To transfer educational research into practice, to sustain innovative practices, and to enable schools to implement curricular reform, leadership at each level-national, local, school, and classroom-is essential. The term "e-leadership" is used to connote a new style of leadership suited to the new electronic environment. This paper illustrates how the findings of an international comparative study informed the development of an international eleadership training program for educational leaders from governments and schools within the AsiaPacific region. First, case reports were developed for 17 4 information and communication technology (JCT) innovation projects in 28 countries. Second, the case reports were analyzed to identify key factors about the innovative classrooms and their contexts. Six key dimensions were found. Third, a workshop was held for participants from ten APEC economies to prepare ICT implementation plans, taking into account the findings from the case study research. This paper reports the major findings of the international comparative study as well as the lessons learnt from this research-into-practice experience, including the vital role of e-leadership at all levels of the education system.

Schools in developing countries such as China are faced with many challenges when it comes to K- 12 technology integration into classrooms and curricula. The Global Education Model School (GEMS) project aims to help schools overcome these challenges. In this paper we first examine the outcomes of the GEMS program in China, on the basis of which we propose a model for facilitating computer technology integration in K-12 schools China. It is the contribution of this new model to move the emphasis from support of teachers from the international and national levels to teacher collaboration at the school and regional levels. Through the use of technology, communities of teachers can be established, providing an enhanced and more sustainable change management process. The ultimate goal of such an improved change management strategy is to help expand technology integration in China's K-12 classrooms.

Project CHILD constitutes a unique threedimensional instructional system that has been subjected to substantial evaluation and revision over the course of fifteen years and which has a proven track record of academic success for children in grades K-5. Project CHILD has continued to evolve and slowly expand across the United States. In the 2003-2004 school year there were over 14,000 students and more than 500 teachers involved. The system is based on an alternative, "retrotechno" theory of the proper role of computers in elementary education. The curriculum focus is on reading, writing, and mathematics, while the methodological focus is on team teaching, multiple instructional modes, and a three-year, continuous progress learning cycle. Effective school transformation is obstructed by three major barriers: school organizational structure, fear of losing control, and inappropriate training and staff development. Project CHILD has developed practical and effective ways to surmount these barriers.

In anticipation of starting a new online journal in the field of educational technology, we conducted a review of existing journals, dividing them into two categories-online-only and online +print. The 30 journals in the review were analyzed with respect t frequency of publication; their content emphases, goals, and audiences; policies on subscription and copyright,· and technical functions, such as search and discussion. We were looking for the features that made the online journals distinctive from the others, which were based in the print paradigm. The aspects that yielded significant differences were subscription policy, redistribution policy, and search function. The online-only journals were more liberal in their subscription and redistribution policies, but the online + print journals had more extensive search capabilities. In addition, we identified gaps in the topical coverage of the existing journals, in the areas of educational technology management, educational systems design/reform, policy issues, and cultural issues.

The use of the Internet and Web-based instruction (WBI), that is, individual instruction delivered wholly or in part via the Internet or an organization's intranet, is growing at an amazing pace in China. This article describes the status of using the Internet and WBI for learning in China, and examines the many cultural and pedagogical implications and challenges presented by WBI in China. The People's Republic of China is the third largest and the most populous country in the world. Because of a weak economic foundation and the difficulty of feeding an immensely large population, China is still a developing country. However, recently, China has been experiencing a rapid growth in the use of the Internet and its Web technologies, and many researchers are looking into the implications and impact of this phenomenon. The purpose of this article is to discuss the cultural and pedagogical implications related to the use of WBI in China. To this end, it synthesizes pertinent literature published both in the Western world and in China to reveal the status of using WBI in China and address the many challenges and issues presented by WBI there.

The following paragraph is extracted from an email message written by a German medical doctor working in Papua New Guinea (PNG) since 1999. I was impressed the most by a 15-year-old boy who arrived out of the bush in a health center complaining about lower-right abdominal pain. Due to the possibility of an appendix infection, he had to be transferred to the hospital. But the sea was rough, and he had to wait for two days at the health center. Then a so-called banana boat, a boat with an outboard motor, brought him in a 6-hour trip to Vunapope [a town in PNG]. Even for healthy people such a trip with all the up and down is not a pleasure. As it turned out, the appendix had broken through and quite some pus had collected in his abdomen. In spite of the pain medication, the trip on the boat must have been hell for the boy, but he endured it courageously. The doctor regularly reports about her life and adventures in PNG to her friends and sponsors viaemail. The stories in her e-mail messages are often fascinating and sometimes heartbreaking. Life m PNG is far beyond what some of us can imagine. This article reports on information technology (IT) in PNG, particularly as it affects education and cultural development. The findings are based on data collected from the medical doctor and a school principal, both currently working in PNG. The purpose of the article is not to present sophisticated research results but to offer a glimpse of IT culture in PNG. It starts with a brief overview of IT in developing countries and then focuses on PNG.

Virtual Schooling comprises a collection of essays discussing issues surrounding virtual schools seen in the American education setting. Some of the chapters are excerpts from previous publications found in Phi Delta Kappa fastbacks. The authors range from academicians, to reporters, to legislators, to school-based practitioners. My overall impressions of this book are favorable. Asian policy-makers working on virtual schools can profitably use this book as a reference to study the issues, policy concerns, and lessons learned in the context of American virtual schools. I find that most of the topics discussed are relevant to virtual schools generally. Since the book is published as a result of a symposium held by the Center on Education Policy on virtual high schools in 2002, it is apparent that the purpose of the book is to expand and broaden the discussion on policy issues relating to the establishment of whole schools operating primarily as online distance education institutions. The book is divided into two sections: Part I, From Distance Education to Virtual Schooling, offers background regarding the roots of virtual schooling; Part 2, ELearning Policy and Practicality Come of Age, assumes the core of the book.

While many have extolled the potential of Webbased instruction, rarely has this enthusiasm been backed by reliable evidence. Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard E. Mayer in £-Learning and the Science of Instruction (2003) elaborate pedagogical principles which should be followed to maximize the effectiveness of hypermedia and web-based instruction (terms they combine as e-leaming). They explicitly cite the research on which they base their claims as well as provide examples from training programs in current use to demonstrate how their principles might be applied. The result is a definitive handbook of guidelines for instructional designers that is based on the best-available academic research, written in an accessible language which minimizes the use of academic jargon.