web.sacmeq.org - Useful links

UNESCO Thesaurus - a controlled and structured list of terms in the fields of education, culture, natural sciences, social and human sciences, communication and information.

Translate text or webpages - Translation using Google's language tools

Wikipedia – Online encyclopedia in several languages (including French, Portuguese and 1000+ articles in Swahili and Afrikaans)

Free software and tools

PDF (see also: What is PDF)

Foxit PDF reader: Small and fast program for opening PDF Files. (less than 2 MB).

Acrobat Reader : Bulkier and slower PDF reader, but with more options for advanced users. Note that this is a large download. (over 27 MB).

PDFCreator : a tool for creating PDF files from any program that is able to print.

File compression / ZIP (see also: What is ZIP)

7-ZIP : a tool for compressing and archiving files. It can open/unpack files with extensions such as ".ZIP" and ".RAR".

Office applications

OpenOffice : Currently the most popular free alternative to Microsoft Office. It can open and save files in Microsoft Office format. The suite includes Writer (similar to Word), Calc (similar to Excel) and Impress (similar to Powerpoint).

AbiWord: a smaller (5 MB) and faster alternative to Microsoft Word and Open Office Writer (which can open/save files in Microsoft Word format).

Gnumeric : another free alternative to Microsoft Excel (which can open/save files in Microsoft Excel format).

Educational software for use in schools

Celestia - A free space simulation that lets you explore the universe in three dimensions. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy.

TuxPaint - A great drawing program for young children, with different brush types and special effects.

Web development

Moodle E-learning Platform - A popular free alternative to Blackboard for creating online courses with opportunities for rich interaction.

NVU - A free web page editor with a graphical user interface similar to FrontPage and Dreamweaver.

Other useful free software

FreeMind – Easy to use mind-mapping software, useful for brainstorming and organizing ideas.

Open Source as Alternative - List of free alternatives to well-known commercial software.

Top 300 list - A top 300 list of useful free software.

A complete list of free and open source software - a more comprehensive list from Wikipedia.

OpenCD - A downloadable CD with a wide selection of high quality, free/open source software. It contains many of the programs listed above, as well as many others.

Health and education

Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) - data on population, health, HIV and nutrition from more than 200 surveys in over 75 countries.

HIV/AIDS Survey Indicators Database - A comprehensive source of information on HIV/AIDS indicators derived from sample surveys. The database allows the user to produce tables for specific countries by select background characteristics, as well as country reports.

UNAIDS Report on the global AIDS epidemic 2006

Journals of education - subscription based

American Educational Research Journal

AIDS Education and Prevention

Advances in Health Sciences Education

Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis

Health Education Research

International Journal of Educational Development

Journal of the Learning Sciences

Journal of Research in Science Teaching

Journal of Teacher Education

Learning & Instruction

Reading and Writing

Review of Educational Research

Science Education

School Effectiveness and School Improvement

Knowledge Bases and resources

Basic Education Coalition Fact Sheets - Fact sheets on Educaton For All, HIV/AIDS and education, early childhood development, and other topics.

Commonwealth of Learning (COL) E-books - Several downloadable books on open and distance learning.

Development Gateway - Development information and knowledge-sharing worldwide. The tools on this website bring together people and organizations around the globe who are working to improve life in developing countries.

Education Week – News and reports on education.

Eldis - Gateway to development information containing 18,000 online full text documents. A free CD can be requested.

IIEP / UNESCO Repositories of Open Educational Resources – Extensive list of websites with free access to educational resources.

Internet Archive - An archive of tens of thousands of books, including books on education, statistics and sampling.

Internet Public Library - Education - A collection of resources on education.

SACMEQ Training Modules - Training modules in "Quantitative Research Methods in Educational Planning".

UNESCO / Sub-Saharan Africa Open and Distance Learning Knowledge Base – An integrated knowledge guide to distance education and open learning.

World Bank Education - Information and links to resources about current issues in education and development around the world.

Organisations

Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) – ADEA is a network of partners promoting the development of effective education policies on African leadership and ownership.

European Union

International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) – The IIEP is a centre for training and research specialized in educational planning and management; its mission is to strengthen the capacity of countries to plan and manage their education systems.

International Labour Organization (ILO) - The International Labour Organization is the UN specialized agency which seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights.

Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) - The OIF is an international organisation of French-speaking countries and governments.

Organisation for Economic and Co-Operation and Development (OECD) - The OECD is an international organisation of those developed countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and a free market economy.

Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ)

United Nations

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. FAO is also a source of knowledge and information.
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)- UNICEF works for children's rights, their survival, development and protection.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - UNDP is the UN's global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life.
United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) - UNIFEM was set up to be an aid to and advocate for women of the developing world - it seeks to give them voice and visibility.
UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization- UNESCO is the United Nations’ specialized agency for education. Since its creation in 1945, it has worked to improve education worldwide through technical advice, standard setting, innovative projects, capacity-building and networking.
UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE) - The IBE's main mission is to act as UNESCO's centre specialized in contents, methods and structure of education. It builds networks to share expertise on curriculum development in all regions of the world and aims to introduce modern approaches in curriculum design and implementation, improve practical skills and promote informed dialogue at regional and international levels.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) - UNEP's mission is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.
United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-HABITAT) - UN-HABITAT is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.
United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) - UNIDO has as its primary objective the promotion and acceleration of industrial development in developing countries and countries with economies in transition.
United Nations Institute For Training and Research (UNITAR) - UNITAR was established with the purpose of enhancing the effectiveness of the United Nations through appropriate training and research.
United Nations Population Funds (UNFPA) - UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.
United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) - UNAIDS is the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. It brings together the efforts and resources of ten UN system organizations to the global AIDS response.
World Health Organization (WHO) - The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health.

USAID - United States Agency for International Development - USAID is the U.S. government organization responsible for foreign aid. An independent federal agency, it receives overall foreign policy guidance from the US Secretary of State.

World Bank Group - The World Bank Group is a group of five international organizations responsible for providing finance and advice to countries for the purposes of economic development and eliminating poverty.

Organisations supporting the use of information and communications technology in education:

Commonwealth of Learning (COL) - The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning/distance education knowledge, resources and technologies. COL is helping developing nations improve access to quality education and training.

Free distribution of refurbished computers for education - list of organisations

International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) – The IICD provides leadership and service to improve teaching and learning by advancing the effective use of technology in education.

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) – ISTE is the largest teacher-based, nonprofit organization in the field of educational technology.

SchoolNet Africa - ICT in Education Resources and Networking

World Links – World Links has as its mission to improve educational outcomes, economic opportunities, and global understanding for youth through the use of information and communications technology and novel approaches to learning. Countries which have participated in World Links projects include Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Uganda.

Reports and Statistics on education

African Statistics on Education

Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report - Every year, the EFA Global Monitoring Report assesses where the world stands on its commitment to provide a basic education to all children, youth and adults by 2015.

Human Development Report (HDR) 2006 Statistics - Access data from the 2006 Human Development Report.

Millenium Development Goals (MDG) Indicators - the MDG Indicators website presents the official data, definitions, methodologies and sources for the 48 indicators to measure progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.

Nation Master - Create graphs, maps, and country rankings for a very broad range of social, economic and cultural statistics.

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) - Global and internationally comparable statistics on education, science, technology, culture and communication.

o Direct link to the UIS Database of Statistics

World Bank Database of Education Statistics - Makes a variety of national and international data sources (such as UIS and OECD) available in one location, and compiles World Bank data on pertinent education topics.

Cross-National Studies in education:

Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) - the successor to the IEA studies that started in 1970 and continued to 1991 with the Reading Literacy Study.

Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) – a three-yearly survey of 15-year-olds in the principal industrialised countries. Data has been collected since 2000.

SACMEQ reports - Reports of the first and second cross-national studies of the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality.

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) – an international assessment of the mathematics and science knowledge of fourth- and eighth-grade students around the world. TIMSS data has been collected since 1995. African countries participating in 2007 are Algeria, Botswana, Djibouti, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, South Africa and Tunesia.

Search directories

ERIC Resource Guides

Yahoo Education Directory

Search engines

Academic Databases and Search Engines – An extensive list (from Wikipedia)

EduTube Educational Videos - Search videos by category, video type and more

ERIC Search - Search the world’s largest digital library of education literature

Google – The world's most popular search engine

Google Scholar – Search scholarly literature

Google Books - Search through the large number of books which are freely downloadable from the Internet. To search only for books for which the entire text is available, select the option 'Full view books".

Google Maps - Find your way around the world

Statistics educational resources

Free Online Book - Elementary Concepts in Statistics

Gapminder statistics - An innovative tool to communicate statistics in visual and animated ways to aid our understanding of them. Currently provides a visualization of the World Development Indicators.

Glossary of Statistical Terms in various languages

Math World - A very extensive reference guide on mathematics and statistics.

Sampling Workbook - An introduction to sampling.

Sample Size Calculator for Simple Random Samples – Calculates Sample Size for a given Confidence Interval or Population, or Confidence Interval for a given Sample Size, Population and Sample Percentage.

Tutorials on statistics and probability - Dozens of statistics tutorials.

Worldmapper - A collection of world maps, where territories have been re-sized according to the subject of interest and the corresponding statistics.

Worldmapper education category