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September 2007 Volume 3, Number 3 |
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IN THIS ISSUE
XI CREAD MERCOSUR/SUL 2007 CONGRESS CREAD CONFERENCES 2008 |
The Ninth CREAD MERCOSUR / SUL CONGRESS-2007, on Distance Education, Health and the Environment, which was held from August 22 - 24 of this year, in the City of Buenos Aires, was organized by the University Institute of Health Sciences (IUCS) – Faculty of Medicine - H. A. Barceló Foundation of the Republic of Argentina, the Inter-American Distance Education Consortium (CREAD), Nova Southeastern University, USA, and Fiocruz – the Osvaldo Cruz Foundation of Brazil. The Congress took place in a unique location: the Palacio Paz, a traditional building located in one of the most characteristic areas of Buenos Aires, its elegant and spacious rooms serving as an elegant framework for this outstanding event. Constructed at the end of the Nineteenth Century in the purest French style by Parisian architects, this splendid estate, which currently belongs to the Argentine Military Circle, has superbly equipped accommodations which contributed to the successful outcome. The program was attended by a large audience, with delegates from different countries in Latin America, USA and Canada, as well as European countries, including Spain and Portugal. Attendees participated in a program of academic activities, such as workshops, round tables and plenary sessions, in addition to which they had the opportunity to take part in various extra curricular activities such as visits to cultural centers, a tango workshop, a class on Argentine wines, etc.
In the Academic and Scientific program, as shown on the Conference web site at (www.fundacionbarcelo.edu.ar/cread), presentations were given on distance education topics: there were more than 100 presentations, papers, and scientific posters; in addition there were a number of keynote addresses, workshops, round tables and meetings of experts, some of which were given in real time but at a distance, by means of multi-directional satellite connections, with Nova Southeastern University in the United States and with university centers in the interior of Argentina.
Dean Silvagni said that “distance technologies are being used more and more for training the students of Nova Southeastern University; and they are also being used for connections to remote Health Centers in the State of Florida, so that working professionals can update their knowledge or ask specific questions.” At the congress we shared these experiences and learnt about similar ones in Latin America and the Caribbean. Dr. Rosa Borrell and Lic. Judith Sullivan of the Pan-American Health Organization wished to emphasize the technical characteristics of the first virtual course for leaders in Human Resources in Health, which was held from January to June, 2007, in the city of Buenos Aires and other regions in Argentina. They were also very pleased about the success of the Congress. WORKSHOPS
Remarks by Dr. Durán: “I was a participant at this important meeting for academics and professionals in Latin American education, which was organized in Buenos Aires by CREAD and Nova Southeastern University. I consider this meeting to have been very useful for people who are just taking their first steps in distance education, but it has also been very helpful for those of us who have been working in this area for some time, since it gave us the opportunity to discuss strategies, problems, methodological focus and solutions in a stimulating and open environment, expertly guided by Professors Armando Villarroel and José Silvio. With such a variety in the students, there were many points of view as to how this useful workshop should be conducted; but speaking personally, it seemed to me that it hit the target, since the structure of the face-to-face classes combined with the distance follow-up will satisfy those who were expecting a more structured course. Perhaps this aspect could be explained more precisely next time this course is offered.” “Workshop on Quality Standards for Higher Distance Education”, by Dr. Armando Villarroel (CREAD) and Dr. María José Rubio Gómez (Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Ecuador) “Workshop on the Characteristics and Use of E-learning Platforms”, by Lic. Norma Carosio (Argentina) and Prof. Luiz Valter Brand Gomes (Brazil) “Workshop on Distance Education in Public Health. A distance course using the EAD/ENSP Fiocruz model”, by Prof. Elomar Castilho Barilli and Prof. Lúcia Dupret (Brazil) PAHO Panel: “The Virtual Public Health Campus and its strategic educational offering”
“The development of the Virtual Campus in Public Health is particularly relevant in the American región, since it will help us to bring appropriate and updated information to the most remote places in the continent, in addition to creating an area of virtual interaction with all the Health teams.” With regard to the distance courses which are to be taught, he said “it is of the greatest importance that those who act as tutors in those courses should be the same professionals who have created the content”. At the end of this Panel Dr. José Antonio Pages (PAHO), who acted as moderator, chose to “congratulate all the participants in the panel. We believe that Virtual Campuses and Distance Education will be extremely useful in the world struggle for Public Health in which PAHO and OMS are engaged. The latest global reports indicate that the health situation regarding infectious diseases is serious, and demands an effort in which these technological instruments will be of the greatest utility.” Leadership Experiences: “Distance Education, Health and Social Development”
Dr. Blois was the moderator of this activity, in which Dr. J. Mutzig, Dr. J. Castro, and Dr. D. Tupa were the specialists. Along with the others, she also underlined “the importance of the family support programs and the training of social workers by the Brazilian Ministry of Development, and the distance training courses on the use of medicines, given by the Argentinean Ministry of Health.” Panel: “ Distance Education and Rural Health”
Dr. Howell, Department Head, and Dr. Bart Whitehead, Assistant Dean of Student & Administrative Services, of the College of Osteopathic Medicine of Nova Southeastern University gave a presentation on “Advances in Rural Medicine and the use of Technology in the Education and Training of Doctors in the United States”. Dr. James Howell remarked that: “this Congress focuses on the reasons why we appreciate the innovation, dedication and creativity of Distance Educational Technology and consider its applications in the Health Areas. I would especially like to mention its use in the field of rural medicine in the USA. Consider that 61 million people live in rural areas in the USA, which is 20% of the total population of the country, and that only 9% of doctors are located in rural areas. This alone shows the power of distance technology for these professionals to be able to interact with the nation’s great medical centers”. Dr. Howell concluded that: “we are living through a Revolution in Communications, and there is no doubt that this technology is going to play a huge role in this change and the improvement of the quality of life and the health of thousands of millions of people”. Table of Experts: “Distance Education, Quality and Accreditation. The processes of Globalization and Quality in Distance Education”
Dr. Graciela Perona (Argentina), emphsized “that it is very difficult to operationalize systems to measure quality.” Prof. María José Rubio (Ecuador), responded that “although quality is difficult to measure, we can create systems to accomplish this. In Ecuador and other places we have implemented both simple and complex systems to measure quality, that can give us action steps that can help us for the future.” Maestro Manuel Moreno Castañeda (Mexico) remarked that “it is important to measure quality and we must keep moving forward on this question. However, I would say that one of the problems is that organizations that are involved in this often disagree on what evaluation guidelines to use, and they rely on different criteria”. In addition – speaking of traditional versus Distance Education – he added that “the essence of education is based on the personal capability of the teacher: a good teacher will be excellent in a face-to-face situation, but even better at a distance, while the opposite will be true of a bad teacher: he will teach badly in the classroom, but even worse at a distance”. Prof Dr. Héctor A. Barceló, Round Table Chair (Argentina) offered the following summary: “the topic of Quality in Distance Education is of the highest importance and should be intensively studied and improved, not only for what it represents intrinsically, but also because we have to remember that accreditation mechanisms and organizations will be increasingly focused on this as time goes by. It is not only a necessity for postmodern society but also a commitment that we must make as educators.”
We have a new paradigm, thanks to a new definition of learning objects in which “Learning objects are elements of a new type of computer-based instruction grounded in the object-oriented paradigm of computer science. Object-orientation highly values the creation of components (called “objects”) that can be reused in multiple contexts. This is the fundamental idea behind learning objects: instructional designers can build small (relative to the size of an entire course) instructional components that can be reused a number of times in different learning contexts.” (Wiley, 2000, p. 3) 1 However, if we refine this concept, it may well represent a profound modification of the models of traditional education. Let us think of a new definition; let us say that a learning object is the smallest expression of a concept or an idea; indivisible, unique and identifiable by means of unique questions and answers. For example, a word, a phrase, a date, a part, an alternative, etc. Instead of taking a whole “lesson” as our object, the objects are merely the parts of this lesson that one wishes to, or has to, retain. Each object can be identified by means of questions (direct response, multiple choice, fill in the blank, etc.); in this way the objects may be monitored and followed by the CPU individually. We can test these objects and repeat them automatically. In addition, these repetitions can be required after longer and longer periods to assist in long-term retention. This definition of learning objects would enable us to maximize the efficiency of time needed for study; the learner would spend more time repeating and studying what he does not know, or what is harder for him to remember, without wasting time reviewing what has already been learned or what he already knows. If all the activities performed by the learner were registered in a database accessible through the Internet, the instructor would have an “X-ray” of the cognitive process of each student. Which lesson is he studying? Which objects within this lesson? How many? When? For how long? How many correct answers? Which have been repeated most often? It would be very easy for the instructor, virtual or face-to-face, to be able to help the student with his individual difficulties, before they lead to academic failure. The platform would enable the lessons and learning objects to be loaded in the order in which they appear in the syllabus. Thus a book of “tasks” would be generated, corresponding to the classes. Finally, and here is the new twist in the paradigm, let us assume that the instructors use this collection of tasks to pre-train their students before they come to class; then they would have groups of students who were cognitively much more homogeneous and would surely have a higher level of class participation. In other words, the behaviorist/constructivist/collaborative steps in the learning process would be much more spontaneous. We believe that this new model of pre-training students, which in essence is very similar to the study model used in most postgraduate courses, would enable us to shorten the duration of primary, secondary or tertiary courses, or enable them to cover more content in the same time period. Online Educational Solutions has an open platform to load content onto this model; it also has an application for teachers of English that can perfectly support all the above. 1. Wiley, D. A., II. (2000). Connecting learning objects to instructional design theory: A definition, a metaphor, and a taxonomy. INSTITUTIONAL MEMBER PROFILES National Open University/ Universidad Nacional Abierta (UNA) of Venezuela Thirty years ago, in the face of growing and pressing social needs, a decision was taken to pursue educational strategies for post-secondary education that were both novel and more appropriate, which resulted in the decree of September 27th, 1977, signed by the President of that time, Carlos Andrés Pérez and countersigned by the Minister of Education (E) José Luís Salcedo Bastardo. This memorable date is now thirty years ago. Thus was born the National Open University, a higher education institution intended to train professionals in priority areas of national development through distance education based on modern means of communication. The main site of the National Open University is in Caracas, but its radius of activity reaches the entire Venezuelan territory by means of twenty one Local Centers (located in the state capitals), fifty two Support Offices and a considerable number of Registration and Testing Centers. Its educational activity is based on the fundamental principle of academic freedom, carried out through teaching, research and university extension; with these activities the university guarantees free expression in the dissemination of thought and artistic, humanistic, scientific and technical production and creation. The National Open University facilitates entry to the student who decides to resume a course of study but who, for particular reasons, “feels that life is taking him or her further and further away from the classroom and class schedules”. This adult in need of lifelong learning requires means other than the traditional ones to achieve his or her learning goals. In this sense, UNA’s distinction is to be an institution of higher education that promotes the education of adults throughout the country. UNA’s educational mission is the responsibility of a body of directors represented by a University Council and an Executive Council. The former is responsible for developing policies and rules that govern the activities of the University. The latter executes these directives and directs all institutional processes. The governing body of the National Open University is constituted as follows:
To date 27,300 professionals have graduated from UNA, including six cohorts of specialists in Basic Education; 42 cohorts of people with bachelors’ and engineering degrees and thirteen cohorts of people with postgraduate degrees. Programs offered are:
UNIVERSIDAD LOS ÁNGELES DE CHIMBOTE-PERU PERU
The University of Los Ángeles de Chimbote (ULADECH-PERÚ) is an autonomous non-profit organization, part of the University of Peru, founded on June 10th, 1985 and institutionalized in 1998, which has been working closely with the National Assembly of Vice-Chancellors, the vice-chancellors’ association of the University System of Peru. The Rector of the University is Ing. Dr. Julio B. Domínguez Granda, whose broad academic experience has made it possible to position ULADECH as one of the fastest growing and most successful universities in Peru. For this purpose, the following actions have been taken:
Our university is committed to the work of social sensitivization, mobilization and transformation, seeking self-realization as a corporate body and, to further the strong humanist beliefs of ULADECH, we have been integrating the inter-curricular themes of formative research, university social responsibility and spiritual life in our professional curricula, elements that not only contribute to the training of creative and competitive professionals, but add an important humanist outlook. In the last few years, ULADECH has experienced a growth in quality which has also resulted in an increase in the number of students who are opting for our education. As a result of this process and our commitment to offering a better education based on Christian humanism, we have begun the process of becoming a CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY, since we find this paradigm to be an appropriate instrument to respond to the new demands and problems of the world in which we live. We are a university community, a family that is firm in its identity, strong in its faith and is animated by students and teachers who in awareness of their mission, are responding to the growth of a higher culture and a fuller realization of their human nature.
PROFILE OF INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF CREAD
Dialogue Between Nations Natalie Drache is an independent producer and author of Dialogue Between Nations (DBN), an online educational resource reflecting the perspectives of Indigenous leaders and independent experts in the international arena. The focus is on current issues relevant to the mandated themes discussed at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the newly adopted United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Ms. Drache was a Script Supervisor for more than twenty years in the Hollywood motion picture industry and her credits include the Academy Award winning film, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. At a public broadcasting workshop prior to a distance learning conference at Penn State University in the mid 90’s, she ventured across the hall into a seminar hosted by IBM about Virtual Universities. This experience led to a profound shift in her vision of communications, and subsequently, she enrolled in the University of British Columbia’s Post-Graduate Certificate Program in Technology-Based Distributed Learning under the mentorship of Dr. Tony Bates and his faculty. She has been an individual member of CREAD for nearly a decade and has presented Dialogue Between Nations in plenary sessions and workshops throughout the Americas as well as showcasing thematic content in multimedia installations at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec and at the Universal Forum of Cultures in Barcelona. Ms. Drache has acquired an audiovisual archive documenting the presence of Indigenous representatives at UN Summits and related events since 1991. With a view to making this content available to the general public in outreach programs, she is seeking support for the development of a Digital DBN Collection and the design of sustainable content management and learning management systems, for inclusion of DBN content in memory of the world archives, museums and human rights libraries. We invite you to be in the dialogue! Elluminate Sponsors Dialogue Between Nations at United Nations Summit: Live eLearning Environment Facilitates Showcasing of Proposed Virtual Permanent Forum for Indigenous Peoples – Tunisia, 2005 (Press Release) Indigenous Peoples, Lifelong Learning and the Millennium Development Goals: Proposal for a Virtual Permanent Forum Open Learning Community - CADE 2005 DBN Net Community DBN Regional Gateway Demonstration Site (North Africa) DBN Roll Call of Nations Virtual Educa - New Technologies in the Information Society: Education in the Age of Globalization Slide Presentation (contains various links of importance in the Americas) Research Paper International Indigenous ICT Task Force (IITF) Indigenous Portal United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (English, Spanish and French)
Nova Educ@ 2008
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ASOCIACIÓN VENEZOLANA DE EDUCACIÓN A DISTANCIA AVED 2008
PRESENTATION – VENEZUELAN ASSOCIATION OF DISTANCE EDUCATION (AVED)
Central Themes of the Conference:
Dr. Lorenzo García Aretio (UNED-Spain): “Virtual Environments and Attitudes”
General Coordination: Dr. Irama F. Garcia V., Ed.D.
II CREAD ANDES CONGRESS “THE NEW CHALLENGES FACING DISTANCE EDUCATION IN LATIN-AMERICA AND THE QUESTION OF QUALITY”April 21 – 23, 2008 NINTH INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL EDUCA CONFERENCE
FIRST INTERNATIONAL DISTANCE EDUCATION CONGRESS OF THE FUNDAÇÃO OSWALDO CRUZ Ministry of Health October 5 – 9, 2008 INFORMATION: divulgacao@ead.fiocruz.br
I CREAD AMÉRICA CENTRAL Conference Secretary gvargas@uned.ac.cr
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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