Ei-iE

At the heart of the new instalment of Worlds of Education lies the foundation of an online magazine, creating a dedicated website as a new anchor point for the publication. In a readership survey held about a year ago, a large majority of respondents expressed their wish for a significant on-line presence for the magazine (see graph on opposite page).

And it’s true that making maximal use of the internet for the magazine and its content will immediately increase the impact of our work, and enable us to distribute EI’s views and opinions more widely and easily. The graph below shows the so-called “Viral Lift” to news items published on the current EI Web Portal. The chart describes the impact of social media sharing of news items, which overall received 83% more clicks than otherwise.

Over the coming months, we will create a dedicated, blog-style website for Worlds of Education, interconnected with the other digital and social communication tools we already possess. Moreover, this format will allow us to add a plethora of additional resources: links to materials and documents, audiovisual media, comments and social media sharing will all add value to the content we produce and allow you, our readers, to thoroughly acquaint yourself with the topics we write about.

Moreover, the articles published on this new website will be consolidated into a downloadable and printable PDF document, in order not to exclude those who rely on a paper version or simply would like to read the magazine offline. For those, especially in developing countries, that rely on mobile internet access or use less powerful hardware such as smartphones, a specifically customized version of the new website will be created.

The readership survey has also shown that the magazine is regarded as a reference work, and should contain first-hand quality content. To strengthen this aspect of the magazine further, we are also working on a complete overhaul of the editorial line. As an example, this issue of the magazine has concentrated on the impact of the economic crisis on education and on EI’s response to these challenges.

In a similar fashion, each forthcoming edition will showcase in-depth articles on a theme (such as teacher training, child labour, gender issues, etc.). This will be achieved by balanced long-term planning, distributing coverage over the magazine issues of a four-year period. Such planning will also enable us to deepen the links with the EI regions and you, our affiliates, by highlighting achievements in the areas we cover in the different issues.

The implementation of such a new concept and system and the integration with the existing web portal infrastructure is an intensive process that will require several months’ concerted effort. Thus, this fortieth edition of Worlds of Education marks a transition from the traditional paper magazine to an interactive magazine fit for the challenges and developments of the future.

Many of you gave us good advice and ideas through the readership survey and your accompanying comments and suggestions. We are confident that with this new format we will be able to serve you better and more efficiently. We look forward to welcoming you to the new, feature-packed, and interesting magazine in autumn – if you haven’t yet subscribed to the electronic newsletter, go to http://go.ei-ie.org/subscribe/ now to make sure you receive the announcement!