by
Steve Wheeler
This regular column offers
reviews of world wide distance learning developments. It will provide 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 in the world 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
.
Conference Report: The World
Conference on Computers in Education - Copenhagen, Denmark. July 30-August 3,
2001.
Wonderful, wonderful
Copenhagen, capital city of Denmark and home to the Little Mermaid, Danish
pastries, blue cheese, canals and a multitude of bicycles, was the host of the
7th IFIP World Conference on Computers in Education. For one week in the summer of 2001, this
one time haunt of the celebrated children's author Hans Christian Andersen
became the gathering place for educational computing specialists from around the
world. The conference was held in
the recently constructed Bella Center, a purpose built exhibition complex
situated on the outskirts of the city.
So new was the venue in fact, that delegates had to be transported in
from the city by public transport as there were no hotels within walking
distance of the hall - they have all still yet to be built. This was one of the few logistical
problems we had to overcome during the week long event. However, this was not such a chore, for
on most days the sun shone and temperatures averaged 75 degrees Fahrenheit. The conference was organised under the
auspices of IFIP (the International Federation of Information Processing), a
UNESCO sponsored international professional organisation. Individuals interested in joining the
organisation are invited to check out the IFIP website at the end of this
column. In this report I shall try
to present a flavour of the whole conference by selecting a few of the more
notable contributions to review.
The Opening
Session
The conference was opened by
the President of IFIP, Peter Bollerslev, accompanied in rather surreal fashion
by three Scottish bagpipers. He
informed the 1200 delegates assembled from 60 countries that they could expect
over 200 papers to be presented during the week. Mr Bollerslev then welcomed the Danish
Minister for Education, Margrethe Vestager onto the platform who welcomed
delegates on behalf of the Danish government. Next to address the conference was the
Deputy Assistant Director General for UNESCO, Aicha Bah Diallo, who inspired
delegates with a vision for education for all, through the use of distributed
technologies and distance education.
As Margrethe Vestager had earlier stated, the future of education will be
reliant upon the key elements of shared knowledge, networking and
collaboration. The world, said
Madame Diallo, was now ready for this approach. A perfect exemplar was later in the same
day presented during the Imfundo project seminar.
Rwanda, Africa: Teacher
Education and the Imfundo Project.
The central African republic
of Rwanda is now emerging from its war torn years and is beginning to seek ways
to rebuild itself as a nation. One
of the key presentations of the WCCE2001 conference highlighted the work
achieved by the Imfundo project and its transformation of the educational system
in Rwanda. One of the key aims of
the project is the educate at least 500 primary school teachers each year in the
10 educational centers opened by the funding. Training for the teachers will last one
year, but because there is a genuine need to keep teachers near to the schools
(there is such a shortage of teachers), there are plans to deliver this training
via the Internet. Prior to Imfundo,
teachers in Rwanda received only 5 days formalised training.
Australia: Agent
Technologies
Dr Carolyn Dowling from the
Australian Catholic University, a member of the 90 strong Australian delegation,
gave a fascinating paper presentation on agent technologies and the electronic
classroom. Her main focus was a
discussion on the difference between human teachers and computer agents. She showed that after the teacher and
the student, the third element in the social construction of knowledge is the
computer software. Dr Dowling
argued that computer agents have been designed to emulate the tutor as an
instructor, and suggested that future developments should reflect the attributes
of the learner. Dowling concluded
her presentation by posing some important questions. For example, can we design computer
agents that can 'learn' in the same manner that humans can, and would they be
able to develop their own 'personalities' - sense of style, diction and tone of
voice that are as responsive to student needs as human teachers are? Are computer agents able to substitute
for human teachers, and are they able to offer an added value to the traditional
role of teachers?
Australia: Social Presence
in Online Learning
Another Australian academic,
Dr Elizabeth Stacey, from Deakin University provided the conference with a
stirring presentation about social presence in online learning
environments. Stacey argued that
social presence is not about facial expressions, gestures and tone of voice, but
rather about overcoming the difficulties presented by the absence of these
communication facets when communicating electronically. Dr Stacey defined social presence as
'the degree to which participants project themselves effectively within a
particular medium'. Research has
shown that the better the social presence, the more effective the learning
outcomes will be, and students will generally participate in more social
activities, sharing more cognitive content between members of the group. Motivation is increased, she argued,
causing students to adopt greater responsibility and accountability towards each
other. The teacher's role in the
process, she concluded, is to encourage students to concentrate on creating
social presence, through a range of exercises such as self-disclosure through
writing about oneself and one's family for example.
Denmark: Communities of
Practice
Aalborg University's Hakon
Tolsby presented a paper on how to design virtual environments for communities
of practice. Drawing upon Wenger's
theory of Communities of Practice (1999) Tolsby showed how virtual environments
can be extremely isolating and not the best settings within which to foster
collaborative learning. A way to
avoid this pitfall, argued Tolsby, would be to encourage shared repertoires
between participants, where negotiated meaning is a central component. Tolsby espouses the use of the shared
portfolio as the most effective tool for participative activities in virtual
environments, ensuring that students have the best opportunities to negotiate
meaning and share ideas across electronic communication
systems.
United States and Japan: A
Remote Collaboration in Real Time
It was 17.00 hours local
time in Copenhagen, 10.00 in Kentucky, USA, and midnight in Toyama, Japan when
the event started. Tom Lough of
Murray State University, KY, allowed students in the United States and Japan to
take control of local software, screens and telemetry to help each other to move
radio controlled Lego around a maze.
One commentator suggested that this was like watching NASA control
vehicles on Mars - the same principles were involved, but the young students who
controlled the robots used simple pc computers, Lego toys, and software that is
freely downloadable from the Internet.
This demonstration of application sharing, video conferencing and remote
control of equipment has strong implications for tele-learning and in particular
remote real time control of surgical instruments. Medicine may never be the same
again!
Other papers, panel
discussions and demonstrations throughout the conference were as diverse as the
countries the delegates represented.
Papers covered various aspects of school and university based computer
use, including technical, organisational, pedagogical, social, economic and
psychological considerations.
However, at the heart of most papers was the central concern of how to
improve the learning experiences for children and adults using information and
communications technologies.
Distance education was well represented with at least 4 themed paper and
topic sessions dedicated to its research, theory and
practice.
The Keynote
Presentations
A total of 8 keynote
presentations ensured that there was something for everyone who attended the
Copenhagen conference. On the final
day, an inspirational presentation by Scott Welsh, the chief evangelist for
Centrinity, left the delegates wondering about the arguments for more
bandwidth. Welsh argued that
bandwidth is not the essential problem - software is the answer to the
bottle-neck problems most of us experience when trying to communicate over the
Internet. Welsh demonstrated the
next generation of First Class conferencing software and stunned the audience by
showing rapid real-time communication on normal bandwidth between Copenhagen and
the United States. Welsh concluded
by outlining his vision for online learning in the future - driven by high
quality, high speed software solutions.
On the Thursday of the
conference, Hans Appel, Chief Technology Officer of Sun Microsystems gave a
keynote presentation on the power of knowledge, with the intriguing subtitle of
'The Disappearing Internet'. His
real intention by using this title was to demonstrate that the tools we
currently use for communication and information are rapidly going to become more
invisible. Computers, claimed
Appel, are going to become more ubiquitous, but less apparent. In the same way the telephone has
penetrated our psyche, we will be able to use the computer and the Internet
without thinking about them, and without knowing how the software really
works. Appel also made a prediction
that the Web will soon be split into 6 separate interconnected webs. These will be the pocket communicator
web, the entertainment web, the e-business web, the voice activated web, the
pervasive computing web and the 'traditional' web. The personal web will be used for
connecting mobile phones and DPAs, and is completely portable. The entertainment web will be used for
video gaming, story telling, and other on demand entertainment. The e-business web will form the
backbone for consumers and businesses in the market place. The voice activated web will understand
what we are saying and respond in an intelligent way to our needs. The pervasive computing web is a web of
machines communicating to each other so that our demands are met speedily. Hans Appel concluded by predicting that
we will be preparing our children for a world of work in which each employee is
an entrepreneur in a networked worldwide community. It will be a society where the power of
human imagination and knowledge or intellectual capital will be crucial for the
constant development of society and the individual.
Mike Couzins, Managing
Director for Corporate Communications and Training at Cisco brought his own
particular vision to the conference.
He asked us to imagine 200,000 students attending one learning
session. This is what the Cisco
Networking Academy program is delivering every day, in over 6,700 educational
institutions worldwide. Cisco
provides continual updates via the Internet, to meet the most demanding training
requirements of today's computer industry.
Final
Thoughts
The 7th world
Conference on Computers in Education was extremely successful for a number of
reasons. Throughout the event,
delegates were continually kept appraised of the times and venues for the many
papers and seminars, last minute changes in the program, special events and
social program, special demonstrations, workshops and professional group
meetings through a free daily news bulletin supplied by the local organising
committee. Several of the IFIP
technical committee working groups, including 3.6 (Distance Education) met for
their annual general meetings throughout the week long conference. A cyber café supplied by Sun
Microsystems enabled delegates to keep in touch with events at home and
abroad. Throughout, the conference
was organised well, and delegates were generally very happy. If there is one complaint, it is the
same complaint that can be justifiably levelled at all large conferences. There is never enough time to see
everything, or attend every session one wishes to see.
Copenhagen will be
remembered for its warm welcome, even warmer sunshine, and spectacular
harborside views. Old Copenhagen
was a great experience, the Tivoli Gardens were a wonderful sight when lit up at
night, and for those who had the time to stroll during the few hours of free
time, the Royal Palace and other ancient buildings were a pleasant
diversion. The reception in the
city's town hall on the first evening, where the mayor greeted us all in
faultless English, was a great time for delegates to get to know each other and
sample the culinary delights of Denmark.
Delegates were sent away enthused and motivated - with the prospect of
returning for the next WCCE conference in Cape Town, South Africa in 2004. Some delegates are probably already
saving up for the trip!
Useful IFIP
websites:
ˇ Information Technology for our Times: Ideas, Research and Application in an Inclusive World: Montreal, Canada, 25-30 August 2002.
ˇ
Website for IFIP
Working Group 3.6 on Distance Education
Steve
Wheeler