A volume in Research in Educational Policy: Local, National, and Global Perspectives Series Editor Kenneth K. Wong, Brown University This compendium of papers documents educational ICT policies and practices in 37 countries, making it a valuable resource for understanding and comparing ICT-related national policy developments in education. We believe that this work offers a unique in-depth examination of the trends within major education systems and how they have adapted to and taken advantage of the challenges and opportunities posed by the new information and communication technologies. A special feature of this edition is that it allows for interesting comparative analyses of sub-groups of countries, as many Asian, European Union, and former eastern-European countries, as well as the United States and Canada (among others), are included in the book. But it allows also for other than regional comparisons given that a number of newly industrialized countries (such as Brazil, Chile, Malaysia, and South Africa) are represented in this book, together with many OECD countries. This book is the result of the effort and hard work of the contributing authors, many of whom are the National Research Coordinators for the Second IT in Education Study (SITES) conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) for which the data collection took place in 2006. The structure of this book is similar to the previous edition published in 2003 in that it contains both country chapters and summary chapters. The country (or education system) chapters demonstrate the rich variation in policies and strategies on ICT in education around the world. To allow for comparisons across countries, all authors followed an outline consisting of the following main topics: the structure and nature of their educational system; ICT-related policies (illustrated with examples); special issues (such as equal opportunities or problems with sustainability); current trends in policies and practices; and expectations for the future. There are clear differences between countries in economic condition, information technology development, and historical background. In essence, the approach followed resulted in a set of country papers that show a number of commonalities but also reflect the cultural richness and variation.

This is the first book tackling the topic of world suffering. It compiles in one place the ideas, perspectives, and findings of researchers from around the world who pioneered research-based understanding of human suffering. Some chapters use the paradigm of 'quality of life' to explore ways to enhance knowledge on suffering. Other chapters show how concepts and knowledge from suffering research can benefit studies on quality of life. By bringing together in one volume, ideas and research experience from the best minds and leading researchers in the fields of pain, suffering, poverty, deprivation, disability and quality of life (including well-being and happiness), this volume advances social science solutions to a number of major threads of research, most notably suffering. As a whole, the volume advances the fields of suffering and deprivation by suggesting a working typology of suffering and by pointing out the major paradigms for relief of suffering, such as humanitarianism, human rights, caring, and healing. This volume provides a wealth of insights about the interaction between suffering and quality of life, the most up-to-date characterization of worldwide suffering, and a grasp of the implications of these data for local and global policy on health and social well-being.

Although Japanese universities have relied on information technology to resolve numerous problems, their high expectations are undermined by lags in implementing that technology. This innovative edited volume argues that lags in IT implementation in Japanese education are created by contradictory and challenging responses of the social environment. If this dialectic can be visualized as having hands, the right avidly promotes IT, while the left hand simultaneously blocks it. The result, of course, is an impasse. The issues central to this stalemate are significant because they point beyond the schools, to a broader set of problem areas in Japanese society. The contributors to Roadblocks on the Information Highway discover and discuss the contradictions inherent in Japanese society and culture as they are played out in the social contexts of IT service providers, web masters, and classroom teachers who implement IT. They then show how these contradictions indicate broader, structural problems that pervade the dynamic between Japanese education and the state and business sectors. Ultimately, in a reach that goes beyond Japan, this book examines relationships between technology and society, persuasively convincing readers that the modern age has created an inextricable link between the two.

Although Japanese universities have relied on information technology to resolve numerous problems, their high expectations are undermined by lags in implementing that technology. This innovative edited volume argues that lags in IT implementation in Japanese education are created by contradictory and challenging responses of the social environment. If this dialectic can be visualized as having hands, the right avidly promotes IT, while the left hand simultaneously blocks it. The result, of course, is an impasse. The issues central to this stalemate are significant because they point beyond the schools, to a broader set of problem areas in Japanese society. The contributors to Roadblocks on the Information Highway discover and discuss the contradictions inherent in Japanese society and culture as they are played out in the social contexts of IT service providers, web masters, and classroom teachers who implement IT. They then show how these contradictions indicate broader, structural problems that pervade the dynamic between Japanese education and the state and business sectors. Ultimately, in a reach that goes beyond Japan, this book examines relationships between technology and society, persuasively convincing readers that the modern age has created an inextricable link between the two.

This is the first book tackling the topic of world suffering. It compiles in one place the ideas, perspectives, and findings of researchers from around the world who pioneered research-based understanding of human suffering. Some chapters use the paradigm of ‘quality of life’ to explore ways to enhance knowledge on suffering.  Other chapters show how concepts and knowledge from suffering research can benefit studies on quality of life. By bringing together in one volume, ideas and research experience from the best minds and leading researchers in the fields of pain, suffering, poverty, deprivation, disability and quality of life (including well-being and happiness), this volume advances social science solutions to a number of major threads of research, most notably suffering. As a whole, the volume advances the fields of suffering and deprivation by suggesting a working typology of suffering and by pointing out the major paradigms for relief of suffering, such as humanitarianism, human rights, caring, and healing. This volume provides a wealth of insights about the interaction between suffering and quality of life, the most up-to-date characterization of worldwide suffering, and a grasp of the implications of these data for local and global policy on health and social well-being.

Thisbriefs on human suffering adds to human understanding of suffering by contextualizing both stories and statistics on suffering, while showing that suffering adds a useful perspective to contemporary thought and research on quality of life, social well-being, and measures of societal progress. The scholarship on suffering is made more comprehensible in the book by using nine different conceptual frames that have been used for making sense of suffering. The primary focus of this work is with the last frame, the quality of life frame. Overall, this chapters show how the research on quality of life and well-being can be enhanced by embracing human suffering. "

A volume in Research in Educational Policy: Local, National, and Global Perspectives Series Editor Kenneth K. Wong, Brown University This compendium of papers documents educational ICT policies and practices in 37 countries, making it a valuable resource for understanding and comparing ICT-related national policy developments in education. We believe that this work offers a unique in-depth examination of the trends within major education systems and how they have adapted to and taken advantage of the challenges and opportunities posed by the new information and communication technologies. A special feature of this edition is that it allows for interesting comparative analyses of sub-groups of countries, as many Asian, European Union, and former eastern-European countries, as well as the United States and Canada (among others), are included in the book. But it allows also for other than regional comparisons given that a number of newly industrialized countries (such as Brazil, Chile, Malaysia, and South Africa) are represented in this book, together with many OECD countries. This book is the result of the effort and hard work of the contributing authors, many of whom are the National Research Coordinators for the Second IT in Education Study (SITES) conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) for which the data collection took place in 2006. The structure of this book is similar to the previous edition published in 2003 in that it contains both country chapters and summary chapters. The country (or education system) chapters demonstrate the rich variation in policies and strategies on ICT in education around the world. To allow for comparisons across countries, all authors followed an outline consisting of the following main topics: the structure and nature of their educational system; ICT-related policies (illustrated with examples); special issues (such as equal opportunities or problems with sustainability); current trends in policies and practices; and expectations for the future. There are clear differences between countries in economic condition, information technology development, and historical background. In essence, the approach followed resulted in a set of country papers that show a number of commonalities but also reflect the cultural richness and variation.