Since 2004, the government of South Africa has issued a number of white papers calling for the development of a national e-education strategy. A recent study published in this journal (Mooketsi & Chigona, 2014) suggests that the current e-education strategy is not working for many communities in South Africa. This paper presents an alternative e-education strategy for South Africa known as the DREAMs plan (Digital Resources for Education And Mobility). The DREAMs plan proposes the following three conjectures. First, offline platforms are more important than online platforms for building a sustainable SA e-education strategy. Second, mobile technologies are more important than non-mobile technologies for building a sustainable SA e-education strategy. Third, sideloading cultures are more important than downloading cultures for building a sustainable SA e-education strategy. The paper finishes with some final thoughts on the place of dreaming and dreamers in the wider development agenda.

Background Restricted and repetitive behaviours vary greatly across the autism spectrum, and although not all are problematic some can cause distress and interfere with learning and social opportunities. We have, alongside parents, developed a parent group based intervention for families of young children with autism, which aims to offer support to parents and carers; helping them to recognise, understand and learn how to respond to their child’s challenging restricted repetitive behaviours. Methods The study is a clinical and cost-effectiveness, multi-site randomised controlled trial of the Managing Repetitive Behaviours (MRB) parent group intervention versus a psychoeducation parent group Learning About Autism (LAA) (n = 250; 125 intervention/125 psychoeducation; ~ 83/site) for parents of young children aged 3–9 years 11 months with a diagnosis of autism. All analyses will be done under intention-to-treat principle. The primary outcome at 24 weeks will use generalised estimating equation (GEE) to compare proportion of children with improved RRB between the MRB group and the LAA group. The GEE model will account for the clustering of children by parent groups using exchangeable working correlation. All secondary outcomes will be analysed in a similar way using appropriate distribution and link function. The economic evaluation will be conducted from the perspective of both NHS costs and family access to local community services. A ‘within trial’ cost-effectiveness analysis with results reported as the incremental cost per additional child achieving at least the target improvement in CGI-I scale at 24 weeks. Discussion This is an efficacy trial to investigate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a parent group based intervention designed to help parents understand and manage their child’s challenging RRB. If found to be effective, this intervention has the potential to improve the well-being of children and their families, reduce parental stress, greatly enhance community participation and potential for learning, and improve longer-term outcomes. Trial registration Trial ID: ISRCTN15550611 Date registered: 07/08/2018. Sponsor and Monitor: Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust R&D Manager Lyndsey Dixon, Address: St Nicholas Hospital, Jubliee Road, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 3XT, lyndsey.dixon@cntw.nhs.uk, Tel: 0191 246 7222

Background: Restricted and repetitive behaviours vary greatly across the autism spectrum, and although not all are problematic some can cause distress and interfere with learning and social opportunities. We have, alongside parents, developed a parent group based intervention for families of young children with autism, which aims to offer support to parents and carers; helping them to recognise, understand and learn how to respond to their child’s challenging restricted repetitive behaviours.Methods: The study is a clinical and cost effectiveness, multi-site randomised controlled trial of the Managing Repetitive Behaviours (MRB) parent group intervention versus a psychoeducation parent group Learning about Autism (LAA) (n=250; 125 intervention/125 psychoeducation; ~83/site) for parents of young children aged 3-9 years 11 months with a diagnosis of autism. All analyses will be done under intention-to-treat principle. The primary outcome at 24 weeks will use Generalised Estimating Equation (GEE) to compare proportion of children with improved RRB between the MRB group and the LAA group. The GEE model will account for the clustering of children by parent groups using exchangeable working correlation. All secondary outcomes will be analysed in a similar way using appropriate distribution and link function.The economic evaluation will be conducted from the perspective of both NHS costs, and family access to local community services. A ‘within trial’ cost-effectiveness analysis with results reported as the incremental cost per additional child achieving at least the target improvement in CGI-I scale at 24 weeks.DiscussionThis is an efficacy trial to investigate the clinical and cost effectiveness of a parent group based intervention designed to help parents understand and manage their child’s challenging RRB. If found to be effective this intervention has the potential to improve the well-being of children and their families, reduce parental stress, greatly enhance community participation and potential for learning, and improve longer-term outcomes.Trial Registration: Trial ID: ISRCTN15550611 Date registered: 07/08/2018URL: https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN15550611

This paper outlines some challenges for the Web Observatory vision with reference to field notes from a student exchange and research collaboration in December 2013 between the University of Southampton, Tsinghua University and KAIST. These field notes outline a methodological narrative of the practical challenges that we faced in using the Web Observatory in collaborative research. It is suggested that these challenges particularly come in the form of technical, organizational and legal issues. The paper concludes with some proposals for the future of the Web Observatory vision.