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

Regards,

Neil Butcher

***************************

***Back to Contents***
***************************

NEWS

-----------

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

***Back to Contents***
***************************

----------------------------------------

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

can participate in the debate.

***Back to Contents***
***************************

***************************

ANNOUNCEMENTS/REQUESTS

-----------

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

Meddie Mayanja

Project Officer

Nakaseke MCT Pilot Project

ugunesco@swiftuganda.com

***Back to Contents***
***************************

----------------------------------------

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

***Back to Contents***
***************************

***************************

ONLINE RESOURCES

-----------

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

A. 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,

Another 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

***Back to Contents***
***************************

----------------------------------------

We invite you to read through the NODE Learning Technologies Network's

of 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:

series of papers, articles and guides designed to help with the

understanding and creation of multimedia on the Internet.

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.

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

information 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

***Back to Contents***
***************************

----------------------------------------

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.

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.

***Back to Contents***
***************************

***************************

PRINTED AND OTHER RESOURCES

-----------

All of the books mentioned below are available at the resource centre of the

South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE) - 011 403-2813

----

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.

----

Assessments and Evaluation

----

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.

----

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.

----

Distance Education

----

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.

----

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.

----

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.

----

Technology Enhanced Learning

----

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.

----

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.

----

Telecommunications & Technology

----

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.

----

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.

***Back to Contents***
***************************

***************************

ARTICLES

-----------

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.

***Back to Contents***
***************************

***************************

Telematics for African Development Consortium

P.O. Box 31822

Braamfontein

2017

Johannesburg

South Africa

Tel: +27 +11 403-2813

Fax: +27 +11 403-2814

neilshel@icon.co.za

www.saide.org.za

***************************

  ***Back to Contents***
For Browsers that don't support frames:
BACK to TAD archive index