Stewart Marshall

The University of the West Indies, Open Campus, Barbados · Office of the Principal

Open Educational Resources (OER) – that is, teaching, learning and research materials that their owners make free to others to use, revise and share – offer a powerful means of expanding the reach and effectiveness of worldwide education. Those resources can be full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, software, and othe...

With the enormous capital and infrastructure costs associated with on-campus higher education, it is little wonder that developing countries wishing to create greater access are increasingly looking at distance education to provide the solution. But does this mean that such countries will adopt a Fordist/industrial model of distance education, or i...

This paper draws on the authors more than 10 years of involvement in the action research experience of the Milan Community Network. It discusses the roles that community networks play in the Information Society: starting from a neat characterization ...

Open Education Resources are educational materials purposely made available for free use by others. They offer tremendous potential for reducing costs and increasing access to education especially in the developing world. This paper discusses issues of quality, localization, adaptation and integration that need to be addressed in order to make OER...

Purpose – In 2004, the University of the West Indies Distance Education Centre (UWIDEC) began incorporating the use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the delivery of its programmes and courses, taking a “blended learning” approach. There is a recognition, however, of the need to ensure the quality of the programme offering...

The global nature of many of today's burning issues is not just a matter of geographical scale, but concerns the complexity of connections that can make problems seem intractable and outcomes unpredictable. A butterfl y fl apping its wings in a rainforest may be said to infl uence the weather on the other side of the world. The effects of 'toxic' m...

The growing phenomenon of cross-border higher education (CBHE) will not help developing countries unless it is accessible, available, affordable, relevant and of acceptable quality. Foreign Providers in the Caribbean: Pillagers or Preceptors? focuses on the trends of CBHE in the Caribbean, which has its own unique characteristics. Following a Prefa...

This paper analyses the general trends of online purchasing in Central Queensland (CQ) communities during 1999-2002 and identifies the socio-economic factors affecting online purchasing activities. The Online Purchasing Indicator, defined as a combination of percentages of online purchasers and of regular purchasers (>one item/month) within a group...

This publication presents case studies of best practice in the development of quality assurance systems for institutions involved in open and distance learning (ODL). The case studies emphasise the importance of context in designing systems tailored to specific needs. They demonstrate that ODL methodologies have been successfully employed to servic...

This chapter describes the development of the E-News project which examined an interactive journalism approach in Rockhampton, Australia. This project provided an opportunity to examine how the introduction of this new technology into regional media and communication brings into question the traditional roles of the journalist, the editor, the grap...

The 10,000 Steps Rockhampton project is a community-based, multi-strategy health promotion program focussing on physical activity and the social determinants of health in a regional Australian setting. As yet there is no available literature about the process of constructing health promotion Web sites. The chapter describes the processes involved i...

Tourism, and especially regional tourism, is facing the same challenges that have emerged in most industry sectors as a result of online technology availability. There are concerns that access to tourism products are likely to be impeded if online technologies are not effectively employed by the whole tourism industry in Australia. A common underst...

This chapter considers the significance of digital storytelling as a force for community cultural development in global and regional contexts and as a means of transforming regions. The primary focus is on practice, which will prove useful to both the community informatics practitioner and ethnographic or participative action researchers. This is a...

This chapter highlights an initiative by a group of researchers2 from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) to connect villagers in the remote and isolated village of Bario to Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), which include computers, telephones, the Internet, and VSATs. This project has eased the information flow in and out of Bario, a...

Despite continued rhetoric that information and communication technologies (ICTs) make ‘place’ irrelevant in a global networked economy, insights from regional areas suggest a different and more complex experience. This chapter examines the issues surrounding the concepts of place in regional areas and ICT-based regional development, as a vehicle t...

The concept of ‘digital divide’ draws attention to the social context of technology usage. Current IT solutions are technology driven and are focussed on elite consumers in cities. In contrast, regional Australian communities face a number of problems such as remoteness, small population and distance. Knowledge and resource constraints also impact...

This chapter provides a reflection on Community Informatics (CI) practice as a means of contextualising its role in emerging civil society and its governance at the local or regional level. CI is more than electronically enabled interpersonal communication; it has a pluralistic potential, it is ubiquitous and it comes bundled with paradoxes. It doe...

This chapter explores the challenges of establishing and sustaining online communities and regional portals. Theory relevant to online communities, particularly in a regional and rural context, is introduced to provide a background for the MainStreet Regional Portal case study. The author hopes that the dissemination of information on the critical...

This chapter illustrates the significance of developing a shared understanding of community, which is more than an adjective qualifying a certain type of ICT usage in a rapidly developing area of social practice and academic study — Community Informatics. Highlighting the importance of contextualising ICTs within their social environments, the chap...

The chapter poses questions about the goal of building community through the creation of local networks, using the example of an entrepreneurial scheme to create a resident-run computer network in the Atherton Gardens high-rise housing estate in inner Melbourne, Australia. The scheme stems from a social partnership between a not-for-profit organisa...

How can the Internet help organize a country’s population who wishes to change their political system? The crisis that crashed the Argentine financial system in December 2001 did not just generate a powerful social explosion; it also created a new citizens information outburst. The night of December 19, 2001, when thousands of indignant citizens we...

In regional Australia there is a growing interest and investment in community capacity building and this is beginning to be formalised in a desire to integrate information communications technology opportunities with other forms of community development. This paper explores the opportunity for greater social integration based on the formation of co...

GreyPath is a Web portal designed to provide information, services, facilities and links useful to older people. Although carrying some advertising and offering some services for a charge, use of the portal is free. This chapter examines potential uses of this portal and how it might be able to foster the creation and maintenance of virtual Interne...

Communication technology initiatives have proved to be an important influence in rural communities in recent years. Our research has demonstrated that such initiatives have far-reaching effects on a community’s formal and informal social networks and, as a result, on its social capital. Given this fact, it is critical that leaders and management co...

This chapter introduces information and communication technologies as having the potential of aiding the sustainable development of rural communities through distance education, telemedicine, and the provision of timely information on agriculture and the environment. It argues that telecenters offer practical and community-oriented ways to bring in...

This chapter uses a case study approach to highlight issues surrounding the provision of government agency sponsored programs aimed at increasing Electronic Information Literacy (EIL), as a basic requirement for community engagement in an electronically enabled world. The Skills.net program was designed to increase EIL skills by providing “free or...

Schools appear in some accounts of community informatics as part of community, one of a number of organisations that need to be taken into account, perhaps on the basis of them being useful physical or human resources around which community informatics might be based. For their part, schools, at least in Australia, have been an important, early ele...

This paper reports on a social survey that was conducted in 2001 in Central Queensland, Australia, in order to identify the disadvantaged groups in relation to accessing the Internet from home. The research found that people in younger age groups, with higher education levels, being married , having children at home, owning a house/flat, with the h...

This paper aims to identify associations betweendemographic and socioeconomic factors and home Internet use patterns in the Central Queensland region, Australia. It found that people living outside of Rockhampton, male, those with higher education levels, married, those with higher income level, or fully employed tend to use Internet more for work...

In this chapter, a philosophical framework used in the development of an online course is provided. This philosophical framework is largely based on sociological theory that argues the need for a student-centered approach to learning in the modern age. The authors argue that this is an appropriate approach for the present and the future, which they...

Governments and other policy makers are concerned with the gap in home Internet usage between people from metropolitan and rural areas. A survey conducted in Central Queensland, Australia examined differences in home Internet usage patterns between young and old, male and female, people in urban and rural areas, married and unmarried, well-educated...

This paper reports on a social survey that was conducted in 2001 in Central Queensland, Australia, in order to identify the disadvantaged groups in relation to accessing the Internet from home. The research found that people in younger age groups, with higher education levels, being married , having children at home, owning a house/flat, with the h...

This paper aims to identify associations between demographic and socioeconomic factors and home Internet use patterns in the Central Queensland region, Australia. It found that people living outside of Rockhampton, male, those with higher education levels, married, those with higher income level, or fully employed tend to use Internet more for work...

In this chapter, a philosophical framework used in the development of an online course is provided. This philosophical framework is largely based on sociological theory that argues the need for a student-centered approach to learning in the modern age. The authors argue that this is an appropriate approach for the present and the future, which they...

Many of the problems of comprehension experienced by students in physics classes arise not from the technical words used but from the non-technical words used. This paper discusses some of the results of a study conducted in Papua New Guinea on students' comprehension of forty-five non-technical words used in science classes.

Despite the promise of community involvement, cohesion and empowerment offered by local community networks (CN) using Internet Technologies, few communities in regional Australia have been able to demonstrate sustainable and vibrant CN which demonstrate increased social, cultural or self-reliance capital. The Faculty of Informatics and Communicatio...

Despite the promise of community involvement, cohesion and empowerment offered by local community networks (CN) using Internet Technologies, few communities in regional Australia have been able to demonstrate sustainable and vibrant CN which demonstrate increased social, cultural or self-reliance capital. The Faculty of Informatics and Communicatio...

In this chapter, the authors identify forces leading to change in industries in the online world, including increasing global competition, increasingly powerful consumers and rapid changes in technology. In the higher education industry, outcomes are evolving, but include the formation of alliances, outsourcing and re-engineering of systems and wor...

In this chapter, the authors identify forces leading to change in industries in the online world, including increasing global competition, increasingly powerful consumers and rapid changes in technology. In the higher education industry, outcomes are evolving, but include the formation of alliances, outsourcing and re-engineering of systems and wor...

This paper addresses the question of how virtual organizations that yield strategic advantage are formed. The study uses grounded theory to investigate the organizational processes and structure that facilitate the formation of a successful virtual organization. We present a case study of one virtual organization, a university in Australia, which h...

Forces leading to change in universities in the online world include increasing global competition, increasingly powerful consumers and rapid changes in technology. Outcomes are evolving, but include the formation of alliances, outsourcing and re-engineering of university systems and work practices. The communication and information technologies th...

In this chapter, a philosophical framework used in the development of an online course is provided. This philosophical framework is largely based on sociological theory that argues the need for a student-centered approach to learning in the modern age. The authors argue that this is an appropriate approach for the present and the future, which they...

In this chapter, the authors identify forces leading to change in industries in the online world, including increasing global competition, increasingly powerful consumers and rapid changes in technology. In the higher education industry, outcomes are evolving, but include the formation of alliances, outsourcing and re-engineering of systems and wor...

The successful comprehension of a text depends on the activation of appropriate content schemata (background knowledge) and this in turn depends upon the reader's lexical knowledge. In addition to scientific words, the lexical knowledge of EST students must include subtechnical vocabulary—the words which express the relations which exist between th...

For mathematics students in schools and universities in Papua New Guinea, English is usually a second (or third or fourth) language. Often, the difficulties that these students have with mathematical questions arise not because they have problems with the required mathematical operations but because they have problems with reading English. This see...

Part of the EST/ESP teacher's task is to help students acquire the formal schemata required to produce scientific texts. But the teaching of explicitly structured writing (e.g., report-writing) is important not only as a means of teaching students how to express and present information effectively. It is also a means of facilitating the development...

This article reports on a study conducted in Papua New Guinea on students’ comprehension of 45 non‐technical words used in science classes. Over 2000 students in Grades 7 to 12 and first year university were tested. Each word was tested in four different formats—each format representing a different context and different level of difficulty. In some...

A realistic group problem-solving exercise called Power for Aisiyona develops students' ability to analyse information, make deductions from presented facts, draw conclusions and communicate these processes to other.

TO be truly ‘professional’, an engineer requires personal motivation, professional commitment, flexibility and creativity in problem solving, interpersonal and communication skills. It is the task of engineering educators to improve these qualities and skills of the students. This article describes a course which tackled this task by using a design...

MARC (Methodical Assessment of Reports by Computer) is a report-marking program which enables teachers to provide individualized feedback on reports written by engineering students. The MARC system is objective in its consistent application of the same programed criteria, but also allows individual markers to supply their own comments as required....

As an assignment for the course ‘Verbal Communication’, undergraduates in their fourth year of an Electrical Engineering degree were asked to write reports evaluating three microcomputers. What was unusual for this particular class was that their ‘microcomputer evaluation reports’ were then evaluated by a microcomputer. This article describes a sim...

We are entering the second computer revolution — described by many as “THE REVOLUTION”. The Japanese have committed themselves to a programme to develop a Fifth Generation of computers — machines that can understand natural language, diagnose problems, and discover solutions. What are the implications for higher education?This paper argues that the...

It can be very time consuming for educators to improve students' written communication skills. Ideally, it requires tutors to spend a considerable amount of time diagnosing and remedying individual problems. Unfortunately, this is not possible when teaching the very large classes that now seem to be the norm in higher education.This paper outlines...

Students on the B.A. (honours) in Communication Studies at Sheffield City Polytechnic study linguistics as part of their degree. These students seem to vary considerably in their abilities to analyse sentences. The difficulties that they experience seem to be the same for each successive intake even though the difficulties may not be shared by many...

Two of the major problems involved in teaching communication studies to electrical engineering students are motivating the students and creating favourable attitudes towards the subject. This paper describes how these problems can be overcome by using an electrical engineering game as a focal point for the course.