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June 2007 Volume 3, Number 2 |
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IN THIS CREAD MEXICO: SPECIAL REPORT MESSAGES FROM THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS THE CISNEROS FOUNDATION ’S CONTINUING EDUCATION PROGRAM FOR TEACHERS BOOK REVIEW: LORENZO GARCÍA ARETIO CREAD CONFERENCES 2007 |
The activities of the First CREAD Mexico Conference focused on ways to increase competitiveness in small and medium sized businesses (PYMES). In a world that is in constant competition and increasingly globalized, it is vitally important for small and medium-sized producers to become more efficient producers and to sell their products. In regions like the State of Jalisco, Mexico, the proportion of this type of producer is very high, and it has a powerful influence on the local economy. Over a long period the Autonomous University of Guadalajara (UAG), through its Corporate University, directed by Architect José Morales González, has established links with local PYMES, offering them advice and putting them in contact with other institutions in Mexico and other countries. In CREAD we felt that this notable effort deserved to be better known by other members of the Consortium, and that the contacts that the University had cultivated would guarantee a very useful and stimulating conference An important number of the keynotes were retransmitted by the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) of the World Bank, and interactive video conferences were received from other countries. For example, Dr. Rosa Bruno-Jofré, Dean of Education of Queens University, Canada, spoke about the programs at her University, and Dr. María José Rubio, Director of Distance Education at the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, in Ecuador, reported on the programs at her University that promote the development of PYMES. The success of I CREAD Mexico was due to many factors, some of which have already been mentioned. The general rubric was to promote the creation of medium and small businesses and to increase their competitive capacity in the global market. This was a venue for an exchange of experiences and learning from established companies on the part of the smaller ones, to bring efficient solutions to operational aspects in the daily strategies of a company. We were able to benefit from the experience of international experts in interactive dialogs that generated collaborative proposals, and we were able to share information about current trends in global business and the global economy. An important part of the event’s success was that the information was not only theoretical, but also presented in case studies, thus fully satisfying the expectations of the participants.
For higher education in the 21st century, national boundaries no longer exist. While it is true that the more traditional forms of international collaboration including study abroad, joint degree programs, and faculty exchanges will continue, and hopefully prosper, the real frontier is cyberspace with the great potential of forging dynamic international communities of learning, either standing alone, or as an important component of conventional courses. How these new opportunities will be exploited remain to be seen. But some patterns have already crystallized. For example, international e-learning networks will be distinctly uni-lingual and therefore multinational based upon a common tongue. Thus, there are discrete student/teacher communities each populated by speakers of that language only. While English may still obtain as a default mode for in-person gatherings, its potential utility as a global unifying electronic idiom is unnecessary, as the ubiquity of computer based instruction becomes a given. Yet, notwithstanding the above, CREAD in its first decade has amply demonstrated that the most exciting inter-institutional partnerships exist where language and culture overlap. This has been my rewarding experience within our organization, especially at CREAD sponsored conferences and international forums where I am able to meet with and exchange information with diverse colleagues sharing a common goal of promoting access to learning networks. As Vice President for the USA, I am dedicated to this important goal, both personally and professionally. Dr. Paul J. Edelson The Cisneros Foundation’s Continuing Education Program for Teachers (AME) 
The Cisneros Foundation has created the Continuing Education Program for Teachers (AME) to enable teachers to develop social, pedagogic, collaborative and technical competencies in the use of the computer so that, in conjunction with their school and their community, they can make decisions in their own sphere, such as: to improve their judgment about what to teach and when; to influence the development of scholastic goals and policies; to build bridges of communication with the community in the search for quality of life improvement and to increase their level of commitment to the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). AME is based on the use of on-line courses and educational TV series. The courses offered include topics related to subjects, such as the teaching of Reading and Writing, Mathematics, Health and the Environment; values such as Education for Peace and Conflict Resolution, and the teaching of ethical values at school; related to the organization of the school and its interaction with the community such as School Organization and Communication; and related to the Millennial Development Goals, such as Education, Human Development and Overcoming Poverty, the Prevention of HIV/AIDS and the Use of ICTs in the Schools. In the first semester of 2007, AME has registered 256 schools in eleven countries: Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina and Bolivia. The Central University of Venezuela and the Metropolitan University (Caracas) are currently offering courses to 1,405 teachers. In the 2006 session, the teachers gave them an approval rating of about 80%. BOOK REVIEW: LORENZO GARCÍA ARETIO García Aretio, L. (coord.) Ruiz Corbella, M.; Domínguez Fajardo, D. (2007)
Over the last few years, the number of publications on distance education and the inclusion of the information and communication technologies in the teaching-learning process has grown exponentially. There is no doubt that these technologies are radically changing the way we interact in every field of human endeavor. As a logical result, education has not remained unaffected by this reality, which has also opened up possibilities that were not even dreamed of in the past. However, it is obvious that we do not make our activities truly educational merely by using these technologies, nor is there a solution in the technology to the problems of today’s society. Within this explosion of the “technologization” of education, there is virtual education which is a process which is being touted at this time as the only radically innovative proposition. At every scientific meeting, in publications of all kinds, on the Web, etc. we constantly encounter proposals for virtual training as absolutely novel teaching-learning processes. However, in analyzing these designs, we discover that in the majority of these projects there is no theoretical foundation for what is claimed, for how to achieve the planned objectives and how to genuinely evaluate success. They do not know what educational paradigm is being used, and therefore, in the end, they disorient more than they assist in the educational development of individuals and groups. Hence the relevance and opportunity of this book, since it takes up essential topics used for attacks on virtual education: its theoretical, technological and practical focus. But, as the book indicates, before talking about virtual education, we need to understand its conceptual framework: distance education. What does the concept of distance imply? Distance means being far away, separated … in the two key coordinates of any human interaction: space and time. Distance between two subjects separated by geographic coordinates, with a greater or lesser physical distance, and in the time in which this relationship is taking place. Later the participants in this interaction always exist in different places and even, lately, also in different moments in time. Logically speaking, if in an educational activity the teacher and the student(s) do not coincide in time, this also has to imply a separation in space, since this is the key that has defined distance education as opposed to face-to-face education: two educational offerings that could never converge. The communication channels and the resources on which distance education has relied since its beginnings certainly maintained this separation of the space and time, and therefore the interaction between participants was extremely limited. However, it was not obvious how one could carry out education with resources and channels that did not facilitate interaction, and therefore from the start it was considered by many to be a second class education, seeing that it was not capable of supplying interaction and the basic elements of any educational relationship. But what elements brought about the change? Logically speaking, nothing occurs by chance, and to respond to this questions it is necessary to go over three factors that exist in society in inter-related form, which are the true causes of this change of vision:
It is significant that these three factors have changed face-to-face education as well as distance education, since the identification of education is derived from those socially determined spaces and times (schools, universities, academic course, schedules, etc.) environments that for centuries, in an exclusive and excluding manner, have organized every form of education. As soon as this link is broken, undreamed of educational possibilities open up in the emerging virtual environments. For the first time, the authors emphasize, a convergence of different scenarios and paradigms was seen in every educational proposal. And thanks to the possibilities of these technologies, the step from distance education to virtual education became possible. They speak of the same pedagogic structure, but in a virtual learning environment that enables an unprecedented interaction between all the people involved in the instructional process. This break favored the real educational revolution: the disappearance of the sequential teaching-learning process. If sequencing is fundamental to all learning in traditional education, the new learning environments make the interactive educational process and virtual education possible. As the Internet is consolidated and expanded, it is becoming possible to unhook these sources from the constraints of space and time, so that, as a purveyor of informative, educational and communicative resources it can be the basis for a kind of distance education that is coming closer and closer, and available anywhere. Or, as he says, distance education without the distance. This is the success of the Internet as a place for convergence of diverse agents of educational activity. From distance education visualized as a kind of teaching in which instructors and students are in different places, to distance education in which space and time are not seen as limiting, but as factors that are used for every educational plan and that are generating a new pedagogic environment. From distance education seen by many as a kind of compensatory education, to which all those individuals who were unable to access face-to-face classrooms were confined, to distance education as a real alternative, considering the consolidation of designs based on collaborative technologies in the educational sphere, as well as the reality of life-long learning. It is the medium that makes the difference, not the ends that are pursued, and therefore the success of the educational activity in each case consists in knowing how to use the resources and communication channels in accordance with the medium in which one is working, aware that, in any case, one’s main efforts should not be in the application of the technologies, since on their own, so say the authors, they will lead to nothing. In light of this, the book brings a clarifying revision to the question of what distance education is, which elements will define it and which will continue to be required in the current society. In this view, the keys to determining a virtual education, the digital systems by which it is supported, and in which innovation continues, are one of its most emblematic traits. In this new environment, there are the learning communities, articulating the social dynamics of cyberspace. The agents in this process, their functions and tasks, as well as the necessary training that they need. Logically, the contents and learning objectives will give us the keys to the pedagogic resources that are needed, which lead us to new instructional designs. While all this new paradigm demands specific planning and design; therefore each of its phases is explained, as well as essential points that guarantee the success of the proposed objectives. Finally, the keys to evaluation of all processes of digital teaching and learning - without which it would be impossible to advocate for the quality in these new educational environments. Without a doubt, the indiscriminate use of technologies applied to education merely because it is fashionable, will never guarantee success, even though a powerful tool used well by technological experts may produce excellent results on the basis of a particular pedagogical model. That is why we need to redefine the rules of the game when it comes to distance education, investigate its practical possibilities, while redeveloping the theories about this modality in the light of the new ways of communication and interactivity, the only way to ground and foster these new virtual environments of quality education. This is what this book brings us. Hence the relevancy and interest of this work for anyone who wishes to develop teaching of quality. VISIT OF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TO QUEENS UNIVERSITY
From left to right, Dr. Calvin Bowry, Manager, Continuing Teacher Education, Queen’s University; Dr. Rosa Bruno-Jofré, Dean, Faculty of Education, Queen’s University; Dr. Armando Villarroel, Executive Director, CREAD Dr. Rosa Bruno-Jofré, invited the Executive Director to visit her university on April 24th. Queens University is one of the most important universities in Canada and is very interested in making international connections, especially in the field of teacher training. http://www.coursesforteachers.ca/index.shtml INSTITUTIONAL PROFILES UNIVERSIDAD CATÓLICA DE SANTIAGO DE GUAYAQUIL,
The Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil (UCSG), Ecuador, attempts to meet the needs of the country to train s The university authorities, represented by Dr. Michel Doumet Antón, Rector; Eco. Mauro Toscanini Segale, General Vice-Rector; and Lic. Elizabeth Larrea de Granados, Academic Vice-Rector, were the force behind this new educational modality at UCSG, with 45 years of university experience in the face-to-face modality, they welcomed the prospect of education that would use and apply the new communication technologies. The fundamental mission of the Distance Education System, SED, is to democratize education by offering equality of access to greater sectors of the population at undergraduate and graduate levels, through an educational process designed specifically for this modality. Vision To have a structure of excellence and high recognition nationally, effective in training competitive professionals with high-level integral education. Educational Offering To date the educational offering of SED-UCSG consists of : Coverage SED-UCSG is positioned at national level with its Networks of Academic Support Centers and the International Educational TecnoRed, with cybercafes accredited by UCSG, in 18 localities nationally. The educational offering of SED-UCSG is transmitted through a combination of media and will very soon have the two most relevant means of communication, radio and television, see below. RADIO AND TELEVISION: Communication media of the Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil For the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil this is a global project that sees television and radio as educational media and tools that enable novel elements to be inserted into the existing educational system. Thus, for the academic order they signify: The UCSG channel is an “educational and public service channel” whose contract was signed on January 11th, 2007 by the National Council of Radio and Television (CONARTEL), on the UHF wavelength, making it the first channel of this type in Ecuador. UNIVERSITY OF COSTA RICA
Since the year 2006, the Office of the Vice Rector for Instruction at the University of Costa Rica, has had the Support Unit for Instruction Mediated by Information and Communication Technologies, known as the METICS Unit, in its organization. More recently, since the beginning of the 2007 academic year, a cybernetic space has been created to support the teaching body through the information and communication technologies (ICTs): the Virtual Portfolio of Instructional Support Services http://portafoliovirtual.ucr.ac.cr . This portfolio combines a range of virtual services that can be used by instructors, students and other university members to support their teaching and learning processes. Administered by the METICS Unit, the Virtual Portfolio aims to provide the university community with an educational environment that can overcome the limitations of space and time: the services of the portfolio can be accessed from any place at any time. This portfolio offers two platforms for the administration of educational environments, the “UCR Interactive Virtual Campus” and “Virtual Mediation”. Every instructor can choose which environment best responds to his or her academic necessities, on the understanding that both of them can be used for the development of face-to-face, bimodal and virtual courses, as well as other activities. In the UCR Virtual Portfolio there are also Tutorials for students and instructors that offer orientation in the use of Virtual Classrooms and Forums. Other services are: access to programs for the development of multimedia material, links for information search, notice boards, information about the Portfolio, a suggestion box, and academic and pedagogical Q and A. In Stage 2, this Virtual Portfolio will also contain material storage services, Chats and Videoconference. The Virtual Portfolio of Instructional Support Services is, in particular, a tool to enable, expand and strengthen communicative spaces for the instructional tasks of the five Regional Campuses of the university, and especially to facilitate interactivity between these sites. COMMUNICATION PREPARED BY
UNIVERSIDAD ABIERTA PARA ADULTOS
The Open University for Adults, UAPA, located in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, was established in 1995 and over its 12 years of existence has granted 5,095 professional degrees in Psychology, Languages, Business, Law and Education, at undergraduate, and also at graduate level. This institution is organized on a departmental basis that includes Administrative and Academic Areas. It is governed through collegiate organs such as the Board of Directors, the Academic Council and the Advisory Commission and by individual administrators such as the Rector, the Vice Rector, the Directors of Schools and Departments, Institutes and Centers. The current student enrollment of UAPA is 4,885, at three campuses, with a staff of 192 instructors, 85% of whom have a graduate degree. The instructional methodology at UAPA is grounded in the principal of shared responsibility between participants and facilitators. It is active and participative and the learning strategies are based on the activity of the learners. The main teaching medium used to facilitate learning at UAPA is the printed word, which is used with the appropriate guide and the orientation of the Facilitator. In addition, the Internet is used for discussion forums. Since its inception, the university has aimed to promote the learning of its participants through teaching methodologies that use ICT applications. Currently the University has its own educational portal on its own Web platform, supporting distance or virtual programs and the implementation of continuing education on-line courses. To maintain the quality of Higher Distance Education, the UAPA has a professional education program for its instructors, PROFUNDO, which is involved in training opportunities, and the working conditions and remuneration system for its facilitators. It also implements a broad publishing program for text books, course guides, reviews and bulletins in its own publishing house, and periodically conducts self evaluations of programs or even the Institution as a whole. In University Extension the UAPA is conducting a novel Social and Community Assistance Program, named PASC, through which a number of programs are implemented that impact local communities. In the 12 years that it has been in existence it has become a hallmark of quality in higher distance education in the Dominican Republic, and it maintains connections to the most important universities and international associations working in the modality of distance education.
BUENOS AIRES, AUGUST 22 - 24, 2007.
This year’s theme is “Distance Education, Health and the Environment”, and the conference will examine the following topics:
The conference will be hosted by the University Institute of Health Sciences – Héctor Barceló Foundation, together with the Brazilian Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, and Nova Southeastern University, of the USA, as co-organizers. The conference will offer an excellent opportunity for learning and networking for professionals, academics, instructors, institutions, officials, administrators, consultants and experts in health, distance education and telecommunications. The conference has been planned around keynote speakers and panels of invited experts, workshops, round tables and poster presentations. The intensive academic program will be complemented by cultural activities (including tango and Argentine grill) and a tour beautiful Buenos Aires.
Nova Educ@ 2008
Beyond the classroom: The new learning environments This time Nova Educ@ will have three themes. The first one is the information and communication technologies (ICTs); the second the application of the ICTs in the teaching and learning processes of educational institutions, independently of the type of center, level or school grade; and the third theme is distance education. As well as taking part in keynote addresses, round tables and workshops, participants may send a proposal (deadline January 5th) to present at one of the working sessions to be organized, and to be entered for the FISCHLER PRIZE for EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION, which for the first time is to be awarded for the best presentation. For more information, please contact us at (954) 262 8690 or send an email to info-novaeduca@nova.edu We look forward to seeing you at Nova Educ@ 2008 to share our ideas and experiences. Nova Educ@ Organizing Committee
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
PRESENTATION – VENEZUELAN ASSOCIATION OF DISTANCE EDUCATION (AVED) This dual challenge obliges teachers and institutions to take a new role in the use of this modality, which has already become a normal component in the academic activity of the university institutions of our times. This role requires the rational, appropriate and updated use of technological tools in the teaching/learning processes, framed in a pedagogical focus that proposes the innovative construction of knowledge and the collaborative recreation of knowledge; and relies on rigorous research to strengthen the theoretical foundations that support it. All this is directed by the principle of relevance: the relevance that comes from being part of the knowledge society, and that of pursuing the solution to social problems that may come with the broad use of this modality, thereby strengthening the institutional interventions of Higher Education and consolidating it. The panorama of Higher Education around the world reflects the vertiginous growth of institutions founded with a contemporary vision of distance education and characterized by the development of virtual models strongly supported by the intensive use of ICTs. But, in addition, it also reflects the consolidation of distance education initiatives in institutions with face-to-face traditions – which is basically all of them – which coherently employ both modalities for their mutual enrichment. This is undoubtedly related to the development that the Internet has undergone, and the whole complex of technologies that go with it, that are derived from the rapid evolution of computer science and its educational applications. The social impacts that have arisen from this are the reason why today we are talking about the Internet culture … and within that, we can see a growing space for distance education. “It is clear” – says Lorenzo Garcia Aretio - “that at the beginning of the twenty first century the Internet boom is driving dramatic changes in the ways we think of education. The question of how to teach, and how to learn, drives a need for a new theoretical focus nourished by the practice of those who are already immersed in sustained educational activities in digital systems and networks”.* This unavoidable reality is influencing institutions on this side of the world to move quickly, speed up internal processes and share them, so as to pick up the rhythm of these important changes, which are a sign of the times and especially the near future. With this vision, the Academic Vice rector of the UCV, (VRAC), UCLA, UNA, USB, URBE, CREAD and the Venezuelan Association for Distance Education (AVED), have joined forces to prepare the AVED 2008 International Conference, aiming to create a scenario where visions may be contrasted, experiences shared and ways to bridge gaps may be glimpsed, and where we may lead our institutions towards academic horizons that promote the change required for the establishment of internal support systems for the development of quality distance education in institutions with distance education programs, in a spirit of contemporaneity, and based on strategic visions that motivate decisions to invest, to develop features that support decision making, committing ourselves to creating documents that support this aim. Conference Objectives:
Central Themes of the Conference: The Modality
Dr. Lorenzo García Aretio (UNED-Spain), Dr. Manuel Moreno Castañeda (UOG-Mexico) and Prof. Arelis Coromoto Saavedra (UNA-Venezuela).
General Coordination: Dr. Irama F. Garcia V., Ed.D. Contact: Dr. Irama F. García V.,
NINTH INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL EDUCA CONFERENCE
PPRESIDENT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPRESENTATIVE OF NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY ANDEAN REGION (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru) BRAZIL ANGLOPHONE CANADA CARIBBEAN (Antilles, Belice, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela) CENTRAL AMERICA (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama) MEXICO SOUTHERN CONE (Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA LIFETIME HONORARY MEMBER CREAD REGIONAL OFFICES ARGENTINA CANADA The CREAD Electronic Newsletter will be published four times a year, in Spanish, English and Portuguese, in order to provide information about Consortium activities and to pass on professional information of interest. |
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