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 The eLearning Africa 2012 Report. The Report is based on a detailed survey of nearly five hundred education professionals across the Continent, and marks the first significant attempt to provide a snapshot of how ICT and better connectivity are believed to be changing the face of education in Africa. The eLearning Africa Report aims to provide regular, yearly snapshots of the eLearning experience in Africa, with the aim of fostering richer, more nuanced conversations, healthier decision-making and more effective action-taking towards ensuring Education for All in Africa.

This special report features a series of columns by Dr. Lawrence C. Ragan, Director of Instructional Design and Development for Penn State's World Campus, and will help you establish online instructor best practices and performance expectations. The following snippets are just a taste of the insider's advice found in the full report: Principles of Effective Online Teaching: #1 Show Up and Teach - The necessity of this statement is borne of the misimpression that the online class "teaches itself." Since most of the course is already authored and designed for online delivery, instructors may believe they simply need to serve as the proverbial "guide on the side" as the students navigate the learning system. Not true! Principles of Effective Online Teaching: #2 Practice Proactive Course Management Strategies - The online instructor can help create a successful learning experience by practicing proactive course management strategies such as monitoring assignment submissions, and communicating and reminding students of missed and/or upcoming deadlines. Principles of Effective Online Teaching: #3 Establish Patterns of Course Activities - Although the online classroom environment provides tremendous flexibility of time and place of study, establishing and communicating a course pace and pattern of work can aid both instructor and student, and alleviate confusion around how the course operates. Principles of Effective Online Teaching: #4 Plan for the Unplanned - For those small or not-so-small occasions when "life happens," having a strategy for informing students of these changes can go a long way to maintaining course continuity. Principles of Effective Online Teaching: #5 Response Requested and Expected - Timely instructor feedback is essential for the online learner to manage their learning experience. Instructors are expected to respond to student inquiries within one business day.

The Department of Basic Education briefed Members on its Second Quarterly Performance Report from 1 July 2011 to 30 September 2011; on the progress on delivery of infrastructure development for technical schools; and on the Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign.

"Educational technology can help students develop social and emotional learning (SEL) skills such as collaboration, communication and problem solving, which are critical factors for success in the 21st century job market, according to a new report from the World Economic Forum, prepared in collaboration with The Boston Consulting Group."

This ninth edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, a decade-long research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in higher education. Six emerging technologies are identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years, as well as key trends and challenges expected to continue over the same period, giving campus leaders and practitioners a valuable guide for strategic technology planning.

"We live in a world of too much information and not enough knowledge. No one feels the strain of that digital-age truism more than journalists, who are asked to ferret out and process information with ever-increasing speed - and often at the expense of providing solid context for the news of the day. Journalist's Resource, a new online tool developed at Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, aims to put that background knowledge at the fingertips of reporters, bloggers, or even concerned citizens by making the work of academics less opaque and easier to find. But the website, which curates scholarship on government, economics, society, and the environment, is more than just a reliable shortcut for deadline-driven journalists. "There is a real need for deepening journalism with verified, high-quality knowledge that informs the kind of serious journalism that makes our democracy work," said Alex S. Jones, director of the Shorenstein Center and a lecturer in public policy at HKS.   "It becomes very difficult for journalists, journalism professors, and students to go through and find the key items that would help them. We're trying to be a useful filter and curator."...."

"Improve Behavior Improve specific student behaviors and engagement by awarding and recording real-time feedback.  Share Data Print or email beautiful behavior reports to easily engage parents and staff. Save Time Save time by recording behaviors and accomplishments right in class, with just one click: NO extra data entry required."

"This new report, "Learning in the 21st Century: Digital Experiences and Expectations of Tomorrow's Teachers," is the latest in the series and provides new insights that will inform college and university based teacher preparation programs as well as the induction and professional development processes within K-12 schools and districts. Tomorrow's teachers may have the keys to finally unlock the potential of technology to transform teaching and learning, but much depends upon their experiences in their preparation program and how well future school leadership can support their expectations for essential technology tools and resources."

"Reports continue to be disseminated about how young people are using technology. These devices, tools, and strategies can be integrated into existing lessons to enhance the learning activities and create more engagement, excitement, and possibly some passion among the students."

Before choosing to restrict the use of social and mobile tools in schools, policymakers and education leaders have to consider the negative impact such restrictions will have on learning. That's the premise of a new policy report released jointly this week by more than a dozen prominent education associations and advocacy groups.

Course Design and Development Ideas That Work examines this multifaceted issue from a variety of fronts to bring you proven course design alternatives implemented in courses of varying sizes and disciplines. Featuring 12 articles pulled from the pages of The Teaching Professor, the report will inspire you to rethink some components of your course. 

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"Mr. Su believes that better teacher training is needed, so that new teachers have a better comfort level with new technologies. "Teachers' colleges should really be on the forefront," he said. "They should have a compulsory course on using technology in the classroom"

A recent report (November 2011) from Symantec highlighted that 15% of teachers have experienced cyber-baiting, and 25% of teachers have formed friendships with students via social networks. There has been quite a bit of media attention around the issue, so I thought it would be a good time to highlight some work that NetSafe did last year with a group of educators around some guidelines for the use of blogs and other social media tools.

"If you can't measure it, you can't manage it" said Peter Drucker a long time ago. With TweetStats, you have a powerful tool to measure all your Twitter behavior in one place. It shows you your Tweet timeline to understand how much you are Tweeting each day and each month. It also dives deep into analyzing your best times to Tweet via a Tweet Density report and follower comparisons. Pro Tip: What I like best is the @reply and Retweet analysis. It gives you a clear picture if you hit the right balance of engagement and content Tweets."  http://blog.kissmetrics.com/transform-your-tweeting-experience/

As the recently released "2012 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition" suggests, mobile devices and apps will become mainstream in a year or less. But apps aren't all about playing games. Converge asked three instructional technology coordinators and teachers to share how they're using apps to help students achieve learning goals.

For more than a decade eLearning has promised a revolution in African education. The opportunity of mass access to world-class learning resources without the barriers of distance or cost has excited educationalists, politicians and learners alike. But has eLearning lived up to this promise? What do African eLearning professionals, practitioners, policymakers, business leaders and teachers think about this? What technologies do they use and which world views inform their work? For the first time ever, the perspectives of eLearning professionals and a range of other stakeholders across 41 different countries on the Continent are reflected in this ground-breaking new publication from eLearning Africa.