Interactive Multimedia Electronic Journal of Computer-Enhanced Learning

• Sender: owner-newjour@ccat.sas.upenn.edu

Subject: Interactive Multimedia Electronic Journal of Computer-Enhanced Learning
Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 19:29:39 -0400 (EDT)

Interactive Multimedia Electronic Journal of Computer-Enhanced Learning

http://imej.wfu.edu/

IMEJ is a prototype for an interactive multimedia electronic journal
edited and produced at Wake Forest University.  

The goals of IMEJ are 

                             
	* to provide a peer-reviewed forum for innovations in
	  computer-enhanced learning,  
        * to serve as a model and testbed for an electronic journal with a
	  high level of multimedia and interactivity, and 
        * to advance the acceptance of electronic publication as a
	  legitimate and valuable form of academic discourse. 
                        
As a leader in computer-enhanced learning, Wake Forest University is an
ideal setting for the production of IMEJ. In the fall of 1996, Wake
Forest's Project 2000 set in motion a new computer initiative which places
a personal laptop computer into the hands of every student and faculty
member. Dorms, offices, and classrooms have been wired with network
connections. The challenge before us now is to live and learn with
technology. We see our leadership role as carrying with it a certain
responsibility to use the computer for the right reasons in education --
not simply because it is there, not simply because technology is "in"  in
these turn-of-the-millennium years -- but because the computer can
sometimes, in some applications, truly enhance the learning environment.
What is needed is careful objectivity and intellectual honesty about our
supposed teaching innovations, imposed through a description and
presentation of our new approaches, informed and tempered by peer-review. 
Our intention is that IMEJ help move us in this direction.

Computer-enhanced learning is an ideal subject for IMEJ. The articles in
IMEJ will be about effective uses of technology in any and all disciplines
within higher education. Authors will describe how they use computers in
their teaching, making a computer-based presentation natural and direct. 
With the topic of computer-enhanced learning as its base, IMEJ can then
serve as a model and testbed for the kind of journal which must inevitably
take its place in the new world of publication -- an electronic journal in
which articles are dynamic, engage the reader interactively with
simulations and experimentation, allow communication with the author, and
offer sound and motion along with traditional text. In designing and
creating IMEJ, we hope to bring to light the unique or difficult issues
that must be dealt with in the production of a journal such as this,
sharing our solutions and conclusions.

There is no doubt that journals are going on-line, and that the
intellectual rigor of carefully-crafted writing elucidated with images,
sound, interactivity, and non-linear hyperlinked organization can lead us
to a new and rich kind of communication.  Electronic journals will
eventually be legitimized in the academic world, but not until they
combine proper peer review with technical expertise in production. By
holding ourselves to high editorial and production standards, we would
like to advance the acceptance of IMEJ-type publications as a valuable
form of academic discourse. 

Contact:

imej@wfu.edu

Online content is free through Open Access.