Greetings Dear readers of TOJDE, TOJDE is appeared on your screen now as Volume 9, Number: 4. This is the fourth and the last issue of the year 2008. In this issue it is published two notes for Editor, 13 articles, 2 reviews. And this time, 23 authors from seven different countries are placed. These published articles are from Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, USA and Turkey. “Ubiquitous, Free, And Efficient Online Collaboration Tools For Teaching And Learning” has sent to editor of TOJDE from USA and written by Jace HARGIS and S. Michelle WILCOX. Their paper provides an overview of free, online tools that make collaboration effective, efficient, and engaging. Each tool is available world-wide wherever there is access to the internet. These tools help create a more collaborative environment because they allow for voice, video, text, simultaneous editing, and immediate feedback. Professional presentations, instructional activities, meetings, and preparing manuscripts or other collaborative documents can all be developed in collaborative online meetings using Skype, Google tools including Talk, Chat, Calendar, Docs, and Notebooks, and Second Life. These may also be used to enhance education in distance learning or on campus classes. The features, functionality, and intuitive ease of use promote collaborative efforts, increasing the effective and efficient use of time while decreasing costs. Hyperlinks are provided for tools so users can determine technology specifications, download necessary files, learn more about their capabilities, and locate help or support information. “SYNCHRONOUS MEETINGS: A Way to Put Personality in an Online Class” is second paper for “Notes for Editor” section of TOJDE’s this issue. I it written by Barba Aldis PATTON from School of Education and Human Development, University of Houston-Victoria, Texas, USA. She mentions in her paper that synchronous meetings provide both professor and student the advantages of face to face (traditional) class meetings while in reality they can be many miles apart. With today’s lifestyle it is not always possible for students to attend classes on a physical campus in a specific city at a specific time. The use of synchronous meetings allow the online classes to be supplemented with online office sessions, study sessions, special instruction, brain storming get togethers, collaborations, etc. According to her it seems that everyone is concerned about confidentially. Synchronous meetings allow both professor and student to meet and all personal information such as cell phone number, home phone and personal address are not known unless someone wants to divulge such information. A few simple rules, which are included in the article, can and will help to make all meetings more success for all. The first article of this issue is coming from TURKEY, from Anadolu which is written by Serkan GUNAL on “Automated Categorization Scheme for Digital Libraries In Distance Learning: A Pattern Recognition Approach”. His article connects the digital libraries play a crucial role in distance learning. Nowadays, they are one of the fundamental information sources for the students enrolled in this learning system. These libraries contain huge amount of instructional data (ex: text, audio and video) offered by the distance learning program. Organization of the digital libraries is therefore very important for easy and fast access to the desired information. Since manual categorization of huge amount of data might be challenging, an automatic and reliable method is needed. In this sense, this paper proposes an automated categorization scheme for digital libraries in distance learning. The Second article is “Development of Igbo Language E-Learning System”, written by Oyelami, Olufemi MOSES, from Covenant University, Ota, NIGERIA. According to Olufemi MOSES E-Learning involves using a variety of computer and networking technologies to access training materials. The United Nations report, quoted in one of the Nigerian dailies towards the end of year 2006, says that most of the minor languages in the world would be extinct by the year 2050. African languages are currently suffering from discard by the original speakers of the languages as parents prefer to communicate with their children in English language or other languages rather than in their mother tongues. Although, there are Web-basedlanguage learning systems, this paper presents a standalone Igbo language learning system that enables prospective learners to learn the rudiments of the language at their convenience especially where there is limited or no Internet connectivity in order to arrest the extinction that looms over the language. The third and fourth articles are from Turkey. The third one is on “Effects of Computer Simulations Programs n University Students’ Achievements in Physics”, written by Dr. Celal BAYRAK, Hacettepe University, Faculty of Education Department of Physics Education, Ankara-TURKEY. The aim of his research is to investigated whether computer assisted instruction was more effective than face-to-face instruction in increasing student success in physics.Findings revealed that the experimental group which had the instruction through the computer simulation was more successful than the control group who had face-to-face instruction. The 4th articles arrived from Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Education Ankara, TURKEY on “Turkish High School Students’ Considerations, Expectations and Awareness on Distance Education” and written by Yavuz INAL, Turkan KARAKUS and Kursat CAGILTAY. They tried to investigate the quality of distance education has been improving by technological developments, experiences of educators or experts and feedbacks of learners. In order to improve the quality issues in distance education, considerations of target audiences are gaining importance to understand their considerations that might be clue for developers. Therefore, the purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate Results of the study showed that students identified distance education with e-learning. Also, although students had technological competencies which are critical factors for e-learning applications, they did not prefer taking their university education with distance education program because of their habits on traditional nature of classrooms. However, they had huge tendency in terms of taking one of their courses via Internet. The fifth article came from Open University Malaysia, MALAYSIA and written by Santhi RAGHAVAN and P. Rajesh KUMAR. It is titled as The Need For Participation In Open And Distance Education: The Open University Malaysia Experience. Their paper provides an overview of adult learner participation in open and distance education by focusing participation needs based on selected socio-demographic variables such as age, years of working experience and monthly income. The study showed that adult learners are generally below the age of 39, relatively not affluent, have less than 20 years of work experience and have a high need for participation. These results are comparable to the findings of previous research on the role of age, work experience and monthly income as factors determining participation in adult higher education. The sixth article which is entitled as “Strategic Intervention of ODL In Diploma In Youth Development Works in Bangladesh”, sent and written by A. Q. M. Bazlur RASHID and M. S. Alam SARKER, from Bangladesh Open University, BANGLADESH. They mentioned in their paper that Diploma in Youth Development Work (DYDW) imparted through distance mode which was introduced at Bangladesh Open University (BOU) in 1999 aiming at accessible and flexible learning opportunities to the young men and women involved in youth development activities and prepare the participating youth towards performing active and constructive role in the regeneration of their fellow youth to become effective partners in socio-economic development. The program feature and success and failure of the enrolled students have been discussed. Rural and urban, male and female, government and non-government, and gender issues were considered in the study for the enrolled students. The drop out rate is very high and increasing day by day. The reasons of high dropout rate might be due to language difficulty, lack of proper recommendation in high competitive job opportunities, lack of service incentives, financial support, scholarship/fellowship and recognition as cadre service by the Government. Service incentives to the diploma graduates have been suggested to reduce the attrition rate. The seventh article is came from King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals Dhahran, KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA on “Effectiveness of Multimedia in Learning & Teaching Data Structures Online”, written by Sahalu JUNAIDU. According to JUNAIDU Online electronic education is now being widely accepted as a major viable component of higher education. This is fuelled by the emergence of worldwide information and computer communications technologies. However, online education is not being adopted in science and engineering subjects as widely as in other fields because of the idiosyncrasies of some science and engineering-based courses. This paper explores and reports on the importance of creating multimedia-rich course content and the important role that animations can play in creating a successful online learning experience. Results of the study on an online data structures course over five years offerings show that students consistently perform much better in questions requiring application of material taught in carefully animated algorithms. These results should carry over to other educational environments. The 8th article is arrived to us from Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, INDIA, written by Manoj KILLEDAR. The article is entitled as Effectiveness Of Learning Process Using “Web Technology” In The Distance Learning System. His paper presents Web is expected to have a strong impact on almost every aspect of how we learn. ‘Total Quality’ is the totality of features, as perceived by the customers of the product or service. Totality of features includes stated as well as implied needs and expectations of all types of customers. No quality improvement is possible without its unambiguous measurement. But, ‘Total Quality’ of the learning experience in ‘Open and Distance Education System’ cannot be measured unless it is expressed in measurable clear terms which include complete spectrum of student support and educational services. Next and the ninth article is written by Behiye AKCAY, Istanbul University, TURKEY. The paper is entitled as “The Relationship Between Technology and Ethics; From Society To Schools”. Her study purpose is to discuss the ethical issues in education in terms of teachers, students, schools, and software companies. Recent growth of the internet and World Wide Web allows new developments in the way instructors transfer knowledge to their students. Technology is a new tool in education that constantly changes and offers new opportunities for teaching and learning. Even so, old habits are hard to change. Typically, the effects of technology are complex, hard to estimate accurately and likely to have different values for different people at different times. Its effects depend upon people’s decisions about development and use. The tenth article is also from NIGERIA again and written by Azeta A. A., from Covenant University. Paper is titled as “A Multi-Channel Approach For Collaborative Web-Based Learning”. The describes an architectural framework and a prototype implementation of a web-based multi-channel e-Learning application that allows students, lecturers and the research communities to collaborate irrespective of the communication device a user is carrying. The application was developed based on the concept of ‘right once run on any browser’ for different range of devices including WAP Phones, Laptop/Personal Computer(PC), Pocket PC and Personal Digital Assistants(PDAs), on a three tier architecture – the client tier, web server tier and database tier. The eleventh article arrived from Ankara, TURKEY, which is titled as “Use Of A Content Management System For Blended Learning: Perceptions of Pre-Service Teachers”, written by Arif ALTUN, Yasemin GULBAHAR and Orçun MADRAN. This study presents the development, implementation and evaluation phases of a content management system to be used in higher education settings in a blended learning environment. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, it is aimed to observe how pre-service teacher trainees interacted within the system when they are given the tool to organize their own communities of learning. Secondly, what are their perceptions of using the system? 65 university students voluntarily participated in this qualitative study. The data was gathered through server statistics, personal interviews, and an open-ended questionnaire. The analyses included descriptive statistics for quantitative and content analysis for the qualitative data. The findings indicate that participants embraced the notion of forming and being part of a learning community, were willing to participate in using the system in their courses, and suggested some improvements for better use of the system. Next article is which numbered as 12, from TURKEY. Article is entitled as “Preferences on Internet Based Learning Environments in Student-Centered Education”, written by Zuhal CUBUKCU, from Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Faculty of Education Deparment of educational Sciences, Eskisehir. Her paper presented determining teacher candidates’ preferences regarding internet-based learning environments in student-centered education by involving the teacher candidates enrolled at Osmangazi University, Faculty of Education, Primary School Teaching, Mathematics Teaching and Computer and Educational Technologies Education programmes. This study is a descriptive study. The data collection scale consists of the “Constructivist Internet-based Education of Science Scale (CILES-S)”. The last article is again from Osmangazi University, Eskisehir, Turkey . It is titled as Open Primary Education School Students’ Opinions About Mathematics Television Programmes and written by Kursat YENILMEZ. The purpose of his study was to determine open primary education school students’ opinions about mathematics television programmes and indicated that to determine differences among open primary education school students’ opinions about mathematics television programmes point of view students’ characteristics like gender, age, grade, frequency of watching mathematics television programmes and living place. The first reivew about Strategic Applications of Distance Learning Technologies, edited bySyed, M. R. The paradigm shifts in distance education practices stemming from rapid developments in technology are exemplified with interesting and effective distance learning applications supported by relevant emerging technologies. In addition, the use of these emerging technologies to overcome the boundaries of real time interactivity in distance learning to a certain extent is exemplified through inspiring strategies. Finally, implementations provided within the source guide distance education practitioners to minimize the time and distance separation between the learners, educators and facilitators. Readers will be able to locate relevant information through checking specific headings and abstracts all of which are organized effectively. In this respect, the book might also serve as a premium reference source to be used whenever and wherever it is necessary to ameliorate current distance education practices. The second review is on the book which is about Reading Statistics And Research, written by Schuyler W. Huck. A thorough reading of the source will make the researchers quite selective in appreciating the harmony between the data analysis, results and discussion sections of typical journal articles. If interested, beginning researchers might begin with this book to grasp the basics of research statistics, and prop up their critical research reading skills with some statistics package applications through the help of Dr. Andy Field’s book, Discovering Statistics using SPSS (second edition) published by Sage in 2005. In the other sections are again in the same format as usual as TOJDE’s presenting style. News and some announcements are placed in this issue too.Dear readers, you can reach us online either directly at http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr or by visiting Anadolu University homepage at http://www.anadolu.edu.tr from English version, clicking on Scientific Research button and than go to the Referred Journals. To receive further information and to send your recommendations and remarks, or to submit articles for consideration, please contact TOJDE Secretariat at the below address or e-mail us to tojde@anadolu.edu.tr Hope to stay in touch and meeting in our next Issue, 1st of January 2009 Cordially,Prof. Dr. Ugur Demiray Editor-in-Chief Anadolu University Yunusemre Campus 26470-Eskisehir TURKEY Tel: +90 222 335 0581 ext. 2521 or Direct: +90 222 ... GSM: +90 542 232 21 167 Fax: +90 222 320 4520 or Emails: udemiray@anadolu.edu.tr or ugdemiray@hotmail.comURL: http://home.anadolu.edu.tr/~udemiray URL: http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr