-Commerce
Regulation Plans
ANNOUNCEMENTS/REQUESTS
--- Ugandan
National IT Policy
--- Makerere
College School, Kampala Uganda establishing a computer and
information resource centre
ONLINE RESOURCES
--- Study
on the Grameen Bank Village Pay Phone Project now available
--- NODE
Learning Technologies Network's collection of primers
--- Internet - Africa
PRINTED AND OTHER RESOURCES
--- SAIDE
Resource Centre Selected Abstracts
ARTICLES
--- Information processing holds the key
Dear TAD friends,
I would like to take an opportunity to welcome members of the National
Association of Distance Education Organizations of South Africa (NADEOSA) to
the TAD Consortium electronic information service. NADEOSA has added this
service to the set of information services it provides to its members. I
hope you and other readers find the snippets gathered together below useful to you.Regards,
Neil Butcher
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Asian internet users may soar by 40 percent in five years
SEOUL (July 23) : The number of Asian Internet users is expected to soar by
40 percent a year to hit 64 million in 2003, generating billions of dollars
in e-commerce and advertising revenue, research seen Thursday showed.
US investment bank Goldman Sachs said in a report that electronic commerce
revenues in the region would generate 32 billion dollars while Internet
advertising would grow into a 1.5 billion dollar business by 2001.
"At the end of 1998 there were 15 million Internet users in Asia but this
market is expected to grow by a compound annual rate of 40 percent during
the next five years to total 64 million by 2003," the report said.
The expected growth rate -- which will more than quadruple the number of web
surfers in Asia from the current level -- will be twice as much as that in
the giant US market, it said.
By 2003, China, South Korea, India and Australia will boast 70 percent of
Internet users in the booming Asia Pacific market, with e--commerce
exploding by 145 percent a year from its 1998 level of $ 700 million.
Asia's Internet companies are expected to grow through a series of
successful share offerings which look set to turn the region into a global
Internet hub, the global investment giant said in its Asia Web report.
It suggested investor could ride the lucrative Internet wave in Asia by
injecting funds into regional telecommunications firms such as South Korea's
SK Telecom and Korea Telecom.
In addition, they could invest in firms with "imbedded Internet assets" such
as Singapore Press Holdings and Hong Kong's Wharf Holdings, and also through
dedicated Internet providers such as eCorp, China. com and Pacific Internet.
"Asia's Internet scene lags behind that of the US by about two to three
years, but the gap is narrowing rapidly," Goldman's Rajeev Gupta said in an
extract of the report seen here.
"Given that local content is developing and US companies are seeking local
alliances, the Internet scene in Asia is becoming both real and highly
lucrative," he added.
But the investment expert warned that valuations of Internet companies were
tricky. While the market capitalisation price to sales ration was the single
most important benchmark, other variables such as discounted cash flow and
discounted future earnings also had to be taken into account.-AFP
Copyright 1999 AFP (Published under arrangement with Associated Press of
Pakistan)
http://www.brecorder.com/story/S0010/S1002/S1002110.htm
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SA GOVERNMENT'S E-COMMERCE REGULATION PLANS
Source: I-Net Bridge
Government has announced it wants to legislate electronic commerce by the
end of next year, but in doing so it is set on a collision course with the
market forces that have shaped e-commerce to date. Governments in the US and
Europe have either adopted a hands-off or a "wait-and-see" attitude to
e-commerce, but Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri said enabling
legislation and a regulatory framework promoting fair competition and
appropriate law enforcement had to be adopted soon.
Some members of the Internet community are already warning that restrictive
legislation would simply result in servers being moved to a less policed
country. Matsepe-Casaburri stressed that government was going into the
debate with an open mind. "The question of taxation on electronic
transactions and potential import duties to be imposed on transactions when
they cross international boundaries, is probably one of the thorniest issues
for government and the private sector. But in order to fulfil the national
agenda, government requires taxes," Matsepe-Casaburri said. These comments
have raised concerns among the private sector, worried about government's
tendencies to regulate rather than to monitor. In an interview with the
Financial Mail, Michael Lamb, chairman of the Electronic Commerce
Association of SA, cautions government not to regard e-commerce as merely
another source of tax revenue. Government's primary responsibility is to
help, rather than impede, the development of e-commerce in SA. A Web site -
http://www.ecomm-debate.co.za - has been launched where interested partiescan participate in the debate.
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Stake holders in ICT in Uganda are in the process of developing a National
IT Policy to regulate and guide the evolution of ICT. We are at present
interested in getting a concept framework on which the policy consultation
and development process will be based. The following areas are being
suggested;
1.Universal access (for all sectors of society)
2. Human resource development
3. Support for good governance
4. Promotion of Cultural heritage
5. Appropriate infrastructure development
6. Support for business development
Any one with knowledge of other key areas or a case study of initiatives
towards ICT Policies could pass it on. It should be very useful to our process.Meddie Mayanja
Project Officer
Nakaseke MCT Pilot Project
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Makerere College School, Kampala Uganda is trying to establish a computer
and information resource centre with the following target groups; students,
teachers, parents and old boys. We intend to run courses on computer
literacy and also provide access to the Internet technologies e.g www, email
etc. The following are already in place, room with stable power, all the
necessary electrical installations, network(star topology), telephone line
and access to Internet. Our problem is that we still have only one
multimedia computer. We would like to have at least 10 computers to start
with. We would be very grateful for any ideas towards this noble cause.
Yours Kakinda Daniel macos@infocom.co.ug
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A study by the Center for Development Research (ZEF Bonn) on the Grameen
Bank Village Pay Phone Project is now available at our web page
http://www.zef.de/zef_englisch/f_first.htmlA. Bayes, J. von Braun, R. Akhter; Village Pay Phones and Poverty Reduction:
Insights from a Grameen Bank Initiative in Bangladesh, ZEF-Discussion Papers
on Development Policy No. 8, Center for Development Research (ZEF), Bonn,
May 1999, pp. 47 http://www.zef.de/download/zef_dp8-99.pdfAnother paper available in this area: A. Bedi; The Role of Information and
Communication Technologies in Economic Development - A Partial Survey,
ZEF-Discussion Papers on Development´Policy No. 7, Center for Develpment
Research (ZEF), Bonn, May 1999, pp. 42.
http://www.zef.de/download/zef_dp7-99.pdf
Best regards
Dietrich Mueller-Falcke
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We invite you to read through the NODE Learning Technologies Network's
collection of primers http://node.on.ca/tfl/primers/ which describe someof the basic technologies being used to deliver content via the Internet.
Designed as vehicles to help you help yourself, these primers include the
clearest, most succinct resources we've found on a number of topics:
- multimedia online http://node.on.ca/tfl/primers/multimedia/ is aseries of papers, articles and guides designed to help with the
understanding and creation of multimedia on the Internet.
- web authoring http://node.on.ca/tfl/primers/webauthoring/explanations of and experiences with web authoring and design. Included are
hints, suggestions and instructions for creating web pages as well as
definitions of some of the terminology used in web authoring.
- web languages http://node.on.ca/tfl/primers/languages/ definitions,hints, instructions and samples of coding in a variety of the most common
Internet programming languages.
These resources are brought to you by the NODE Learning Technologies Network
[ http://node.on.ca ], a not-for-profit electronic network facilitatinginformation and resource-sharing, collaboration and research in the field of
learning technologies for post-secondary education. Our website provides
current, comprehensive information for learners and practitioners engaged in
technologically-mediated teaching and learning.
Leslie Fournier
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Taken from The Drum Beat - 24 (edited by Warren Feek)
1. Internet - Africa - highlights the Internet's status, its effect on
various sectors of the economy and constraints and challenges faced in
Africa. Ultimately most policy questions and most of the important issues
and social changes will revolve around services enabled by the Internet.
Student: Catherine Kimuna ck348593@oak.cats.ohiou.edu
http://www.comminit.com/papers/p_0019.html
2. Telecommunications - Sub-Saharan Africa - with an urgent call for telecom
reforms in the region, some initiatives have been put in place for financial
and technical assistance. These are expected to empower sub-Saharan African
countries with the ability to apply ICTs to their own socio-economic
development.
Student: Raymond Akondo ra249991@oak.cats.ohiou.edu
http://www.comminit.com/papers/p_0034.html
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All of the books mentioned below are available at the resource centre of the
South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE) - 011 403-2813
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SAIDE Resource Centre Selected Abstracts
Adult Basic Education
Changing Lives: An English Communications and Economics Series by USWE. Cape
Town: Sached Books/Maskew Miller Longman, 1998.
Changing lives is an English language and communications course that takes
learners from the beginning to the end of ABET Level 3 in South Africa and
Grade 7 in other countries. It is written to the curriculum framework and
united standards of the South African national Directorate of Adult
Education and Training, and equips learners to pass the IEB or other
equivalent examination. It also provides learners with an excellent
foundation in social studies, history and economics. The course consists of
four books, all of which deal with questions and issues that concern adults
in a changing world: how to improve their living and working conditions, how
to provide better for their families and how to strengthen and develop their
communities. Workbook 1 focuses on issues related to land and housing, 2 on
transport, water, unemployment and self-employment, 3 on the relationship
between the local, national and global economies and how this affects the
choices that learners face in their working lives,4 uses the economic
understanding developed in Book 3 to help learners explore new ways of
earning a living - it develops the knowledge and skills learners need to
start and run a small business.
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Assessments and Evaluation
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Transforming assessment: A guide for South African Teachers by Rob Sieburger
and Henry Macintosh. Cape Town : Juta, 1998.
The introduction of Curriculum 2005 necessitates new thinking about the uses
of assessment and methods of assessment. Because assessment is integral to
any education system, teachers need to be able to make informed decisions
about it and to understand the required changes. The book gives teachers a
background on the theory of assessment and suggests practical ways of
implementing changes. The text: serves as an accessible guide to current
trends and issues in educational assessment; presents practical assessment
approaches for Curriculum 2005; and examines the link between improving
assessment and improving schools. The book has been written as a course for
group or individual study and is suited to in-service professional
development programmes and initial teacher education.
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What is important to distance education students? By Margaret Rangecroft,
Peter Gilroy, Peter Long and Tony Tricker. In: Open Learning: Journal of
Open and Distance Learning, vol.14, no.1, February 1999 pp17-24.
In this article the authors report on a selection of findings from the
Template Project. The project has set out to re-design a template used in
service industries to evaluate service so that it might be made applicable
to distance education course evaluation. Significant findings as to what
distance education students perceive as important on their courses are
discussed, in particular the ways in which this data might be used by course
directors.
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Distance Education
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Distance education in action: The Northern Integrated Teacher Education
Project in Uganda by Tony Wrightson. Cambridge : IEC, 1998.
The book was written for teacher educators, distance educators and
educational planners. The author was coordinator of technical assistance for
the lifetime of a distance teaching project in Uganda - the Northern
Integrated Teacher Education Project (NITEP). He examines the
characteristics which accounted for its success and illustrates what can be
achieved even in the most adverse circumstances. There are lessons for
everyone looking to open and distance learning to reach out to remote rural
primary schools - which are the only part of the educational system which
most citizens of these countries will ever encounter. The study is organised
so as to make it accessible to distance educators and teacher educators
unfamiliar with Uganda, as well as to make its lessons available for Uganda
and other countries with comparable needs.
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Distance Education and the Training of Primary School Teachers in Tanzania
by Michael AA Wort. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 1998.
Tanzania has been using distance education to train its teachers for twenty
years. The first programme, which began in 1976 and ended in 1984, was
highly innovative in its approach. It provided both professional and
up-grading studies within the primary schools to try and meet the demand for
universal primary education. The second major programme used more
conventional correspondence studies to up-date its primary school teachers
and still continues today. The study explores why, and how, distance
education has developed in Tanzania and why it has vigorously pursued this
method as a major tool in training its primary school teachers. Historical,
cultural socio-economic and political contexts were helpful in understanding
the motivations, origins and developments of the two major programmes. The
empirical material in the study covers two major distance teacher education
programmes for primary school teachers in Tanzania. The first programme, the
Distance School based Teacher programme from 1976-1984 was critically
re-analysed using former evaluation studies. The second programme, 1984 to
date was evaluated using a frame-process-outcome model and also presented.
The outcomes suggest the need for a more decentralized authority and a
greater differentiation of tasks in administration, the setting up of school
cluster and learner groups and the provision of more responsive support
systems. Framework categories suggested a move towards interdependency in
their working, within a distributive model of programmes for primary school
teachers in Tanzania. The first programme, the Distance School based Teacher
programme from 1976-1984 was critically re-analysed using former evaluation
studies. The second programme, 1984 to date was evaluated using a
frame-process-outcome model and also presented. The outcomes suggest the
need for a more decentralized authority and a greater differentiation of
tasks in administration, the setting up of school cluster and learner groups
and the provision of more responsive support systems. Framework categories
suggested a move towards interdependency in their working, within a
distributive model of distance education.
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Higher Education through Open and Distance Learning ed. By Keith Harry.
London : Routledge/COL, 1999.
Open and distance learning has expanded dramatically in recent years across
the world, across the spectrum of subject areas, and across educational
levels. This book takes a detailed look at open and distance learning in
higher education, and presents a picture of a world and its educational
culture in transition. This edited collection contains analyses of key
issues together with current accounts of practice in each region of the
world. It includes: open and distance learning in relation to
internationalisation, lifelong learning and flexible learning; costs of
distance education; the impact of telecommunications; applications of open
and distance learning in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania.
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Technology Enhanced Learning
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Benign educational Technology? By Allan Herrman, Robert Fox and Anna Boyd.
In : Open Learning through Distance Education: Journal of Open and Distance
Learning, vol.14, no.1 February 1999 pp3 - 8.
In this paper the authors evaluate some of the contextual issues which arise
from the implementation of technological solutions, particularly with
respect to using computer mediated communications. In order to approach
systematically and identify these contextual issues, a framework based on
Tenner's notion of technological revenge is outlined and applied, clarifying
possible problems and enabling the authors to suggest some solutions.
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Will New Teachers be Prepared to Teach in a Digital Age? A National Survey
on Information Technology in Teacher Education. (1999). Research Study by
the International Society for Technology in Education. Oregon : Miliken
Family Foundation.
There is much rhetoric today about the inability of teacher preparation
programs to fully prepare new teachers to use technology effectively in
their professional practice. A year ago, the Milken Exchange on Education
Technology, an initiative of the Milken Family Foundation, set out to
establish baseline data on the status of technology use in teacher training
programs in the United States. It was with this goal that the Exchange
commissioned the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) to
survey teacher preparation institutions. Results were gathered from 416
respondents, representing approximately 90 000 graduates per year, who
reported on the extent to which future teachers were being exposed to
technology in their classes, field experience and curriculum materials. This
report finds that, in general, teacher training programs do not provide
future teachers with the kinds of experiences necessary to prepare them to
use technology effectively in their classrooms. With the federal
government's projected need for 2.2 million new teachers over the next
decade, the time to examine and reengineer our teacher preparation programs
is now.
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Telecommunications & Technology
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Developing Software Applications in a Changing IT Environment: Management
Strategies and Techniques by John A Stone. New York : McGraw-Hill, 1997.
Rapid advances in IT have led to the use of many new technologies and
paradigms for application development. This guide explores the difficulties
of developing business applications in our increasingly dynamic technology
environment, using real-world examples. The reader will see how to predict
the impact of new technologies, methodologies, and tools; integrate and
support technologies that were previously thought incompatible; manage
expectations, cultural impact, and risk; optimize development,
architectures, organizations, infrastructures, and cultures for a constantly
changing IT landscape. Information will be provided on how to leverage OO,
CASE, AI, and end-user development to ensure AD success. Information is also
provided on Time Compression Management (TCM), a set of techniques that can
be implemented in real-world corporate environments in order to keep ahead
of fast-changing technologies.
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Knowledge Societies: Information Technology for Sustainable Development
ed.by Robin Mansell and Uta When. London : Oxford University Press, 1998.
Rapid advances in information and communication technolgies (ICTs) are
central to transformations in local and global markets and the way people
conduct their everyday lives. There are major differences in the ways that
ICTs are being used in developing countries and the potential benefits and
risks are very great. ICTs are increasingly a key focus for policy makers
and corporate strategists concerned with development issues. This sourcebook
shows how these technologies are being harnessed to development goals.
Prepared for the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for
Development, it emphasises the urgency of building new social and
technological capabilities and of ensuring that effective national and
regional ICT strategies are in place.
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Information processing holds the key
An ubiquitous telecommunications infrastructure linking up all villages and
towns with the rest of the world is essential for information flow, says Dr
T H Chowdary
As India trades more and more with the world's countries and as our rate of
growth of the GDP increases, and along with it Indian commerce, generation
of information, its storage and extraction and processing by many and
inexpensively become very crucial for efficient and economic performance of
persons, enterprises and government.
Invention of printing in the fifteenth century revolutionalised the storage,
distribution and use of information with dramatically beneficial results
like the ushering in of the industrial revolution with hundreds of
inventions. In the last fifty years, spectacular developments have taken
place in electronics, computers, telecommunications, broadcasting,
communication satellites and under-sea cables with optical fibres. All these
together have brought in the second most significant revolution in creation
of information, storage, distribution and use.
An ubiquitous telecommunications infrastructure available all over the land,
linking up of all villages and towns and cities and then the country with
the rest of the world, is the essential infrastructure for information flow.
To be on par and compatible with the global information infrastructure
(GII), we have to develop a modern, broad-band, high-speed digital
telecommunications infrastructure on which all types of information can flow
at the least cost. This information may be voice as in telephony; may be
text, as in facsimile and e-mail; may be images as in video and data as
between computers.
As society advances from agriculture to industry and from industry to
post-industrial information stage, vast quantities of information will be
exchanged. Every method of transaction which we are currently doing like
banking or learning or meeting or trading can be electronified and carried
out on the telecommunications infrastructure with consequent savings in
time, transport, energy and pollution.
The electronification and digitisation of information and its flow on
broad-band electronic / photonic highways facilitates the connection of all
homes and offices to the national information infrastructure (NII) and the
NII will get linked to the global information infrastructure (GII).
The same electronics/photonic infrastructure that passes by the homes and
offices can be used by people in homes and offices for transacting every
business including learning, buying and selling, socialising and banking. It
has now become clear that the transformation of the traditional
telecommunication networks into an electronic / photonic information
infrastructure and extending this to all over the country to pass by all
homes and offices is a stupendous task involving first, a vision; second,
technology; third, money; and fourthly, a proper public policy framework.
Governments, developing as well as developed are now convinced that this
transformation and further development cannot be undertaken by a monopoly
either of government or of private companies. Inventiveness, innovations,
entrepreneurship and money will have to flow into the sector.
It is clearly realised that multiplicity and competition under fair sectoral
laws and regulation can quickly effect the transformation and development of
the infrastructure in any country.
The author is Information Technology Advisor to Government of Andhra
Pradesh and Chairman, Pragna Bharati, Hyderabad.
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Telematics for African Development Consortium
P.O. Box 31822
Braamfontein
2017
Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel: +27 +11 403-2813
Fax: +27 +11 403-2814
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