Special issue 2011, Volume 27: Call for articles

ICT for accessible, effective and efficient higher education: Experiences of Southeast Asia

Submissions are invited for a forthcoming special issue of AJET to be published mid to late December 2011, entitled ICT for accessible, effective and efficient higher education: Experiences of Southeast Asia, edited by Dr Kian-Sam Hong, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, and Professor Dr Kwok-Wing Lai, University of Otago. As forshadowed in AJET Editorial 27(2) and to be publicised through various listservs and society news bulletins, ICT for accessible, effective and efficient higher education: Experiences of Southeast Asia will be AJET's fourth special issue.

The 21st Century will see nations increasingly relying on technology to address growing concerns about diminishing resources and ensuring sustainable development. The economic crisis of 2008-2009 has heightened the importance of having competent human resources to assist the recovery of losses resulting from the crisis. Universities as repositories of valuable human capital, face great challenges in contributing to economic development of nations in times of such economic declines. Through having more accessible, effective and efficient higher education systems, governments are counting on universities graduates to be competitive in creating wealth for their respective countries.

Furthermore, the rapid rate with which new technologies change and develop implies that education programs must keep pace with advancements in knowledge and skills and also the demands and requirements of employees to stay relevant. The kind of skills needed and how universities can help to foster these skills are issues yet to be fully addressed. It is crucial that universities equip their students with appropriate knowledge, skills and aptitudes to be more competitive in a shrinking and increasing global and competitive labor market.

In addition, the trend towards a knowledge-based economy has emphasized the importance of universities being repositories of valuable human capital to help secure shares in the global market. The shift to high-technology and information technologies economies requires sustained human resource development and training. Thus, driven by globalization and pressures to teach and train knowledgeable, skilled and competitive professionals, universities has a huge challenge to enhance access to higher education and also improve the quality of higher education against the reality of decreasing resources. Universities need to be innovative and leverage on the rapid developments in ICTs and lead by example in using these cutting edge technology to meet these expectations.

More and more higher education institutions are using ICT to develop course materials, deliver and share course content, lectures and presentations, facilitate communication among lecturers and students, encourage pedagogical innovation, increase cooperation and collaboration, conduct research, enhance professional development, and provide administrative and management services. However, information on how ICT has been, can be, used to enhance the design, deliver and management of higher education programs in the Southeast Asia region is not readily available.

Furthermore, countries in Southeast Asia are at different stages of development in the use of ICT in education. Basically countries in the region can be categorized into three types: those which are already integrating the use of ICT in the higher education system (e.g., Singapore), those which have starting to apply and test various strategies (e.g., Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines), and those which have just begun and are more concerned with ICT infrastructure and connectivity installation (e.g., Myanmar, Lau PDR, Vietnam, and Cambodia). Thus, success stories, experiences and lessons learnt from the use of ICT in higher education will be of immense importance for educators and administrators at the forefront of integrating ICT for higher education in countries in the region.

This special issue will bring together research-based papers that identify opportunities, issues, challenges, and examples of good practices in the use of ICT in higher education settings in Southeast Asia. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Description of the design, development and delivery of ICT based learning materials in university teaching and learning settings, including blended learning and elearning.
• Pedagogic innovation in using ICT towards enhancing higher education accessible, effective and efficient
• ICT and online approaches for professional development in higher education
• Description of ICT projects in higher education to increase the reach and quality of learning

Time schedule

Submission and review process

The Guest editors will review these abstracts and identify 10-12 abstracts that would be suitable to be submitted as full papers (5,000-7,000 words) for this special issue. We will invite papers that cover a broad spectrum of ICT activities and demonstrations of different ICT uses in a range of learning and teaching in the higher education settings in Southeast Asia. Each full paper will be peer blind reviewed by at least three reviewers, who will assess the paper's suitability for inclusion in the special issue, based on:

• The content of the paper (i.e., whether the paper reports research and/or theoretical discussion that addresses opportunities and challenges, and/or extends our understanding of what constitutes good practice in the assessment of students' social web activities).
• The quality of the writing.
• The structure of the paper.
• The research design.
• The relevance of the work to the special issue.

Guest Editors

References

Larsen, K. & Vincent-Lancrin, S. (2005). The impact of ICT on tertiary education: Advances and promises. Washington: OECD/CERI. http://advancingknowledge.com/drafts/Larsen-The%20impact%20of%20ICT%20on%20tertiary%20education%20-%20AKKE.doc

McLoughlin, C. & Lee, M. J. W. (2007). Social software and participatory learning: Pedagogical choices with technology affordances in the Web 2.0 era. In ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning. Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007. http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/singapore07/procs/mcloughlin.pdf

Sife, A., Lwoga, E. & Sanga, C. (2007). New technologies for teaching and learning: Challenges for higher learning institutions in developing countries. International Journal of Education and Development Using ICT, 3(2), 57-67. http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/include/getdoc.php?id=2385&article=246&mode=pdf

Unesco Bangkok (n.d.). ICT in education: Trends in Asia and the Pacific. [verified 9 Jun 2011] http://www.unescobkk.org/education/ict/themes/teaching-learning/trends-and-case-studies/trends-in-asia-pacific/

Unesco Bangkok (n.d.). ICT in education: ICT at the tertiary level. [verified 9 Jun 2011] http://www.unescobkk.org/education/ict/themes/teaching-learning/ict-in-tertiary-education/

This URL: http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/about/special-issues/ict-highered-seasia.html
Created 9 Jun 2011. Last revision: 16 Jun 2011. HTML author: Roger Atkinson [rjatkinson@bigpond.com]

calls made to this page since 17 Mar 2011.