editorial19-3.pdf Australian Journal of Educational Technology Volume 19, Number 3, Spring 2003 ISSN 0814-673X Contents Editorial ........................................................................................................ iii-viii Developing inclusive practices: Evaluation of a staff development course in accessibility .................................................... 275-292 Elaine Pearson and Tony Koppi Using multimedia in a constructivist learning environment in the Malaysian classroom ................................................................... 293-310 Ken Neo Tse-Kian Validation of an Internet delivered and analysed test of cognitive function for use in web based psychology courses .......... 311-322 Peter H. Wilson and Paul Maruff Multimedia based enhancement of the science of oenology in the distance education learning environment ................................... 323-338 Paul K. Bowyer and Christopher L. Blanchard Issues of intellectual capital and intellectual property in educational software development teams .......................................... 339-355 Andy Williamson, David M. Kennedy, Carmel McNaught and Ruth DeSouza Reconnecting the classroom: E-learning pedagogy in US public high schools .......................................................................... 356-370 David Huffaker Towards understanding online learning levels of engagement using the SQUAD approach to CMC discourse ................................ 371-387 Peter K. Oriogun Synchronous distance learning and virtual classrooms: A case study on student expectations and conditioning factors ................. 388-404 Darío M. Goussal and María Sandra Udrízar Lezcano © 2003 All rights reserved. No part of this journal may be reprinted or reproduced without permission from the publishers. The Australian Journal of Educational Technology is a refereed research journal published three times per year jointly by the Australasian Society for Computers in ii Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 2003, 19(3) Learning in Tertiary Education and the Australian Society for Educational Technology. For details on submission of manuscripts, subscriptions and access to the AJET online archives, please see: http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ or for manuscript submission 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, or for subscriptions contact the Production Editor, Dr Roger Atkinson, 5/202 Coode Street, Como WA 6152, Australia. Email: rjatkinson@bigpond.com, Tel: +61 8 9367 1133. Members of ASET, ASCILITE and ISPI (Vic) receive AJET as a part of their membership benefits. AJET is managed by an Editorial Board nominated by ASCILITE and ASET. The 2003 Editorial Board comprises: Catherine McLoughlin (Editor), Australian Catholic University Roger Atkinson (Production Editor) Trish Andrews, University of Queensland Carolyn Dowling, Australian Catholic University Mike Keppell, University of Melbourne Lori Lockyer, University of Wollongong Mary Jane Mahony, University of Sydney Elizabeth Stacey, Deakin University Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education http://www.ascilite.org.au/ Australian Society for Educational Technology http://www.aset.org.au/ Copyright in individual articles contained in AJET is vested in each of the authors in respect of his or her contributions. Copyright in AJET is vested in ASET (1985- 86), AJET Publications (1987-1996), and ASET and ASCILITE (from 1997). Desktop publishing and HTML by Roger Atkinson. Printed and bound by Dedline Print (formerly The Printing Place), Myaree WA 6154, Australia. Supporting Societies Supporting societies obtain bulk supplies of printed copies of AJET at the same cost as applicable for ASCILITE and ASET members, and access to AJET online articles during the period of restricted access for each issue. Inquiries about supporting society status may be directed to the Production Editor. ISPI Melbourne Chapter http://www.ispimelb.org.au/ Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 2003, 19(3) iii Editorial 42 ways to fill idle moments in the life of an editor 'Forty-two!' yelled Loonquawl. 'Is that all you've got to show for seven and a half million years' work?' (Adams, 1979:136) 1. Look at journals announcing new publishing policies After 29 years of print only publication, AER went online in 2003. …the Executive of the Australian Association for Research in Education and Editorial Board of The Australian Educational Researcher are now pleased to announce that The Australian Educational Researcher will be distributed online for the next three years. Print as well as online issues will be distributed during 2003 as the transition is made to full electronic distribution. Open access to the journal will be available on the Association’s website. (Kenway, 2003) AER contains little detail on its "process of extended and wide-ranging discussion and debate" (Kenway, 2003) or the precedents considered for this decision, though the options AARE identified for the journal were: • Print only and still put out by AARE; • Print and digital and still put out by AARE; • Digital only and still put out by AARE; • Print and digital and put out by a commercial publisher; • Responsibility for digital access to the journal passed over to ACER [Australian Council for Educational Research]. (Kenway, 2003) In contrast to a number of other professional associations in Australian education (Atkinson, 2001a), AARE rejected the fourth option and thus AER was not 'carfaxed'. Whilst their adoption of the second option is to be applauded, it's a pity that AARE did not record in the public arena some more detail about their decision. For good examples of detailed reviews of the decision to 'go online', free to the Internet, see the inaugural editorial for Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (Willis & Bull, 2000) and the 'online for five years' report for the Journal of Extension (1999). 2. Read interesting editorials in other scholarly journals John R. Cannon, founding editor and publisher of the Electronic Journal of Science Education, encountered some kind of editorial writer's block with EJSE Editorial June 2001, titled 'Summer time...strikes again!' iv Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 2003, 19(3) Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 2003, 19(3) v Summer time, in all her wisdom, has struck once again. There are absolutely no excuses for this lackluster editorial in June 2001. I admit it; summer time has me under her spell once again. (Cannon, 2001) After some eminently sensible advice on how readers should spend their summer time (North American academic calendar), John Cannon exited to another task: "Please... suffer a bit from the spells of summer time... don't let it pass you by. It's not passing me by... I have to mow the lawn." The reader cannot miss the unmown lawn, as the editorial's background image is a tiled jpg showing a lawn that is like a knee deep pasture for cattle. But the reader should not immediately heed the advice in the Editorial. Defer mowing the lawn until after reading the same issue's Guest Editorial, because it explores a theme having some universal relevance, including AJET (just try replacing 'science teacher' with any other professional descriptor): At a recent seminar a well-published science education researcher questioned why the group was discussing constructivism since it is old hat and everything that is needed to be known about constructivism was already known. This may or may not be true, but knowing does not mean applying! ... ...The gap between research findings and implementation of the results into science teacher education programs, curricula, and professional practices is the central focus of this editorial pep talk. (Yore, 2001) 3. Check out a trendy new term When 'blended learning' crossed my screen recently, it raised an eyebrow. Whilst at first it seemed to me like something to do with The Naked Chef, Consuming Passions, Nigella Bites, Kylie Kwong: Heart And Soul or other trendy gems from Cooking on ABC TV [1], it is, according to a Google search, an established academic term. Google [2] indicated: Searched the web for "blended learning". Results 1 - 10 of about 169,000. Search took 0.15 seconds. [selecting 1 result of the 169.000] Executive Update Online - Special Section - Blended Learning Blended Learning An old friend gets a new name. ... Blended learning is a fairly new term in education lingo, but the concept has been around for decades. ... www.gwsae.org/Executiveupdate/2001/March/blended.htm (Smith, 2001) Blended learning? Other citations in this search implicated numerous influential connections - ANTA, Sun, ASTD, etc (acronym deciphering is left as an exercise for your favourite search engine). But will 'blended learning displace an 'old friend'? See the next Idle Moment, below. vi Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 2003, 19(3) 4. Play with 'Googlefight' According to 'Googlefight' [3]: Number of results on Google for the keywords blended learning and flexible delivery: blended learning (233 000 results) versus flexible delivery (2 590 000 results) The winner is: flexible delivery Number of results on Google for the keywords flexible delivery and distance education: flexible delivery (2 590 000 results) versus distance education (7 880 000 results) The winner is: distance education There we have it! Distance education beats flexible delivery, and flexible delivery beats blended learning, by large margins. 'Old friends' beats 'new lingo'. No surprise there. On the other hand this extra-trivial pursuit also positions the constructivists in their place relative to the traditionalists, by an overwhelming margin [4]: Number of results on Google for the keywords constructivism and traditional: Constructivism ( 151 000 results) versus traditional (31 200 000 results) The winner is: traditional And Googlefight really loses it on this one [5]: Number of results on Google for the keywords australian journal of educational technology and british journal of educational technology: australian journal of educational technology ( 262 000 results) versus british journal of educational technology ( 439 000 results) The winner is: british journal of educational technology ASCILITE 2003 http://www.adelaide.edu.au/ascilite2003/ University of Adelaide, 7-10 December 2003 Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 2003, 19(3) vii 5. Run Google search for: link:www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ Want to know what pages out there on the Internet are linking to your pages? Try one of the less well known capabilities in present day search engines. To illustrate, search [6] for link:www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ Searched for pages linking to www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/. Results 1 - 10 of about 204. Search took 0.15 seconds. [6] Most of the output will be navigational links within AJET, for example from contents pages for each issue to AJET's home page. However, this search also shows numerous links from web sites prepared by university libraries and others interested in compiling lists of journals by subject areas, or lists representing specific features, especially 'online' and 'open access'. These are of editorial interest, for example, AJET is listed by the AERA SIG Communication of Research, having satisfied its criteria for a particular feature in the communication of educational research: To the best of our ability to discern, we have included only links to electronic journals that are scholarly, peer-reviewed, full text and accessible without cost. We have excluded professional magazines that are largely not refereed, and commercial journals that may only allow access to a very limited number of articles as an enticement to buy. By restricting membership in this way on the list that follows, we hope to do what little we can to promote free access world wide to scholarship in education. [7] Google's facility to search for website pages that link to a specific web file has potential as an automated way to obtain information about citation frequencies. The limitations are that only open access journals are accessible to the search engine, and that authors and editors often omit URLs from reference lists (Atkinson, 2001b). Let's hope that these are major limitations, because a search for citations of AJET Vol 17 articles showed a very low frequency. The search term was of the form: link:www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet17/firstauthor.html (where firstauthor is andrewartha, felix, franklin, etc, as in Vol 17 contents [8]) The 20 articles in Vol 17 have to date obtained only 5 'known to Google' citations by web pages at sites other than AJET's site, plus 6 citations by other articles in subsequent AJETs. Not a high score! Owing to a shortage of idle moments and print version space, we regret that Idle Moments 6 to 42 will be held over until a later issue of AJET J Roger Atkinson, AJET Production Editor Catherine McLoughlin, Editor viii Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 2003, 19(3) Endnotes 1. http://www.abc.net.au/tv/food/ [viewed 19 Oct 2003] 2. http://www.google.com/ [viewed 1 Sep 2003] 3. http://www.googlefight.com/ [viewed 18 Oct 2003] 4. http://www.googlefight.com/ [viewed 19 Oct 2003] 5. http://www.googlefight.com/ [viewed 24 Sep 2003] 6. http://www.google.com/ [viewed 21 Oct 2003] 7. http://aera-cr.asu.edu/links.html [viewed 3 Sep 2003] 8. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet17/ajet17.html References Adams, D. N. (1979). The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. p.136. London: Pan Books. Atkinson, R. (2001a). Editorial. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 17(3), iii- vi. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet17/editorial17-3.html Atkinson, R. (2001b). Editorial. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 17(1), iii- vi. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet17/editorial17-1.html Cannon, J. R. (2001). EJSE Editorial: Summer time... strikes again! Electronic Journal of Science Education, 5(4). http://unr.edu/homepage/crowther/ejse/canjun01.html Journal of Extension (1999). On line for five years: A progress report prepared by the Board of Directors. http://www.joe.org/5year99.html Kenway, J. (2003). Notes from the Editor - AER Online and Open Access. The Australian Educational Researcher, 30(1), 1-2. http://www.aare.edu.au/aer/online/30010b.pdf Smith, J. M. (2001). Blended learning: An old friend gets a new name. Executive Update, March. http://www.gwsae.org/Executiveupdate/2001/March/blended.htm Willis, J. & Bull, G. (2000). Setting the priorities: Electronic scholarly publishing for instructional technology and teacher education. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 1(1). http://www.citejournal.org/vol1/iss1/editorials/article2.htm Yore, L. D. (2001). What is meant by constructivist science teaching and will the science education community stay the course for meaningful reform? Electronic Journal of Science Education, 5(4). http://unr.edu/homepage/crowther/ejse/yore.html ASCILITE 2004 http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/ The University of Western Australia, 5-8 December 2004 Website launch date 10 December 2003