TAD Consortium February 2000 Information Update 2
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CONTENTS
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PROFILED ORGANIZATIONS
--- NGONet Africa
--- Information Communication Technology (ICT) Association of
Mongolia
ONLINE RESOURCES
--- New Resources Available On The Southern African Global Distance
Education Network Site
--- Women And Human Rights Website Launched - South Africa
--- Mental Athletics Programme website
--- Electronic Commerce: Issues For The South
--- POLITECH: the moderated mailing list of politics and
technology.
--- Cinema: How Are Hollywood Films Made?
--- Optimistic Online Education Study
ARTICLES
--- Predictions – Steven W. Gilbert, President, The TLT Group
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PROFILED ORGANIZATIONS
(This component of the TAD Consortium Newsletter kindly sponsored by Times Media Limited – www.tml.co.za)
NGONet Africa
(Advocacy and Support for Information and Communications Technology for African Development)
Innovations and advances in information and communication technology (ICT) appears to have left the Africa continent behind with only a few African countries participating in ICT based economic and national development efforts. This imbalance in access to information and technology can only at best increase the gap between wealthy nations in the North and their poorer Southern counterparts, and will impede the move towards democratic governance as well as economic and sustainable development in Sub Sahara Africa.
NGONet Africa is an African-led information sharing and dissemination initiative for African civil society organizations. The initiative seeks to engage civil society organizations in Africa i.e. non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community based organizations (CBOs) in advocacy and the promotion of awareness towards broad based stakeholder (public, private and civil society organizations) engagement in the promotion of ICT for African development.
This initiative seeks to:
i. Improve the capacity of non-profit organizations in Africa to share, access and use information available on the Internet and ICT for their own growth, planning, project development and collaboration with other stakeholders in the development community in Africa.
ii. Provide a global electronic forum for the dissemination of the activities of African NGOs to the wider society of partners in African development.
iii. Build the capacity of, and engage African NGOs/CBOs in advocacy towards effective deregulation, marketization and liberalization of information and telecommunications in support of African development. Advocacy would target decision makers in African public and private sector, international private sector partners in the region and other development partners in the promotion of the use of ICT for African development.
iv. Promote integration and cooperation among civil society organizations in Africa for effective use of ICTs for African development.
Emphasis will be placed on the role of NGOs in the promotion of the use of ICT in support of democracy and good governance, health and population, education, environment, community development and private sector participation in the development of ICT based enterprise in Africa.
Members and Partners
NGONet Africa is a network of organizations and research institutions/groups involved in ICT and African development. Members of NGONet Africa are civil society organizations i.e. NGOs, CBOs, research groups/units and educational institutions in Africa. Members may be individual NGOs/CBOs or sub-regional network of NGOs/CBOs engaged in advocacy and operations for African development. International and other NGOs working in or for Africa may also be members of the network.
For broad based stakeholder engagement in the process of advocacy and participatory dialogue on ICT for African development, private and public sector actors, including development and multilateral agencies, in ICT in Africa will participate in the activities of NGONet Africa as Partners.
Activities of NGONet Africa
NGONet Africa will undertake the following:
i. Identify and address regulatory/legal issues in the development of ICT as a tool for African development
ii. Provide subsidized Internet access to participating NGOs by the establishment of strategically located multi-purpose tele-centers in participating countries
iii. Represent NGO/CBO concerns and issues in ICT for African development at regional and international fora
iv. Harness, disseminate the capacity building potential, and build capacity when required (education, access to development information and ICT infrastructure, quality web content design etc.) of NGOs to effectively advocate to African governments, and their private sector partners, the benefits of innovations in ICT for their own development
v. Publication of a compendium of African civil society organizations and groups, including a web based African Regional directory of these organizations. This publication will include an abstract of reports, papers and presentations at various African regional and global meetings on African development.
Operations
NGONet Africa will be operated as a virtual network. Country level activities of the network will be based on a regional structure. Focal persons/organizations will be identified in each participating country in the region and a coordinating organization identified for each region. Management of the network and operational structures will evolve from membership, and will recognize existing regional and national networks of NGOs/CBOs. It will also explore partnership with global initiatives to network NGOs/CBOs for development. A number of persons in various countries have expressed an interest in serving as focal persons for the consultative process of country level identification of NGOs/CBOs. Sub-regional coordinators would be identified through consultation, as the programs and activities of NGONet Africa evolve.
West African Region: NGO Net-Africa (Western) Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Mali, Benin, Senegal
Southern African Region: NGONet African (Southern) South Africa, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zanzibar, Zambia
Eastern African Region: NGONet Africa (Eastern) Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania
Central African region: NGONet Africa (Central) Yet to be identified.
Northern African Region: NGONet Africa (North) Yet to be identified
NGONet Africa will seek partnership with, and support from, the private sector and development agencies in Africa.
Commencement
NGONet Africa was conceived at the African Computing and Telecommunications Summit (25th - 27th August,1999) organized by the African Information Technology, Exhibitions and Conferences (AITEC) in Cambridge, United Kingdom. A planning group of Africans involved in ICT development was constituted for NGONet Africa at the First African Development Forum (ADF) 99 organized by the Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa Ethiopia (24th - 28th October 1999). Members of this group include Dr. Lola Dare (Nigeria), Noel Yavo (Ivory Coast), Shola Taylor (Nigeria), Eric Yankah (Ghana), Felleng Molusi (South Africa), and Prof. Adebayo Sanni (Nigeria). A more formal Steering Committee would be elected to reflect broad representation of member NGOs.
The inaugural meeting of the planning group was held on the 26th of October 1999. Members of the planning committee were present at this meeting. Also present at this meeting were the Minister of Communications of Malawi, His Excellency Clement Stanbuli and his Deputy Post Master General Mr. E.E. Mahuka.
At this meeting, the planning group identified CHESTRAD International (Nigeria) as the interim Coordinating Secretariat of NGONet Africa. The group also accepted the offer from WoYaa to provide technical support. WoYaa will support NGONet-Africa by the provision of suitable electronic media to promote and disseminate activities of NGONet-Africa and its member organizations. The Minister of Communications from Malawi offered to provide a fully functional secretariat for NGONet-Africa. This offer will be considered when more formal structures are in place for NGONet-Africa.
Interest
The following organizations have indicated desire to be members of, and/or partner with NGONet Africa:
Members (Civil Society Organizations)
1. CHESTRAD International – Nigeria
2. African Telecom Think Tank - United Kingdom
3. Information Technology and Communication Unit, Obafemi Awolowo University – Nigeria
4. SANGONet - South Africa
5. WANGONet - West Africa
6. Partners for Internet in Education – Ghana
7. National Center for Technology Management – Nigeria
8. Development Policy Center – Nigeria
8. Groupe Afrique Conscience et Solidarite – Benin
9. African Foundation for Development - United Kingdom
10. 2 BI-SN – Senegal
11. Zanzibar International Film Festival – Zanzibar
12. NGO Coordinating Committee – Zambia
13. Computer Literacy Project (CLP)At the recently concluded African Development Forum (ADF 99) organized and hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), over 40 participating non-governmental and community based organizations made a firm commitment to set up a civil society network in ICT for African development.
Partners (Public Sector, Private Sector, Other Actors in African Development)
1. WoYaa/Digital Africa
2. GIIC-Africa
3. Alliance for African Business
4. Ministry of Communications, Malawi
Contact Information
If you desire to be a member of, partner with, support or require more information on NGONet-Africa please contact:
Dr. Lola Dare, CHESTRAD International, 29, Aare Avenue, New Bodija Estate, UIPO Box 21633, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Tel: + 234 2 810 2401, Fax: + 234 2810 2405, email: chestrad@yahoo.com
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I have a pleasure briefly introducing the work the Information Communication Technology (ICT) Association of Mongolia carries out:
Mongolia's first ever "ICT Vision 2010" strategic document was adopted last June at the National ICT Summit meeting. Based on the principles of developing an open and fair society that promotes dynamic and sustainable development with accessible and flexible information infrastructure the participants of the summit meeting unanimously agreed on the following three directions of action:
- Government - Legislation framework which encourages an infrastructure for societal development and making information accessible to the public;
- Business-Economy framework which facilitates creating business environment which integrated efficiently with the world's economy, creating knowledge-based industries and enhancing the quality of domestic products improving their competitiveness;
- People-society framework which promotes the citizens communicate freely among themselves and with the world community regardless of location that facilitates improving the quality of living and provide equal and active participation in the global village.
ICT Association of Mongolia is a non-profit and non-governmental organization of voluntarily united individuals, organizations and companies who are working in the area of information communication technologies that contributing to the establishment of an electronic democracy by spreading an information culture.
The Association was established on 18 March 1999.
ICT involves broader environment of PC development, communications, networking facilities, software, database and processing, data/information collection, processing, storing, dissemination as well as training packages.
The Association strives for developing information communication technologies in Mongolia, promoting and coordinating cooperation amongst the institutions working in this particular field as well as supporting the activities aimed at providing social intellectual needs and creating favorable environment for further progress.
The ICT Association of Mongolia highly supports the GKII Conference themes: Access, Empowerment and Governance which are critical for Mongolia's current economic transition period which has prioritized ICT as one of the country's driving force for further development. Universal access policies and tools for effective information sharing, empowering individuals and nations to improve their economic and social lives with regard to knowledge/information economy as well as exploring the best ways for more efficient, transparent and participatory forms of governance at local and central policy levels are so essential for developing countries in general and for Mongolia in particular.
Sincerely yours,
N.Tuya
President
ICT Association of Mongolia
Buyanjargal Yondon
Executive Director
ICT Association of Mongolia
buyanjargal@magicnet.mn
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ONLINE RESOURCES
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NEW RESOURCES AVAILABLE ON THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN GLOBAL DISTANCE EDUCATION NETWORK SITE
The following resources from Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa have been integrated into the site and are now available online - www.saide.org.za/worldbank/Default.htm:
Botswana (4 papers)
http://www.saide.org.za/worldbank/Management/benefits/m43abot.htm
Dr. I.S. Lusunzi (1998) The Tutor and Quality Assurance in Distance Education
Malawi (3 papers)
http://www.saide.org.za/worldbank/Management/Teaching/m32amal.htm
Aggrey Memorial College (1999) Aggrey Memorial College (Tuition
by Correspondence) Prospectus
Zimbabwe (8 papers)
http://www.saide.org.za/worldbank/Management/Governance/m11azim.htm
Division of Research and Evaluation Department of Manpower
Planning and Development Ministry of (1996) A Survey of Distance Education Programmes in
Zimbabwe: 1996
South Africa (18 papers from the NADEOSA conference)
The first National Conference of the National Association of Distance Education Organizations of South Africa (NADEOSA) was held from 11 to 13 August 1999. The conference theme was "The Quest for Implementing Quality in Distance Education" with sub-themes: Higher and Further Education; Courseware Design, Development & Technology; Learner Support & Financial Implications; Quality Assurance & (South African Qualifications Authority); Collaboration & Competition; Policy & Practice; and Education & Training.
The Conference was honoured to have Professor Dato’ Raj Dhanarajan, President of the Commonwealth of Learning, Shona Butterfield, Chief Executive at the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, and Sam Isaacs of the South African Qualifications Authority as the guest speakers.
We have created an archive of papers presented as the conference at http://www.saide.org.za/nadeosa/conference.htm, and have started to integrate these as external hyperlinks in the Southern African Global Distance Education network site. The following papers, most of which are from or about South Africa, are therefore now also part of the site (contributions from other countries will be integrated into the appropriate country contents page:
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Taken from The MEDIA BEAT (compiled by The Communication Initiative http://www.comminit.com)
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Women And Human Rights Website Launched - South Africa
Saartjie - January 19, 2000 - by Ronda Naidu
Women's Net together with the European Union Foundation for Human Rights (EUFHR), on Wednesday launched a Women and Human Rights website under Women's Net. "We are trying to make women aware of local and international conventions which protect their rights." http://www.saartjie.co.za/jan2000/website19.htm
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Taken from LearningWire #85
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Warmly recommended by a TrainingZone member is the Mental Athletics Programme website which aims to help users develop their creativity and learn about innovation. Plenty to do here to develop your own mental abilities: http://freespace.virgin.net/david.weeks5/map/
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ELECTRONIC COMMERCE: ISSUES FOR THE SOUTH
This paper aims to assist Third World countries to understand, assess, assimiliate and use electronic commerce, while protecting their basic interests. It explains the main concepts of the Internet and e-commerce, questions of technology transfer and standards, and relevant issues for the South before the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Available from: South Centre, 17 chemin du Champ d'Anier, CP 228, CH-1211 Geneva 19, Switzerland, fax =41-22/798 8531, email south@southcentre.org website http://www.southcentre.org (GoBetween - United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service)
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POLITECH is the moderated mailing list of politics and technology.
To subscribe: send a message to majordomo@vorlon.mit.edu with this text:
subscribe politech
More information is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/
If you would like to know more about the POLIECH list, then please contact Mr. Declan McCullagh at declan@well.com
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Taken from Network Nuggets
Cinema: How Are Hollywood Films Made?
Media teachers can use this site to give their students an overview of five critical ingredients in the creative process of making a film. They'll learn about screen writing, directing, producing, acting, and editing through reading the web articles describing what really happens in these stages of film making. There are two activities in which students can become more engaged - they can compose a short dialogue for a scene and learn more about how a producer budgets for the film. Glossaries of terminology are also included.
This site would be useful as an introduction to film making in a media studies course and could serve as a springboard for a teacher's own designed project and activities. Working through this site will give students a better understanding of how the film making process is intended to work and that will help to prepare to develop their own short film projects, for example. The site also has a collection of related links which would allow the teacher to develop extension activities. CLN's History of Film Theme Page at http://www.cln.org/themes/history_film.html might also be useful in that regard.
Cinema: How Are Hollywood Films Made? is hosted by Annenberg/CPB Multimedia Collection and is suitable for Media students in grades 8-12. It is located at http://www.learner.org/exhibits/cinema/index.html
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Taken from NETWORKING 4:2, Copyright 2000, the Node Learning Technologies Network
OPTIMISTIC ONLINE EDUCATION STUDY
Professors at the University of Illinois http://www.uillinois.edu have released the results of one year's study, discussion and evaluation of online education. The sixteen tenured professors, half of them online learning enthusiasts and the other half skeptics or fence-sitters, formed the Teaching at an Internet Distance Seminar http://www.vpaa.uillinois.edu/tid/ in 1998 "to study the pedagogy of online learning, to examine what made teaching to be good teaching, whether in the classroom or online, and to suggest how online teaching and learning can be done with high quality at the University of Illinois."
During the 1998/99 year, the group held seminars, discussions and retreats to debate the meaning and merits of online pedagogy. Invited speakers brought positive and negative perspectives to the table: guests included Andrew Feenberg, Professor of Philosophy at San Diego State University and an early innovator -- indeed, a father -- of the field of online learning; Linda Harasim, Professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University and leader of the TeleLearning Networks of Centres of Excellence and the Virtual-U project; and David Noble, Professor of History at York University and the author of the Digital Diploma Mills series of papers.
In their report, available online at http://www.vpaa.uillinois.edu/tid/report/, the group concludes that online education can be viable, practical and pedagogically sound, but they caution that this is only true if certain conditions are understood and met by both faculty and administrators:
*The communication and sense of community in traditional education is an important part of the university experience -- especially for undergraduate students -- that is difficult to replicate online. Online educators must strive to compensate for the lack of the human element in online teaching.
*Online education must be undertaken in order to achieve quality, not efficiency. It is both time- and labour-intensive, requiring a higher investment and a lower student:teacher ratio than classroom teaching.
*The quality of online education is very much dependent on faculty members' having creative control of course development and ownership of the resulting intellectual property. Administrators are urged to beware outsourcing, especially to commercial interests.
This report is interesting as much for the glimpse it offers into the values and views of a group of established academics as for their conclusions about online pedagogy per se. It's a reality check for readers -- one that may frustrate those more convinced of the potential benefits of new technologies to teaching and student learning, but one necessary to an understanding of why technological change is not embraced more easily and widely within university teaching.
In "What Ever Happened to Instructional Technology?" William Geoghegan (1994) argues that "one of the most basic reasons underlying the limited use of instructional technology is our failure to recognize and deal with the social and psychological dimensions of technological innovation and diffusion: the constellations of academic and professional goals, interests, and needs, technology interests, patterns of work, sources of support, social networks, etc., that play a determining role in faculty willingness to adopt and utilize technology in the classroom." The University of Illinois report reflects some of these goals, interests and patterns of work as the professors grapple with the changes bundled with online teaching.
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ARTICLES
Steven W. Gilbert, President, The TLT Group
What follows are twenty predictions about teaching, learning, and technology -- based on the implications of the preceding observations. Most of these predictions are about how things will continue to change. Of course, major new discoveries or social upheavals are impossible to predict, and even the consequences of currently significant new technologies may bring surprises in the next few years. Who knows what shape the Internet will have in 2005? Who knows what the next "big thing" after the Web might be?
1. The Safest Prediction
In the next decade at least one major new trend in the educational use of information technology will NOT have been predicted by anyone highly respected in fields closely related to education or technology. Technology can change quickly and unpredictably, even if human nature cannot.
2. Accelerating Accumulation of Knowledge; Wisdom, Selectivity, and Guidance
The accumulation of information and knowledge will continue to accelerate. Respect and reward for conveyed wisdom, knowledgeable selectivity, and thoughtful guidance will grow. People will pay a premium for services that pre-sift information; i.e., for the privilege of NOT receiving so much information or communication. Learners with good information tools at home or in school will become less dependent on teachers for access to information; but more dependent on them for perspective, interpretation, analysis, motivation, and direction.
3. No "Moore's Law" for Learning
No "Moore's Law" for learning will emerge. No new application of technology, no new educational approach will double the speed of human learning. More combinations of technology and pedagogy will be developed and both the speed and effectiveness of education in many fields will increase significantly, but not dramatically.
4. Variety of Educational Needs, Abilities, Goals, Programs, and Institutions
Teachers, learners, and other human beings will continue to have a remarkable range of educational needs, abilities, and goals. The variety of educational programs and institutions in the United States will increase, even as consolidation continues in closely related industries (e.g., publishing, communications media).
5. New Technology Applications Enhance Traditional Courses
New applications of technology, that appear to offer the potential for improving teaching and learning, will continue to arrive at an accelerating pace; but the dominant model for using technology in higher education will continue to be the enhancement of traditional classroom-based courses. More new buildings will be opened on higher education campuses than will be closed.
6. "Distance Education" Becomes More Creditable
Fully asynchronous "distance education" courses, especially those that require no special meeting space, will become more credible and attractive -- and will be used for many kinds of instruction. Many people will welcome supplementary educational ATMs [Automatic Teaching Machines?] into their homes and offices. Unlike the role of ATMs in banking, these educational ATMs will not be viewed as the preferred alternatives for most kinds of traditional education.
7. Distance Education and Online Education Mix with Face-to-Face
Mixtures of online and face-to-face education will become more common than programs that offer either one alone. The most widely used patterns will be: (1) Courses in which students meet face-to-face with each other and the teacher(s) some of the time and in which they are also assigned combinations of group work and independent work including a variety of media and tasks; e.g., electronic mail, the Web, new technology applications, books, writing papers, science labs, etc. (2) Programs or sequences of courses, in which some of the courses include regularly scheduled face-to-face group meetings of students with faculty, and some of the courses do not. The latter may be completely "distant" and asynchronous, or may include some live communications at a distance.
8. No Proof, But Widespread Adoption of Email, Web, and Instructional Combinations
No conclusive proof of the general educational superiority of any technology application will emerge. Evaluation and assessment activities will be used more frequently to improve the results of continuing investments of time, money, and other resources in educational uses of technology. However, some combinations of technology application, teaching/learning approach, and subject matter content will be widely adopted because they are so easily implemented, reasonably priced, and OBVIOUSLY effective in achieving important educational goals. Debate about these combinations, if it arises at all, will be brief and inconsequential. For example, the vast majority of faculty members will decide to use electronic mail and the World Wide Web in their scholarly work - including teaching - without the benefit of convincing evaluative studies.
9. Increase Technology Investments; Forums for Exploration, Planning, Advice
Presidents, boards, and other academic leaders will continue to increase institutional resource allocations for academic uses of information technology - and to be uncomfortable about doing so. Consequently, more colleges and universities will form internal groups representing diverse constituencies (faculty, academic support professionals, administrators, students, ...) and provide them with a forum to: 1. Explore and develop ways of improving teaching and learning - with technology. 2. Plan for the continuing integration of new technology applications into all scholarly work and for the institutionalization of change. 3. Offer academic leaders the best advice and help them shape related policies and decisions.[These groups are like TLTRs -- Teaching, Learning, and Technology Roundtables.]
10. Institutionalize Change, Accept Risk, Make Space/Time Flexible
More colleges and universities will recognize the need to plan for and institutionalize a process for change, and to accept the increased risk of failure along with the exciting prospects of new success. This attitude may be instigated by, but not limited to, the increasing importance and more widespread use of information technology in teaching, learning, and research. To institutionalize change, colleges and universities will: 1. Develop new administrative units to support changes in teaching and learning. 2. Provide incentives and reduce obstacles for faculty members to take risks in trying to find, develop, and use combinations of technology, pedagogy, and content. 3. Make it easier for faculty, students, and academic support professionals to reconfigure their schedules and the spaces in which they work together. Do so by making flexibility a high priority when retrofitting classrooms, renovating old buildings or designing new ones, and modifying the system for scheduling course activities.
11. Widening Expectation-Resource Gap
At most educational institutions, the gap between expectations and resources will continue to widen (with respect to the improvement of teaching and learning with technology). The need for academic support services will continue to grow faster than the supply. The competition from industry to hire technical support professionals will become more intense. Both learners and teachers will need the services of librarians more frequently and extensively so long as sources of information continue to proliferate. Demand will continue to increase for the services of faculty development professionals, instructional design specialists, and other pedagogical experts (as a consequence of the increasing number of faculty members who want to use new applications of technology in their teaching).
12. New Faculty Responsibilities, Increasing Workload for All
More faculty members will decide that their professional responsibilities include keeping current with the knowledge accumulating in their fields, pedagogical options, and supportive technology applications. The workload for faculty, academic support professionals, and academic administrators will continue to increase.
13. Extend, Coordinate, and/or Outsource Academic Support Services
More colleges and universities will form local centers and/or related institutional Web-based directories, forums, and services to coordinate the work of existing academic support services, encourage the development of new combinations of those services, and make it easier for faculty and students to find and use those services. More institutions will also "outsource" some technology and other academic support services and/or develop inter-institutional collaborations for more cost-effective delivery of those services. Other new commercial services may provide "academic" support services directly to faculty members or students - with or without the involvement of the colleges or universities in which those learners and teachers do their work. This may be a new role for textbook publishers and other companies in education-related industries.
14. Student Technology Assistants
To meet the growing need for academic support services, more colleges and universities will take advantage of one of their unique resources - the students. They will move beyond current programs of using students for clerical help in the library and as room monitors in computer labs. They will provide more training for these student assistants, give them opportunities for more technologically and consultatively challenging work, and promote some to positions of responsibility for supervising and training their peers. Many students, especially those who are not pursuing technology-focused careers, will find the training and experience of these roles a major asset in preparing for most jobs or further study as the value of technology skills continues to increase in most fields.
15. More Speech on the Web
Human speech on the Web - recorded or delivered live -- will take a central role in many kinds of education. It will become easy for faculty members and students to add recordings of their own speech to text and other information media. Voice recognition software may dramatically alter human-computer interaction and all related communications/education activities; probably NOT by eliminating keyboards, but by adding another attractive mode for controlling technology and entering and editing text.
16. Better Understanding of Face-to-Face Communication and Other Teaching/Learning Options
Educators, corporate leaders, and many others (religious leaders? entertainers?) will learn to take greater advantage of the unique possibilities of face-to-face communications. They will do so in conjunction with the invention of new ways of combining applications of technology, pedagogical options, content, and purposes. They will discover the new power of matching all of these with the different capabilities and styles of individual learners, individual teachers, and groups of both. The "human moment" [see Connect by Edward Hallowell] in which two human beings talk AND LISTEN to each other in the same place at the same time will be more highly valued and sought more intentionally and frequently.
17. Academic Freedom Redefined
As faculty and student roles shift and new educational resources are integrated, academic freedom and faculty leadership will remain highly valued; but they may be redefined. Many faculty members will embrace greater responsibility for identifying, selecting, and implementing pedagogical options - and supportive applications of technology.
18. Adjuncts Become More Important
Adjunct faculty members, especially retirees from first careers, will continue to become a growing part of the teaching faculty at most colleges - both in classrooms and online. Support services for adjuncts will become more common and necessary. Part-time teaching may prove among the most attractive and self-respect-enhancing new retirement options.
19. Access, Disabilities, and Information Literacy
Access to computers, related information resources, and "information literacy" will become higher societal priorities. More educational institutions will recognize and respond to the need to provide such equitable access for all --- regardless of wealth or disabilities. Many colleges and universities will develop programs for defining and regularly revising access and information literacy goals; and for helping students, faculty, administration, and staff to achieve them. Eventually, colleges and universities may only need to offer guidelines about the expected information literacy competencies of entering students, and to provide some modest remedial services for the few who require them.
20. Educational Rights and Educational Costs
Debate will continue on how much education, of what kind, for whom. As with health care, the notions of a citizen's educational rights and the locus of decision making about them will be difficult to resolve. Human society will recognize that the costs of the most effective kinds of education (like the costs of much of the most effective kinds of health care) will continue to rise faster than the costs of food, clothing, and housing. Quality of life for will depend on access to better quality education and health care for all. [Will enough world resources be generated and allocated to provide everyone with adequate food, health care, shelter, clothing, and education? How will "adequate" be defined?]
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Telematics for African Development Consortium
P.O. Box 31822
Braamfontein
2017
Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel: +27 +11 403-2813
Fax: +27 +11 403-2814
neilshel@icon.co.za
www.saide.org.za
* To view an archive of previous updates
visit:
www.saide.org.za/tad/archive.htm
* For resources on distance education and
technology use in Southern Africa visit:
www.saide.org.za/worldbank/Default.htm
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