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Sunday, 15 December 2019

"Book Keengwe" regularly sends me what appears to be academic spam emails about computing education

I've not managed to make sense of this one yet. It appears that there really is someone at North Dakota called [Redacted] or [Redacted] Keengwe who does write academic books but I'd be surprised if they're the author of these emails, as they seem pretty spammy. Possibly 'Book Keengwe' is misusing the real person's name and the university name to spam anyone with an academic email address so I've let the university know, though I realise there's probably not much they can do. The emails all come from a Gmail account rather than the UND address, so a little suspicious perhaps.

Because I wasn't initially certain that they were spam I'd replied to a few of them, initially to explain that "I have no competence in this area and assume these emails have been sent in error, Jo", in response to a request about 'Handbook of Research on Online Pedagogical Models for Mathematics Teacher Education' (I think that reply was sent last year).

More recently in November 2019 I replied more tersely "Please do not send these requests to me. I am deleting them unread and have no interest or expertise in this area. I have previously told you this but it seems to have not made a difference." in response to a request about a "Book on Innovations in Non-Traditional Educational Practices - Proposals Due Dec. 1, 2019". I was assured in a reply that would be the last I'd hear of it. Hmm.

At this point I set things up so that anything from this email address would be deleted before coming to my mailbox. This works well on my computer... but annoyingly not on my iPhone, so I spotted another one this morning, reproduced below with the subject 'Equity in Computer Science - Final Call for Chapter Proposals - Due Dec 23, 2019'. This entire blog post (and my contacting the U of N Dakota) is my response to that ;)

I'd also previously contacted my employer's IT helpdesk and JISC (who host academic email addresses) and asked them to stop this spam ('Handbook of Research on Integrating Computer Science and Computational Thinking in K-12 Education') from reaching any other academic address but alas they can't as we've all moved on to Office 365 so Microsoft are now in charge of what's spam. So I'm publishing this blog post in case anyone else is searching for Book Keengwe-related information.

While I do work in computing education I'm an administrator not an academic so unsuitable as an author, and I'm certainly not going to ping out manuscripts to people with no information about how royalties, if any, would be shared. There was a PDF attached with the email but I've deleted it unread in case it was iffy.





Text (names redacted)

CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS
Proposal Submission Deadline: December 23, 2019

Handbook of Research on Equity in Computer Science in P-16 Education

A book edited by: [Redacted], University of North Dakota, USA & [Redacted] Montclair State University, USA.

INTRODUCTION
The growing trend for high-quality computer science (CS) in school curricula has drawn attention in U.S. classrooms. With an increasingly information-based and global society, CS education coupled with computational thinking (CT) has become an integral part of an experience for all students, given that these foundational concepts and skills intersect cross-disciplinarily with a set of mental competencies that are relevant in their daily lives and work. While many agree that these concepts should be taught in schools, there are systematic inequities that exist to prevent students from accessing related CS or CT skills. Therefore, this handbook will highlight relevant issues, perspectives, and challenges in P-16 environments that relate to the inequities that students face in accessing CS or CT and methods for challenging these inequities in hopes to achieve the CSforAll movement.

OBJECTIVE OF THE BOOK
The chapters will highlight the issues, perspectives, and challenges faced in P-16 environments (i.e. gender and racial imbalances of students in CS classes; population of growing CS teachers who are predominantly white and male; what and who are the high-school gate keepers of CS courses; teacher preparation or lack of faculty expertise; professional development programs; and college admission criteria for CS programs). Book will also explore the challenges and policies that are created to limit access, and thus, reinforce systems of power and privilege.

Suggested themes include, but are not limited to the following: CS/CT Definitions—for who/whom is it intended for; CS Standards; CS/CT Access—what are the implications and limitations across P-16; CS courses & AP Testing: Current Numbers; Teacher Preparation in CS: Preservice and Inservice programs; Evaluation and assessment of CS/CT; and Suggestions and strategies for challenging existing notions.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
Potential contributors are invited to submit 1-2 pages chapter proposal (or full chapter draft) outlining the proposed topic and/or issue to be discussed on or December 23, 2019. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by January 5, 2020 about the status of their proposals and will be sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected on or before March 15, 2020. All chapters will undergo double-blind review and returned to authors with suggestions for improvement. Revisions are expected by April 15, 2020. Final Materials are expected by May 1, 2019.

Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document) to:
[Redacted, but name and affiliation used is a real person, but a different non-academic email address is given]

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Edit 15 July 2021

Grrrr. While my laptop sweeps these spam messages straight into the bin my phone doesn't and I spotted another of these coming in yesterday. I replied expressing my irritation at my request to be left in peace being ignored. Below is the redacted text and images in case anyone else is wondering about the messages they're receiving and searches for them.



Call for Chapters: Handbook of Research on Digital-Based Assessment and Innovative Practices in Education. To Propose a chapter for this book, click here:
https://[REDACTED]/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/[REDACTED]

Important Dates:
Chapter Proposals Due: September 30, 2021
Full Chapters Due: February 2, 2021

Also, I need a couple more proposals for this book…

Handbook of Research on Promoting Global Citizenship Education

To Propose a chapter for this book, click here:
https://[REDACTED]/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/[REDACTED]
 

Please share with colleagues who might be interested in contributing to the book project (s).

If you have any questions, contact me

at [REDACTED]
 
[REDACTED]
Professor.


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EDIT 26 August 2021

Gnnnn. Another spam email. This time I'm not bothering to redact names (just the links). I've also forwarded this to University of North Dakota, maybe they can have a word.



-------- Forwarded Message --------

Subject: Chapter Proposals Due August 30/September 30
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2021 12:10:22 -0500
From: book keengwe <editedbook.keengwe@gmail.com>
To: book keengwe <editedbook.keengwe@gmail.com>


Hello,

Please consider submitting a chapter proposal towards my current books to be published by IGI Global Publishers.

 

Chapter Proposals DueAugust 30, 2021

Handbook of Research on Promoting Global Citizenship Education 

To Propose a chapter for this book, click here:

https://[REDACTED]/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/[REDACTED]

 

Chapter Proposals DueSeptember 30, 2021

Handbook of Research on Digital-Based Assessment and Innovative Practices in Education. 
To Propose a chapter for this book, click here:

https://[REDACTED]/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/[REDACTED]

 

Please share with colleagues who might be interested in contributing to the book project (s).

 

Please let me know if you require additional details. 

 

Thanks,

Professor Keengwe

------------------------------------------
Sagini Keengwe, Ph.D.
Professor,
College of Education & Human Development
University of North Dakota
231 Centennial Drive Box 7189
Grand Forks, ND 58202-7189
https://und.edu/directory/jared.keengwe

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Comment policy: I enthusiastically welcome corrections and I entertain polite disagreement ;) Because of the nature of this blog it attracts a LOT - 5 a day at the moment - of spam comments (I write about spam practices,misleading marketing and unevidenced quackery) and so I'm more likely to post a pasted version of your comment, removing any hyperlinks.

Comments written in ALL CAPS LOCK will be deleted and I won't publish any pro-homeopathy comments, that ship has sailed I'm afraid (it's nonsense).