ONLINE RESOURCES
--- MainFunction.com
--- Web Site Links Australian Education Resources
--- Moderating Online Electronic Discussion Groups

ANNOUNCEMENTS
--- Global Distance Education Network

CONTACTS
--- Simunye Media Dialogue Project - South Africa
--- The South African Media Peace Centre (MPC)

ARTICLES
--- The High Stakes Of Standardized Testing

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Dear friends,

Attached please find the latest collection of snippets from the world of

online communication.

We had a very successful TAD meeting at the CSIR Conference Centre in April.

Please note that the next TAD Consortium meeting has been set for 14th July,

1999. A venue will be confirmed shortly.

Regards,

Neil Butcher

NEWS

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DEBATE OVER AFRICAN INTERNET BODY

Plans to establish an African Network Information Centre (AfriNIC) were

debated at the African Internet Group conference in Benin last year. Now a

board of trustees appointed at that meeting is seeking a host country where

AfriNIC could be based. Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America each have

their own body to register domain space. A registry for Latin and South

America is being established. Yet different parts of Africa are provided

with Internet addresses by three different bodies.

Debate taking place on an electronic forum for the industry in SA ranges

from support to outright scepticism. Some believe it will encourage regional

co-operation and a pride in the industry. Other people are concerned that

SA's Internet service providers would have to foot most of the bill, since

they account for at least 80% of Africa's Internet address space. A further

fear is that a badly run network information centre would have a serious

impact on the development of e-commerce in SA and the region.

Source: Business Day

CHILD PROTECTION PROJECT GROWS

A project initiated by The Internet Solution (IS) to supply the Pretoria

North branch of the SAPS' Child Protection Unit (CPU) with modems, PCs and

Internet access has collected enough equipment to kit out half a dozen

branches. Contributors include ICON, Dell, 3Com, Epson, East Coast Access,

"There are still procedures to be followed in terms of actually donating the

equipment and goods," says IS Corporate Communications Officer, Charles

Webster, "but we now have a database of donors which we can give the Child

Protection Unit. They can get in touch with the donors and take it from

there," he concludes. In a further development, national radio station,

SAfm, has joined the project and donated a generous amount of airtime, to be

used for further appeals. Individuals or companies with old 386 or 486

machines, modems or other peripherals should call 714-4514, leave their

contact details and specify what they have to offer.

Source: Internet Solution Techno-Update 7 May, 1999

ONLINE RESOURCES

MainFunction.com is a resource of information for teachers and students of

computer programming and the Internet. Brought to you by Microsoft and

Knowlton & Associates, Inc., MainFunction is available on the Net and

through a printed newsletter.

If you're a high school programming or computer science teacher,

MainFunction will give you valuable information on programming tools and

languages, and cover topics that are pertinent to you and your students. And

if you're a high school maths, science, or business department chair,

MainFunction can help you understand the types of programming courses that

can maximize your school's success.

The MainFunction newsletter is published three times a year. This site is up

dated more regularly with additional articles and teaching resources.

WEB SITE LINKS AUSTRALIAN EDUCATION RESOURCES Education.Au Ltd is an

Australian company charged with fostering collaboration and cooperation in

the use of the Internet in education and training. The company's major task

at present is administering a Web site, "EdNA Online"

services from all education providers in Australia, from Higher Education,

Vocational Education and Training, Community education and schooling. EdNA

stands for Education Network Australia. In addition to a large "library" of

education sites (currently about 9000 sites which have been selected by

Australian educators as appropriate to Australian education and a further

250 000 indexed, searchable sites linked to those 9000) the site offers

discussion groups for the education community, noticeboards, e-mail

archives, a calendar of events with related Web resources and weekly e-mail

alert services for What's New (targeted to practitioners and librarians),

News & Views (targeted to leaders and administrators) and New in Early

Childhood (targeted to those who work with children under 8). The site has

projects pages in which teachers can seek project partners for projects they

are engaged in with their students. They often have approaches from teachers

in the USA for such project partners.

For those of you who are interested, we have recently added the following

article to The Moderators Homepage:

Collins, M.P. and Berge, Z.L. (1997). Moderating Online Electronic

Discussion Groups. Paper presented at the American Educational Research

Association. Chicago, IL. March 24-28.

Abstract:

This research is a pilot study to begin a comprehensive study of electronic

discussion group (EDG) moderators and their perceptions of their roles,

tasks, and responsibilities. The questions explored revolve around EDG

moderators' conceptions of their roles, their rationale for moderating or

not moderating discussion on their mailing lists, where they learned their

craft, and where moderating lists fits within the context of their lives.

With such descriptions of the tasks and roles of practicing EDG moderators,

better training could be developed for those teachers wishing to function

effectively as on-line discussion facilitators and moderators as part of

their on-line teaching. Findings included indicators of the roles of

moderators acting a different times and for different lists as a filter,

firefighter, facilitator, administrator, editor, promoter, expert, helper,

participant, and marketer. The moderators responding to this survey cited

reasons an EDG should be moderated as keeping the signal-to-noise ration

high; keeping the discussion focused within the topic of the lists mission;

keeping down "flames;" and digesting/editing posts. Most learned to moderate

by watching others perform those functions--rather like apprentices, and

either volunteered to be a list moderator, were invited to be, or started

their own lists. They cited the reasons they moderate as including being

Regards,

Zane Berge and Mauri Collins

ANNOUNCEMENTS

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Dear colleagues,

We would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the Global

Distance Education Network, and to invite you to participate in this

exciting new venture.

WHAT IS THE NETWORK?

The South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE) has been

requested by the World Bank to develop and sustain a Southern African site

for its Global Distance Education Network. The Global Distance Education

Network is a product of the Education and Technology Team of the World Bank’

s Human Development Network. It is a set of information management tools

comprising part of the World Bank’s Human Development Network's knowledge

management system known as EducationNet. This set of tools will also be

supplemented by a regular, free e-mail information service, which will be

provided by the Telematics for African Development Consortium (an e-mail

network already including over 580 participants).

WHO IS IT FOR?

These tools are intended to serve the World Bank’s client countries, public

and private organizations, and individuals interested in using distance

education as a means of human development. This rich information resource

will be accessible to anyone with Internet access.

WHAT MAKES IT DISTINCTIVE?

The Global Distance Education Network has four distinguishing

characteristics:

1. Focus on distance education: Primarily concerned with the design and

implementation of national, state, or institutional systems of distance

education.

2. Targeted: Explicitly targeted on the needs of developing countries and

their policy makers, educational decision-makers, and practitioners.

3. Both comprehensive and selective: The Global Distance Education Network

contains a carefully screened selection of readings, related databases, and

reports of good practice. In the future it will also contain an open,

comprehensive listing of providers of distance education services worldwide,

a Global Distance Education Resource Directory.

4. Dynamic: Suggestions from partners and contributors will be reviewed and

will replace existing items when considered relevant.

The Global Distance Education Network will scan the global environment,

collect literature, case studies and other information relevant to distance

education and development, make selections from this collection, and make

them available via the Internet.

International partners in this initiative are:

--- The American Center for the Study of Distance Education, Pennsylvania

State University

--- Universidad Estatal a Distancia (UNED)

--- IUED/UNED, Cuidad Universitaria s/n

--- South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE)

--- Commonwealth of Learning

--- International Centre for Distance Learning (ICDL), United Kingdom Open

University

--- Centre for Research in Distance and Adult Learning (CRIDAL), Open

University of Hong Kong

--- Indonesian Distance Learning Network

HOW CAN YOU PARTICIPATE?

We would like to invite your participation in this exciting new initiative.

Participation can take three basic forms:

--- Contribute your resources to the web site. Do you have documents you

have written about distance education (conceptual papers, strategic planning

documents, evaluations, case studies, and so on) that you would like to have

included in the web site? We will guarantee that all documents added to the

site will be posted with full credit and references, and that we will

confirm any editorial changes with you before posting your resources. Using

this site, you can gain extensive local exposure for your research and other

documents, and contribute to building an indigenous research base in the

area of distance education. If you would like to submit resources to be

considered for addition to the site, please submit them to:

Jenny Louw

Via e-mail (preferred where possible) to jennyl@saide.org.za

OR Fax to: + 27 +11 403-2814

OR Post to: P.O.Box 31822, Braamfontein, 2017, Johannesburg, South Africa

--- You can add your name to the electronic information circular list of the

Telematics for African Development Consortium (no costs or obligations

attached). If you would like your name added to the list, please submit your

name and e-mail address, together with a line in the e-mail requesting to be

subscribed to the TAD Consortium list, to neilshel@icon.co.za.This is not a

discussion list, so you will not be inundated with dozens of irrelevant

messages. It is an information distribution list only.

--- Visit – and bookmark – the Global Distance Education Network’s Southern

African web site. Keep coming back, as we’ll be adding resources all the

time. The site is located at: www.saide.org.za/worldbank/Default.htm

CONTACTS

-----------

Taken from the Drum Beat (No. 16) – Editor Warren Feek

Simunye Media Dialogue Project - South Africa - This project was born out of

the conflict between Africa National Congress (ANC) and Inkatha Freedom

Party (IFP) supporters in 1990 which led to 2,000 deaths, and raged on for 4

years. Members of both sides produced a video analyzing the conflict. The

video was later shown to the leadership of both sides of the community and

discussion centered around to what extent, and how, this type of

intervention brings about peaceful change. The video-making process

structured the conflict resolution, and started building relationships

between the parties; it became a forum to resolve differences. Contact

Wiseman Ndebele ashokas@sn.apc.org

Taken from the Drum Beat (No. 16) – Editor Warren Feek

The South African Media Peace Centre (MPC) focuses on mediation and

"mediatory" print, video/TV, and radio projects in South Africa and

internationally. MPC launches a series of projects - most notably, Video

Dialogues and Peace Radio which pioneered ways of facilitating dialogue and

promoting mutual understanding among conflicting parties. The MPC's

Mediation Project for Journalists has trained over 100 South African and

foreign journalists in conflict handling skills. Their aim is to deepen the

media's understanding of conflict and its management and to further more

constructive reporting. Contact Hannes Seibert mepeace@wn.apc.org

ARTICLES

-----------

THE HIGH STAKES OF STANDARDIZED TESTING

Edward Miller (edmiller@ziplink.net)

Editor's note: A culture that reveres information conceived as a collection

of shovelable, database-file-able, atomic facts is bound to construe a

student's test score as corresponding to some fixed, well- defined content

in the student, which in turn is supposed to reflect the student's

capacities. But if you look at test scores in context – and the recovery of

context in the face of technology's radical tendency toward

decontextualization is one of NETFUTURE's enduring themes – the picture

changes drastically. Even if you assume that a test score measures a

particular content reliably (usually a doubtful assumption), huge questions

remain. For example,

** Looking backward: does the score represent the capacities of the student

or the incapacities of his teachers?

** Looking forward: if you make decisions about the student's future based

on the test score, will these decisions help or harm the student? (And,

after all, why do we administer tests if not to aid in making wiser

decisions?)

This is the kind of context in which the National Research Council tried to

assess high-stakes testing. NETFUTURE reader Ed Miller, formerly editor of

the *Harvard Education Letter*, was a consultant to the study panel. Here he

summarizes some of the panel's findings.

* * * * * * * * *

I recently participated in a study, conducted by the National Research

Council, of the appropriate uses of standardized tests for making decisions

about individual students. Its findings may be of interest to NETFUTURE

readers who are concerned about the ways in which the technology of testing

has become one of the most powerful influences in our education system.

The study committee was charged by Congress with examining the use of test

scores for so-called high-stakes purposes, defined as making decisions about

tracking, promotion, and graduation. Such uses are proliferating all over

the country, and are widely considered an effective tool for whipping the

public schools into shape. For example, students in Chicago must now get at

least a certain score on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills to be promoted to the

next grade. Starting next year, high school students in New York will have

to pass the state Regents exam (formerly optional) to get a diploma. The

committee found that, while testing can and often does yield valuable

information about students' achievement, the nature and limitations of that

information are widely misunderstood. Test results, the study concluded, are

often used improperly. In the case of high-stakes tests, the effects on

individual students' lives may be disastrous.

The committee adopted three basic criteria for determining whether a

particular test use is appropriate:

** Measurement validity -- whether a test is valid for a particular purpose,

and whether it accurately measures the test taker's knowledge.

** Attribution of cause -- whether a student's performance on a test

reflects knowledge and skill based on appropriate instruction or is

attributable to poor instruction or to such factors as language barriers or

disabilities unrelated to the skills being tested.

** Effectiveness of treatment -- whether test scores lead to placements and

other consequences that are educationally beneficial.

These criteria, which were derived from the established standards of the

testing profession, reflect a fundamental truth about tests that is well

known by experts but generally obscured in public policy debates and news

reports: test scores are subject to all kinds of statistical and human error

and are therefore very often wrong. Moreover, there is a remarkable lack of

agreement in many cases about whether a particular test even measures what

it is supposed to measure. But because educational test results are given in

numerical form they create a powerful impression of scientific precision --

that they are like a thermometer or your blood pressure reading. They are

not. They provide only one perspective – and often a very narrow and clouded

one -- on a student's actual knowledge. This appearance of precision in test

scores has been used in many instances to rationalize discriminatory and

unfair practices.

The nature of standardized testing, and its history of misuses, leads

inexorably to certain conclusions. One is that any use of a test score to

justify an educational decision that is likely to harm rather than help the

child is, by definition, insupportable. With regard to tracking and

promotion, this logic led the study committee to some surprising findings.

After thoroughly examining the research literature on tracking, the group

concluded that "students assigned to low-track classes are worse off than

they would be in other placements. This form of tracking should be

eliminated. Neither test scores nor other information should be used to

place students in such classes."

The committee was similarly troubled by the evidence on "retention" – the

practice of making kids repeat a grade. In spite of the popularity of

President Clinton's call to "end social promotion," the committee found that

"grade retention is pervasive in American schools" and that it is usually

not educationally beneficial, but leads to lower achievement and higher risk

of dropping out. It called for early identification of and remedial programs

for students in difficulty as an alternative to holding them back, and it

condemned the growing practice of using the results of a single test to

determine whether a child should go on to the next grade.

Indeed, the committee concluded that high-stakes decisions of any kind

"should not automatically be made on the basis of a single test score."

Other important conclusions were that the use of high-stakes tests to "lead"

curricular reform -- that is, to get schools to change what and how they

teach -- tends to corrupt and invalidate the tests, and is fundamentally

unfair to students; that large-scale standardized tests should not be used

at all in making high-stakes decisions about students below grade three; and

that the existing mechanisms for enforcing standards of appropriate test use

are inadequate.

The implications of these findings are sobering in light of the growing

enthusiasm for more testing as the answer to the intractable problems of

school reform in the U.S. The parallels to our leaders' faith in computer

technology as educational panacea are unmistakable.

The full report of the National Research Council has been published as "High

Stakes: Testing for Tracking, Promotion, and Graduation" by the National

Academy Press. A short version, and information about ordering the book,

NOTE: NETFUTURE is a freely distributed newsletter dealing with technology

and human responsibility. It is published by The Nature Institute, 169 Route

21C, Ghent NY 12075 (tel: 518-672-0116). Postings occur roughly every couple

of weeks. The editor is Steve Talbott.

Copyright 1999 by The Nature Institute.

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

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