The February edition of ITDL, the International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, is now online.    It’s a middling issue: nothing startling, nothing un-missable, but worthy enough.

This time there are 4 papers, plus an editorial and another feature/tutorial from Brent Muirhead.

Time Management Strategies for Online Teaching, by Min Shi, Curtis J. Bonk, and Richard J. Magjuka is a roundup of ideas, not a review of research.    It’s not without value, but inevitably familiar to anyone already struggling with such issues.

Emotional Feedback in CAT (Computer Adaptive Testing), by Anastasios A. Economides seems to be arguing that computers should sense/predict what emotion the learner is feeling and respond accordingly.    I can only assume he has never seen Kubrick’s 2001, where the misguided and effectively malevolent Hal sweet-talks the hero to near oblivion, or he might approach the brave new world he offers us with a little less enthusiasm.    Not for the faint-hearted.

Solo and Social Learning in Online Courses: Implications for Information Processing Theory, by Muhammad K. Betz is a bit technical for most tastes; not uninteresting, just a bit too remote to be relevant.

M-Learning - A New Paradigm in Education, by Nitin Upadhyay would be fascinating if you have never come across the concept of mobile learning before.    I have, so it isn’t.    But it’s a useful review: mostly bullet points and hence easy to digest.

Then again, the world is awash with accounts of mlearning.    The recent Australian Flexible Learning Framework report covers much the same ground.    And I see that another online journal, IRRODL, is currently calling for papers on mobile learning for a special issue, due out in December 2006.

Sources:    ITDL February 2006
AFLF on mlearning