International Review: Around the Globe

This regular column offers reviews of world wide distance learning developments. There will be reports of international conferences and workshops, news of innovations in technology, and reviews of events, people and institutions connected with open and distance learning practice and theory. The world is a big place, and the success of this column will depend upon your input, wherever you may be reading this journal. Your news, conference reports and reviews of international events will be considered for inclusion in future issues of this journal. Please e-mail your contributions to: swheeler@plymouth.ac.uk.About 80 miles south of the Twin Cities, deep in the Corn Belt, near the Iowa state line lies Mankato, host of the MEMO 99 Conference on educational media and technology. In October, the browns, reds, and golds of the countryside as I passed through, provided me with a wonderful spectacle. My four week visit to this area of the United States gave me the chance to take in the MEMO 99 teaching media conference. Media specialists and educational technologists from across the state gathered to learn more about their specialist field of learning and teaching technology. The theme of the conference was “Media Drives Change,” and as one would expect, a great deal of innovation and forward thinking was in evidence. Several of the conference papers covered practical issues in the classroom, but with an ever increasing richness of distributed school-based learning in Minnesota, many papers and workshops focused on the beneficial aspects of media and technology in the student context.One innovative project presented by two high schools in the Minneapolis area revealed the success in providing 90 tenth grade students with loans of lap tops for a year. Students were able to learn where and when they wished, at home or school, and even on public transport! Results were impressive with improved grades and negligible hardware damage or loss.The key note address by Mike Eisenberg, a professor at Washington State University, was truly inspirational, covering the many applications of information and communication technologies (ICT) to the learning experience. Professor Eisenberg certainly impressed the audience with his fine mix of humour and incisiveness. Many of the 300 plus media specialists and technology coaches returned to their schools and colleges enthused and ready to develop ways of creating and improving effective and exciting learning environments for their students.During my four weeks stay in Minnesota I discovered that the MEMO 99 theme was not just a wishful thought. Media does appear to be creating new opportunities to change the way children are schooled. A tour of some of the K-12 schools in and around the state of Minnesota was an eye opener for this observer from the United Kingdom. An impressive amount of time and resources have contributed toward the development of regional technological infrastructures that enable teachers and students alike to receive timely information wherever they are in the school, through the use of distributed computer and television networking. The ability to share information and media resources between schools is even more impressive, and it is clear that the application of these technologies is considerably improving the lot of school age learners. The involvement of school children of all grades in the creation of media resources and programs for broadcast is creative and pedagogically apt. There are many lessons for European schools to learn from the Minnesota model, which is a clear example of media driving change.The sixth annual European conference on technology supported learning, remarked Frank Jewett (Cal State), is the European counterpart to Educause in the United States. Online Educa is certainly the smaller, but rapidly growing “kid brother,” with over 800 delegates from 35 nations attending the day of workshops and two days of papers. Held in Berlin, the reconstituted capital of unified Germany, this annual gathering is invariably an auspicious one. Held at the end of each year, the weather is crisp and cool, but the welcome is warm and friendly. The heady mix of history and modernity, the distinctive Germanic culture and the obvious cosmopolitan appeal of the city are stirring to the soul. However, in the salubrious setting of one of Germany's best hotels, it is the diversity and range of the Educa conference papers that inspires the most. In this brief report, I will try to encapsulate the key points of the conference, and provide a flavor of the conference program.The use of a great deal of innovative technology was evident, and there were also signs that distance education was maturing through the use of more established technologies. There were several notes of caution, however, about the nature of technology and often the question was asked: how do we overcome peoples’ reluctance to use the technologies for learning? Bandwidth availability was discussed by several papers as an issue still to be tackled, as was the growing consensus that faculty training and development must become a priority in many distance education departments. Copyright concerns were raised, and the notion that change management is a central component of distance education policy was also discussed at length.Key questions emerging from the conference included: What is the nature of knowledge and how can educators mediate it through the use of technology? How can knowledge management and the promotion of learning communities be enhanced through technology? How can developing nations best be supported and helped by the use of distance learning and ICT? The conference concluded that partnerships, between universities and with the corporate sector, nationally and transnationally was the best way forward to encourage shared knowledge, expertise and resources, if we are to witness a truly global move towards effective open and distance learning.A keynote speech by Anthony Jensen of the European Commission DG XXII sponsored Minerva project was well received by the conference. In his presentation he outlined new funding rounds of finance aimed at supporting and funding projects that investigate what is happening in European education practice. There will be a particular emphasis, Mr. Jensen predicted, on how to develop distance education tools, and developing a theoretical framework for the application of ICT in education would be paramount. Mr. Jensen also praised the Socrates programme, which has been instrumental in fostering a culture of transnational collaboration between European educators.An excellent plenary paper presented by Oleg Liber (University of Wales, at Bangor, UK) strongly critiqued the traditional modes of education and championed constructivism and the use of ICT. Mr. Liber claimed that the classrooms prevalent in all levels of education are analogous of the early industrial office spaces, and were in fact designed to prepare students subliminally as members of the “clerical class.” Such environments, he argued, were steeped in the hidden curriculum of ritual and obedience, hierarchical structures, and unnatural groupings. Mr. Liber developed his argument, stressing that times have changed and the traditional approaches to education, where teachers “destroy” the complexity of learning by treating all students as ‘the same’ and ignoring individual differences and variety, are counter productive and do not adequately prepare students for work. Mr. Liber called for a major paradigm shift in education, where students must be seen as unique individuals who should be offered the chance to explore learning materials and create their own meaning. Mr. Liber concluded his presentation by showing that ICT has a vital role to play in education in the future, promoting collaborative learning, and global access to expertise. ICT will enable a merging of work and education, without losing the definition of either, as learning will take place through dialog, situated cognition and in a student centric manner.This keynote presentation, for this reporter at least, was the centrally important message to take home, because it epitomized what so many distance educators are striving for. It was reassuring to hear someone so eloquently verbalize what many educators have been advocating for decades. In this new millennium, it will not only be essential for us as distance educators and policy makers to demonstrate the efficacy of our methods and technologies. It will also be vital that we share knowledge and expertise, and willingly collaborate together to ensure a robust future for distance education throughout the world. Ultimately, it must be the learner who benefits. All else is secondary.