Submission Guidelines

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Contents

Before submitting, please review this page, which provides the guidelines. Be sure to read at least 2-3 existing chapters to gain a perspective on how WAET is structured. The chapters in the book differ considerably in content, scope, and style, but follow the same methodology and principles outlined below.

Background on WAET

Considerable effort and money has been invested in the recent decades in order to provide schools with educational technologies. Though investments have been substantial, they have been diverse and disparate, across and within nations. Policy choices regarding technology integration have been diverse, and yet the distribution of knowledge regarding these global efforts put forth has been limited. The premises for educational technologies are many: changes in pedagogy, global competitive edge, increasing access to information, and many others.

Much money and time has been a spent round the globe in an attempt to ‘enhance’ the educational system with new technologies. There is much to be learned regarding the why, what, and how of technology integration. Why should one be concerned with new technologies? What kind of technologies should one integrate? How does one go about doing this? Nations around the globe have put forth an effort to address these questions. Communities and non-profit organizations have creatively addressed these concerns as well. This electronic book will provide a series of analyses detailing the integration of technologies in the educational system of countries around the globe. Chapters in this book should be developed to richly describe the face of the educational technology integration efforts of the nation under study. The ultimate objective of each chapter is to: 1) provide detailed information regarding the technology integration effort in the educational system of the described nation, 2) create an up-to-date, cross-linked repository that allows scholars, policy-makers, and practitioners around the globe to learn about the efforts of others.

Objective and Audience

The goal of the Web Almanac (WAET) is to provide a insight into the use of technological tools in education in across the globe. Though the chapters are organized around nations, the division is not strict. The editors welcome contributions that inquire into the use of educational technologies by other forms of political/social organization. WAET is a scholarly, editor-reviewed publication. Nevertheless, it intends to reach a wide audience of practitioners in the field of education. Therefore its tone and design are more approachable and practical then traditional journals and books in the field of educational technology.

Scholars and practitioners are encouraged to submit chapters. Chapters are traditionally written by a pair: a scholar (professor, graduate students) and a practitioner (teacher, student-teacher, assistant, administrator). This pairing is not a necessary condition, though it is strongly encouraged that a local voice be an integral part of the work. In other words, chapters must be co-authored and co-edited by someone with substantial living/practicing/educational experience in the country/region being discussed. Though manuscripts will be accepted in English, you are encouraged to submit articles in more than one language. The editors welcome inquires and questions regarding content and format of the chapters.

Structure of the article

Part 1 - Nation cases

It is expected that your chapter will address the issues below. Your chapter is meant to provide a broad overview of the nation under investigation. Your nation case should begin with a relevant overview of the educational system and policy of the country under investigation. Next, particular attention should be dedicated to the connection between general educational policies and the national policy towards educational technology. The later part of your chapter (part 2) will focus on individual cases and will expand on the connection between national policy and local efforts. There will only be one nation case for each country. This section should be approximately 3-5 pages long.

  • National educational infrastructure (especially pre-college education)
    • General description of the educational system
    • Distribution of schools, teachers, and resources around the nation, disparities, cultural/ethnic differences within the country
    • Current governmental policy for educational technology
**For example: Pedagogical change (to more constructivist teaching/learning), Economic improvement/global competition, Civic responsibility/increasing access to information
  • Professional development
  • Focus on technology
    • Current and forecasted investment in educational technologies
**Quantity and origin/description of major private/public funding
    • Teacher preparation for technology integration
    • Technological tools (hardware/software)
    • Results of national surveys of technology
    • Major challenges
**What is to be expected of the educational technology integration effort in the near future?

Part 2 - Individual cases

Individual cases are the focus of your paper. It will most likely be focused on a particular state or region of a country (for example: Georgia or Southeastern US). It is well known that disparities exist between different regions of nations around the world, but these differences are not always discernible by state boundaries. Therefore individual cases could focus on particular regions or communities of relevance. You should begin with an overview of particular characteristics of the region. The bulk of this section will be dedicated to an individual case (school, classroom, child, etc) that exemplifies this region. You should use rich media (text, audio, video, animations) to give a “glimpse” of the use of educational technologies in this community.

  • Relevant geopolitical descriptors (brief)
  • Educational infrastructure (pre-college education)
  • Description of schools, teachers, resources in the particular area of discussion
**What does it look like?
  • Overview of a case of implementation of educational technologies (include rich media: audio/video cases helping illustrate are preferred)
  • Community, non-profit organizations, foreign investment/involvement
  • Major challenges in light of national goals and objectives
  • Suggestions and recommendations in light of national goals and objectives

Part 3 - About the authors

Include a short, one paragraph description of each author and a small picture of each (100x150 pixels).

Editors and Review Process

This book will be edited by Dr. Michael Orey (University of Georgia) Dr. Tel Amiel (University of Wollongong), and Jo McClendon (University of Georgia). Authors should contact the editors and provide a draft summary of the chapter they wish to submit. The editors will verify the expertise of the authors and their commitment to completing the project. Once a complete draft submitted, your chapter will be reviewed by at least two of the editors. The WAET does not follow the traditional peer-review format. Chapters usually are re-submitted 2-4 times before finally being accepted to the WAET, in a collaborative process between the editors and the writers.

Chapter Format

Media

It is the intention of this book that it not be completely text based. Graphs, tables, photographs, and illustrations are encouraged to the extent that they provide enhanced description of your case. Short videos are recommended in order to provide a vivid illustration of the school system, and to demonstrate the application of technology integration in schools. Videos should be submitted in Quick Time Streaming format if possible. Please provide links to other sites only when extended and useful information is available. Only consider providing links to sites which are likely to be available for at least 6 months.

Images, tables, videos, and other electronic media that are owned by other sites should be downloaded and included in a separate folder (images). Unless you are the copyright owner of the media, your final chapter submission should include information on the link to the original location on the world wide web, acknowledging the original source. Images submitted to the site are covered under the provisions of the Creative Commons license which covers the entire WAET. Photographs/images should be in either JPG or PNG format. We prefer images to be smaller for descriptive, or non essential information (approximately 320x240), and larger images (approximately 640x480) for essential information. Please submit your contributions as one single compressed file (such as ZIP, RAR, Stuffit, and other common formats) containing the DOC file and an "images" folder.

Length

Nation cases should target 3-5 double space pages; individual cases should target 10-15 pages (for a total chapter of 4500-5500 words). The editors will consider smaller or larger chapters on a case-to-case basis.

References

References should follow the American Psychological Association (APA) style, 5th edition. Authors are encouraged to provide hyperlinks to information considered reliable and readily available on the Internet.

Submission

Your chapter text should be submitted in Microsoft Word or compatible format. Images should be included in a separate folder and numbered sequentially (China_1.jpg, China_2.jpg...). Images should not be placed within the Word Document. Instead, include the text detailing the placement of the image, such as "Figure 1 about here..."

Case Study Methodology

An integral part of the article is the "individual case". These should follow the methodological principles for case study research. For an introduction to the methodology and methods of case studies, please refer to these sources:

Articles and Web resources

Books

  • Hamel, J. (1993). Case Study Methods. Qualitative Research Methods, Vol. 32. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Merriam, S. B., & Associates. (2002). Qualitative research in practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
  • Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education. San Francisco:
*Jossey-Bass Publishers. (The 2nd edition to: Case Study Research in Education originally published in 1988.)
  • Stake, R. (1995). The art of case study research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
  • Yin, R. K. (2003). Case study research: Design and methods. (3rd ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Chapters

  • Sjoberg, G., Williams, N., Vaughan, T. R., and Sjoberg, A. F. (1991). The case study approach in social research: Basic methodological issues. In J. R. Feagin, A. M. Orum, and G. Sjoberg (eds.), A case for the case study. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.
  • Stake, R. E. (1981). Case study methodology: An epistemological advocacy. In W. W. Welsh (ed.), Case study methodology in educational evaluation. Minneapolis: Minnesota Research and Evaluation Center.
  • Stake, R. E. (1994). Case studies. In N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (eds.), Handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

 

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