Evolution of Information Technology in Educational Management As the editors of this volume we are very happy to publish a selection of the papers that were presented at the eighth Conference of Working Group 3.7 of the International Federation for Information Processing which was held in July 2008. The focus of Working Group 3.7 is on ITEM: Information Technology in Educational Management (for more information, please visit our website http: //item.wceruw.org/), and the theme of its 2008 conference was on the Evolution of Information Technology in Educational Management. Our Working Group started its activities (officially we were not an IFIP Working Group at that time) in 1994 in Israel, so it made sense to look at how ITEM has evolved over the years and to reflect on what its future may be. The conference took place in Darwin (northern Australia) which even during the Australian winter is a very pleasant location for having a conference. The town of Darwin was given its name by the Captain of the Beagle (the ship on which Darwin travelled when he made the investigations on which he based his Theory of Evolution) who came to the area and named the town after the giant of science he admired

Many resources are invested in the development and introduction of Quality Assurance Systems in educational institutions all over the world. Our assumption is that, as a result of quality assurance activities, practitioners obtain information about their own functioning and institutional performance which is new and valuable to them and which therefore will form a basis for them to improve performance. This assumption proves to be naive; too often performance feedback is under-utilized, and evaluations become void, legitimizing rites instead of a basis for organizational learning and the improvement of institutions.

The aim of this book was to find out when educational institutions do transform Quality Assurance data into actions to improve performance, and how the use of such data can be promoted. This volume reports on the study of Quality Assurance structures and activities in 36 educational institutes in 6 European Countries and presents guidelines for Quality Assurance.

Evolution of Information Technology in Educational Management As the editors of this volume we are very happy to publish a selection of the papers that were presented at the eighth Conference of Working Group 3.7 of the International Federation for Information Processing which was held in July 2008. The focus of Working Group 3.7 is on ITEM: Information Technology in Educational Management (for more information, please visit our website http: //item.wceruw.org/), and the theme of its 2008 conference was on the Evolution of Information Technology in Educational Management. Our Working Group started its activities (officially we were not an IFIP Working Group at that time) in 1994 in Israel, so it made sense to look at how ITEM has evolved over the years and to reflect on what its future may be. The conference took place in Darwin (northern Australia) which even during the Australian winter is a very pleasant location for having a conference. The town of Darwin was given its name by the Captain of the Beagle (the ship on which Darwin travelled when he made the investigations on which he based his Theory of Evolution) who came to the area and named the town after the giant of science he admired

Many resources are invested in the development and introduction of Quality Assurance Systems in educational institutions all over the world. Our assumption is that, as a result of quality assurance activities, practitioners obtain information about their own functioning and institutional performance which is new and valuable to them and which therefore will form a basis for them to improve performance. This assumption proves to be naive; too often performance feedback is under-utilized, and evaluations become void, legitimizing rites instead of a basis for organizational learning and the improvement of institutions. The aim of this book was to find out when educational institutions do transform Quality Assurance data into actions to improve performance, and how the use of such data can be promoted. This volume reports on the study of Quality Assurance structures and activities in 36 educational institutes in 6 European Countries and presents guidelines for Quality Assurance.