This is the 25th anniversary of the Hong Kong Association for Educational Communications and Technology (HKAECT; see http://www.hkaect.org/). The silver anniversary annual meeting will be held at the University of Hong Kong December 8--10, with the theme of the conference being "Communication and Education: New Media, Knowledge Practices, and…

In Indian secondary schools, as in many countries, Information and Communication Technologies, ICT, are changing the image of learning places, the roles of teachers and students, and often the entire classroom learning ambience. This study investigates current practices for learning biology in school computer labs in India in the light of the…

Communal Internet access facilities or telecentres are considered a good way to provide connectivity to people who do not possess home connectivity. Attempts are underway to utilize telecentres as eLearning centres providing access to learning materials to students who would otherwise not be able to take up eLearning. This paper reports on the…

The research explores the impact of interactive, multimedia literacy software (ABRA) on the reading skills of early elementary students in Kenya. Twelve grade two English teachers and their students from six schools were randomly divided in half: an experimental group (N = 180) where ABRA was part of their English Language instruction and a…

This paper investigates what happened in one Australian primary school as part of the establishment, use and development of a computer laboratory over a period of two years. As part of a school renewal project, the computer laboratory was introduced as an "innovative" way to improve the skills of teachers and children in information and…

Disability issues in Ghana are gradually finding space in mainstream discourse. Conceptualising disability issues is challenged with consensus on the determination of parameters; a complex and controversial process. Our research interest is expressed in two objectives: to determine the status of ICT provision at the Centre for SVIs at the…

This paper describes a pilot study centred on the technology-enhanced self-development of competences in lifelong learning education carried out in the challenging context of the Association of Participants Agora. The pilot study shows that the use of the TENCompetence infrastructure, i.e. in this case the Personal Development Planner tool,…

This case study describes the use of a synchronous communication application (MSN Messenger) in a large academic computing environment. It draws on data from interviews, questionnaires and student marks to examine the link between use of the application and success measured through module marks. The relationship is not simple. Total abstainers and…

Increasing use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) help individuals to solve several everyday problems, which used to be harder, more complicated and time consuming. Even though ICTs provide individuals with many advantages, they might also serve as grounds for several societal and ethical problems which vary in accordance with…

PowerPoint and other visual technologies have become pervasive in schools. Adoption of these technologies is perceived as a necessary--or, at the very least, an educationally appropriate--innovation in UK schools, even though systematic examination of their use is relatively recent. On the basis of a wider ethnographic study of ICT use in one UK…

In its second decade of education reform and its third cycle of national ICT master plans, Thailand struggles to transform its aspirations into practice. This paper chronicles three decades of Thailand's ICT national plans and their relation to education reform. It also discusses the effect of global trends, Asian cultures, and Thai cultures on…

In recent years, tertiary institutions in developed countries have made extensive use of Course Management Systems (CMSs), software packages designed to help educators create online learning communities. To date, however, such packages have been little used in higher education institutions (HEIs) in China. In this article, we describe the…

Lack of accessibility in the design of e-learning courses continues to hinder students with vision impairment. E-learning materials are predominantly vision-centric, incorporating images, animation, and interactive media, and as a result students with acute vision impairment do not have equal opportunity to gain tertiary qualifications or skills…

Two participants in a delegation of computer professionals who observed computer education in China's primary and middle schools report on the status of computer equipment and books; the development of instructional technology; the teaching profession; and the role of computer centers and institutes in computer literacy and teacher training. (43…

The study of learning environments provides a useful research framework for investigating the effects of educational innovations such as those which are associated with the use of the Internet in classroom settings. This study reports an investigation into the use of Internet technologies in high-school classrooms in Australia and Canada.…