Microsoft Word - conts24-3.doc Australasian Journal of Educational Technology Volume 24, Number 3, 2008 ISSN 1449-5554 (online) Contents Editorial .................................................................................................... iii-viii Peer assisted learning and blogging: A strategy to promote reflective practice during clinical fieldwork ............................................................... 241-257 Richard K. Ladyshewsky and Peter Gardner Effects of a computer based beginning reading program on young children ....... 258-274 Tara Watson and Kerry Hempenstall Beyond policy: Strategic actions to support ICT integration in Japanese schools ......................................................................................... 275-293 Michael Vallance Role play in blended learning: A case study exploring the impact of story and other elements ............................................................................. 294-310 Mary Dracup An investigation of student teachers’ attitudes to the use of media triggered problem based learning ................................................................ 311-325 Angela Kit Fong Ma, John O'Toole and Michael Keppell Building e-based literacy for vocational education and training students ...... 326-338 Elena Verezub, Vittoria Grossi, Kerry Howard and Patricia Watkins Children’s learning processes using unsupervised “hole in the wall” computers in shared public spaces ................................................................ 339-354 Ritu Dangwal and Preeti Kapur 30 Nov - 3 Dec 2008 at Deakin University Burwood Campus, Melbourne http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/melbourne08/ i i Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2008, 24(3) The Australasian Journal of Educational Technology (AJET) is a refereed research journal published four times per year by the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ascilite). AJET retired its printed version (ISSN 1449-3098) at the end of Volume 23, 2007, and from Volume 24, 2008, the journal is open access, online only (ISSN 1449-5554), and does not have paid subscriptions. © 2008 Authors retain copyright in their individual articles, whilst copyright in AJET as a compilation is retained by the publisher. Except for authors reproducing their own articles, no part of this journal may be reprinted or reproduced without permission. For further details, and for details on submission of manuscripts and open access to all issues of AJET published since the journal's foundation in 1985, please see http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ For editorial inquiries, contact the Editor, Associate Professor Catherine McLoughlin, School of Education (ACT), Australian Catholic University, PO Box 256, Dickson ACT 2602, Australia. Email: C.McLoughlin@signadou.acu.edu.au, Tel: +61 2 6209 1100 Fax +61 2 6209 1185. For review process, production, website and business matters, contact the Production Editor, Dr Roger Atkinson, 5/202 Coode Street, Como WA 6152, Australia. Email: rjatkinson@bigpond.com, Tel: +61 8 9367 1133. Desktop publishing (PDF versions) and HTML by Roger Atkinson. AJET is managed by a committee nominated by ASCILITE. The AJET Management Committee comprises: Dr Mike Keppell, Charles Sturt University, ASCILITE Executive Ms Meg O'Reilly, Southern Cross University, ASCILITE Executive Assoc Prof Geoffrey Crisp, Uni of Adelaide, ASCILITE 2003 Convenor Dr Rob Phillips, Murdoch University, ASCILITE 2004 Convenor Professor Peter Goodyear, University of Sydney, ASCILITE 2006 Convenor Professor Ron Oliver, Edith Cowan University, AJET Editor 1997-2001 Assoc Prof Catherine McLoughlin (Editor), Australian Catholic University Dr Roger Atkinson (Production Editor) Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education http://www.ascilite.org.au/ Australian Computers in Education Conference ACEC '08 29 September - 2 October 2008 Canberra ACT 2600 Australia http://acec2008.info/ Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2008, 24(3) iii Editorial AJET's home page access counter passes 200,000 In AJET Editorial 19(1), 2003, we noted that "At some time during Thursday 6 February 2003, the hit counter on AJET's home page passed 100000" [1]. We are pleased to record that at some time during the evening of Sunday 23 March 2008, t h e home page access counter passed 200,000. During the first four years of records (1997- 2000) the home page access counter increment averaged about 34 per day and currently (24 March to 9 May 2008) averages 85 per day. AJET's review process: 2008 update Table 1 shows progress since our last report on AJET's review process, dated 9 January 2008 and presented in Editorial 24(1) [2]. We are near to attaining our desired benchmark of three months maximum for AJET's review process, after a long recovery from a period which included many four month times, and some five and six month times. Here is a tart and wholly justified reminder to us from one prospective author, who recently received AJET rejection advice that included one of our standard sentences apologising for delays: Thanks for the update. I am glad to hear you are addressing issues in the review process. A six month turn around time does make it challenging to address deficiencies and resubmit or submit to another journal as the study becomes more and more outdated. [3] Table 1: Article review outcomes AJET 2003-2008 Year of receipt No. rec'd No. rejected editorially (b) No. reject ext review (b) No. with- drawn (c) No. pending No. accept(d) No. publ- ished % accep- ted (e) 2003 6 1 3 4 1 4 0 0 1 3 2 4 21.3% 2004 9 7 5 1 1 3 2 0 3 1 2 1 32.0% 2005 9 1 4 7 9 5 0 3 0 3 0 33.0% 2006 1 0 0 5 9 9 3 0 2 9 2 8 29.0% 2007 1 1 9 6 7 1 4 4 0 3 4 3 0 28.6% 2008(a) 4 9 1 1 0 0 3 5 3 2 4 - a. Data in columns 2-8 is at 23 May 2008. b. Some of the rejected articles may appear again as receivals in a subsequent year. The reasons for counting these instances as rejections are to enable a clearer cut off for each year's outcomes, and to align data collection with the editorial advice, used in a significant proportion of cases, 'Reject. Invite resubmission of a revised or expanded work for a new review process'. c. Withdrawn means withdrawn at the request of the authors. d. The number of articles accepted from a particular year's receivals does not correspond to the number published in each year, owing to time taken for review and revisions, and fluctuations in the speed of these processes. e. % accepted is calculated from column 2 (No. rec'd) and column 7 (No. accepted). Cadiz, Spain 25-27 June 2008. http://lams2008.lamsfoundation.org/ iv Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2008, 24(3) Conference theme: Engaging Communities http://conference.herdsa.org.au/2008/ Rotorua, 1-4 July IM 29: More on databases The heading for this Idle Moment is the same as for IM 21, published last year in Editorial 23(3) [4], because the report is essentially the same. Once again AJET is not wanted for Elsevier's database products [5]: Subject: Outcome Elsevier Database Evaluation 2008 Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:14:01 +0200 From: "BD Source Collection Management" To: Re: Australasian Journal of Educational Technology Dear Dr. Roger Atkinson, Production Editor, Thank you for suggesting the above title for inclusion in one or more of our databases. The title has been evaluated for Scopus but will be covered by none of our databases. Although the publication has been examined with interest by our Journals' Advisory Committee, and there can be no doubt that your journal represents a valuable contribution in its field, our present coverage policy prevents us from acquiring further publications this year within this subject area. The title will be reevaluated for Scopus in 2009. We apologise for not having been able to contact you earlier regarding the outcome of our evaluation. Thank you again for your interest in our bibliographic databases. Yours sincerely, Dr Jaqui Mason, General Manager BD Operations bd-scm@elsevier.com Coincidentally, the rejection advice concerning Scopus [6] arrived at about the same time as a letter [7] (a traditional hardcopy letter) arrived from Thomson Scientific asking us to select an option for delivery of AJET, commencing with volume 23, 2007, to initiate their coverage, which we noted in Editorial 23(2) [8]. Thus we were able to provide a helpful reply to Elsevier's Dr Mason [9]: The 2009 evaluation of Australasian Journal of Educational Technology that you refer to may be assisted by knowing that Thomson Scientific have included AJET for indexing and abstracting in their products, Social Sciences Citation Index, Social Scisearch and Journal Citation Reports/Social Sciences Edition, commencing with Vol 23(1), 2007. [9] ALT-C 2008: Rethinking the Digital Divide Leeds, UK, 9-11 September 2008 http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2008/ Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2008, 24(3) v IM 30: HERD, DE and AJET rates - end of series The 1997-2007 versions of Figures 1 and 2 appeared in AJET Editorial 23(1), IM N o . 15: HERD, DE and AJET rates revisited. Now that AJET has bottomed out, it's time to say farewell to the annual checkup and we will change it to a triennial review [10]. 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Year Institutional subscription rate (Aust subscribers) in Au$ HERD DE AJET Figure 1: Institutional subscription rates, 1997-2008 (GST not included) 0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Year Personal subscription rate (Aust residents) in Au$ HERD DE AJET Figure 2: Personal subscription rates, 1997-2008 (GST not included) vi Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2008, 24(3) Data sources: Rates quoted in printed copies of the journals and the publisher's website (GST not included). Prices include Internet access from an institutional local area network in the cases of HERD and DE institutional subscriptions (from 2008, AJET is open access, online only, no paid subscriptions). HERD Higher Education Research and Development. http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/07294360.asp DE Distance Education. http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/01587919.asp AJET Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ 36th Annual Conference Meeting of Comparative Minds: Education in all its forms Curtin University, Perth, 24-27 Nov 2008 http://www.anzcies.org/conference.php IM 31: International Education Journal - a brief case study This Idle Moment is related to ANZCIES [11], a professional society whose 36th annual conference is mentioned elsewhere in his editorial. ANZCIES have created an opportunity (or an excuse!) for a brief case study concerning the International Education Journal [12]. Recently it became the International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives [13] following a "migration" from the Flinders Institute for International Education and Shannon Research Press to ANZCIES. It is an interesting case because the "migration" was accompanied by policy changes that are generally in opposite directions to changes made recently by AJET, especially those announced in Editorial 24(1) [2]. Table 2 provides a brief summary. Table 2: Comparing recent policy changes for IEJ and AJET [a] Item IEJ to IEJ: CP changes 2007 to 2008 AJET changes 2007 to 2008 Printed version No print, online only Print first, online later (i.e. an unspecified embargo period) Print and online (with 3 month embargo) No print, online only Open access Yes. Partial (not to DOAJ standard; listing lost) Partial (not to DOAJ standard) Yes (DOAJ listing regained) Subscriptions No. Yes (Au$60 individuals, Au$250 institutions) Yes (Au$35 [c]) No. Timely issues Yes. Uncertain? [b] Yes. Yes. No. of issues/yr Increasing Decreasing? [b] Static Increasing Review process promptness (no infor- mation) (no information available) Becoming problematic [d] Improving (time saving from print retirement) Copyright owners Authors Authors retain limited rights, not full ownership Authors Authors Notes: a. Sources: Websites for IEJ [12], IEJ:CP {13], AJET and DOAJ [14] b. Website indicates no issues published for 2008, to date [viewed 22 May 2008] c. For both members and institutions (Au$45 for overseas institutions). A proposal to increase rates in 2008 was withdrawn in favour of print retirement. d. Currently AJET is recording four months maximum for the review process for 2008 submissions. Our recovery from the poorer picture which prevailed with 2007 submissions is being helped by time savings due to print retirement. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2008, 24(3) vii The new direction for IEJ: CP, as summarised briefly in Table 2, contrasts sharply with the policy and strategies for IEJ, in particular as discussed in detail by John Keeves, IEJ's Chief Editor, and Katherine Dix, Managing Director of Shannon Research Press, less than one year before the "migration" to ANZCIES. In a notable editorial for IEJ 7(7), 2006, titled Back to the future [15], Keeves and Dix outlined key principles for IEJ, including their rationale for open access, online only publication: … a concern for work in education and for research into educational issues in developing countries, particularly, but not exclusively, in the Asia-Pacific Region has led to the establishment of a firmly held policy not to charge for the publication of articles, or for the submission of articles, or for access to the journal on-line, and not to market hard-copy annual or issue based copies of the journal, even to libraries.[15, p.874] Keeves and Dix expressed critical views about academic publishing activities: Many journals not only require an exorbitant subscription fee to access articles but also charge authors a review fee, regardless of whether the article is published or not. This challenge is further compounded by the growing competition between authors to have their work published in a finite resource, in which there are only a small number of appropriate reputable journals with only a limited number of spaces…. [15, p.877] … there is enormous pressure from above for researchers to have their work published. Yet the researcher is also faced with resistance from below in trying to get their work published. Often they receive knock-back after knock-back, either from publishing houses that reject the work on poor marketability, or from journals, because there just are not enough spaces and the standards are raised so high that unless you have ‘Professor’ in front of your name, you don’t stand a chance. [15, p.877] We have not found any published discussion about the reasons for IEJ's transfer to another publisher, or for the pronounced change in its publishing policies. However, we can surmise that the major issues were related to the "measures of success" t h a t Keeves and Dix identified in their editorial. These included "the level of IEJ’s web presence, the number of visitors, frequency of article intake [number of submissions], and the number of articles published" [15, p.880]. They presented histograms showing number of submissions and number of articles published, 1999-2006, observing that: … in 2007 the intake of articles may top 300 submissions and the website will have been viewed by well over 150,000 people. [15, p.881] Although the editors have had to put a cap on the number of published papers, due to the sheer workload involved, 2006 is one of the busiest years yet, with the publication of over 80 papers from around the world in seven issues. [15, p.881] Very likely, we may surmise, the core of the problem was identified by two cryptic phrases in the preceding quotation, containing in a ten page article the only references to editorial workload problems: put a cap on and the sheer workload. ATN Assessment Conference 2008 20-21 November University of South Australia http://www.unisa.edu.au/ atnassessment08/ viii Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2008, 24(3) Although, sadly in our view, the sharp change of direction for IEJ was less than a year in the future, John Keeves and Katherine Dix concluded their editorial with a very positive summative assessment: The intention of this editorial is to present a model of practice that appears to be unique in the global research community. The success and effectiveness of a close-knit academic community, such as FUIIE, in partnership with an entity like SRP has shown to be, over the last eight years, a potent combination. The service and intrinsic value that such an undertaking provides not only to the immediate academic community and university, but also to the broader research community, are numerous. On these measures, this model of practice is a resounding success. [15, p.882] The original IEJ website [12] remains, with advice about the address for the new IEJ:CP website by ANZCIES [13], and some poignant reminders such as a new heading, IEJ as it was, inserted by the "IEJ Past Online Editor". IEJ's advice to authors is still online, including, for example, this unusual, pertinent advice: We all remember the first time we published, and that it can be intimidating sometimes. Accordingly, much of the information presented at IEJ is aimed at making the scholarly publishing process accessible to a wide audience… True to our name, we believe in the value of authors from a wide range of nationalities, cultures and contexts. Although we only currently publish in the English language we encourage contributions from around the world, particularly from the Asian countries… Furthermore, we do not discriminate against authors from non-English speaking backgrounds. On the contrary, we offer an Editorial Service to improve poorly written papers. [12, 'Why write for us'] Roger Atkinson and Catherine McLoughlin AJET Production Editor and AJET Editor Endnotes 1. AJET Editorial 19(1). http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet19/editorial19-1.html 2. AJET Editorial 24(1). http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet24/editorial24-1.html 3. Email to AJET dated 13 May 2008. Quoted by permission. 4. AJET Editorial 23(3). http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet23/editorial23-3.html 5. Email from Elsevier to AJET, dated 15 April 2008. 6. Scopus. http://info.scopus.com/overview/what/ 7. Letter from Thomson Scientific to AJET, dated 4 April 2008. 8. AJET Editorial 23(2). http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet23/editorial23-2.html 9. Email from AJET to Elsevier, dated 9 May 2008. 1 0 AJET Editorial 23(1). http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet23/editorial23-1.html 11. The Australian and New Zealand Comparative and International Education Society. http://www.anzcies.org/ 12. International Education Journal. http://iej.cjb.net/ [viewed 22 May 2008] 13. International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives. http://www.iejcomparative.org/ [viewed 22 May 2008] 14. Directory of Open Access Journals. [viewed 22 May 2008] http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=subject&p=1&cpid=127 15. Keeves, J. P. & Dix, K. L. (2006). Editorial: Back to the future. International Education Journal, 7(7), 873-882. http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/iej/articles/v7n7/keeves/BEGIN.HTM Moodle Moot AU 08 e-Learning Conference Brisbane 2-3 October 2008 http://moodlemootau.org/