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March 2006 Volume 2, Number 1 |
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IN
THIS ISSUE CAL-ED EXECUTIVE OFFICE 2006 CONFERENCES
VIRTUAL EDUCA |
EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE INSTITUTE FOR QUALITY IN HIGHER DISTANCE EDUCATION
The prime objective of the Institute for Quality in Higher Distance Education (CAL-ED), which was established on October 19th, 2005 during the First CREAD Andes Congress, is to contribute to improving the quality of higher distance education in all the institutions of Latin America and the Caribbean that offer this type of education. The following are some of the activities that have been undertaken by the Executive Office, which has been set up at the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja in Ecuador:
At this point in time the Institute has already established links with the Ministry of Higher Education of the Dominican Republic and with Latin-American and Caribbean universities to work in the field of evaluation, accreditation and quality improvement of Higher Distance Education. FROM THE CREAD BOARD OF DIRECTORS USA Nova Southeastern University has been an institutional member of CREAD since 1997. Since 2003 we have been proud to serve as the Consortium’s host institution. NSU’s partnership with CREAD makes a lot of sense given their common emphasis on inter-institutional and international cooperation, and it is beneficial for both organizations. Our university is especially interested in forming partnerships with other institutions in other countries. In an increasingly globalized and interdependent world meaningful collaboration among cultures should be a priority. As well as being proud of supporting CREAD’s efforts, our university has also gained from our connections with CREAD members in terms of the network of institutions and leaders which whom our university is able to maintain professional relationships in the Western Hemisphere, Spain and Portugal. We invite all CREAD members to consider working with us in the future on collaborative projects. Dr. Anthony J. DeNapoli
ARGENTINA Dr. Héctor Alejandro Barceló, Vice President of CREAD for the Southern Cone, has spent more than forty years working in Medical Education at national and international levels, with a special focus on the MERCOSUR region. He explains his philosophy as follows: “I do not see this university as limited to its own locality. On the contrary, I regard it as linked to the region and beyond that, to the world. I am involved with an educational institution in particular, and an educational system in general, that respect equity and quality, participation, academic excellence, organizational transformation and, especially, the dignity of man.” With reference to distance education, which Dr. Barcelo is passionate about, he says: “Distance education is one of the most useful delivery methods for teacher training, for professional continuing education, university education and informal education. Its virtues lie in the potentiality of the tools that are available to it and in its educational impact on very diverse and heterogeneous groups because of its ability to adapt to different training needs.” ELEVENTH CREAD MERCOSUR/SUL CONGRESS – 2007 It is an honor for our Institution, together with the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation of Brazil, and Nova Southeastern University and The New York Institute of Technology of the USA, to be organizing the ELEVENTH CREAD MERCOSUR/SUL CONGRESS–2007. This Distance Education Congress is set to explore many different topics and will be strongly oriented towards one of the most important millennium goals set by the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO):” Health is as much a result as a determining factor in a country’s development.” We will be sending out information on this event and hope to see you all in beautiful Buenos Aires, August 25th, 2007. Dr. Héctor Alejandro Barceló THE LATIN-AMERICAN UNIVERSITY AT THE CROSSROADS
This is why Virtual Educa Bilbao selected The University in the Knowledge Society as one of its basic themes so that university leaders from the Region could discuss in detail how to begin restructuring the institutions and university networks of the Region. In this way Virtual Educa, and within it CRESALC (the UNESCO Regional Center for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean), can make one of its most important contributions in modifying the universities and consequently moving the states towards the ideal of the knowledge society. These changes should also be supported through the appropriate use of the new technologies, thus extending the major contributions that the previous Virtual Educa congresses have made. Dr. Miguel Casas Armengol PROFILES OF INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS OF CREAD
The Office of Continuing Teacher Education at Queen's University at Kingston, Canada, offers accredited professional development and interest courses for teachers, school administrators, and college and university instructors. Each year, more than 4,700 educators from across Canada and around the world turn to our online and classroom based programs for their professional development needs. In addition, we offer our expertise in e-learning to the business sector. We work with companies to design, develop, and deliver highly effective online training programs for corporate content. The Faculty of Education at Queen's is a research intensive faculty that offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs in education. It is distinguished by its rich learning environment and promotes a caring, inclusive approach. Research is at the core of the Faculty of Education: inspiring candidates to be critically reflective, to probe assumptions, and to innovate. Queen's University consistently ranks as one of Canada's top medical/doctoral universities. With an international reputation for scholarship, research, social purpose, spirit, and diversity, Queen's is regarded for its high quality and incomparable undergraduate and graduate learning environment.
EUCLIDES DA CUNHA FOUNDATION (FEC) BRAZIL The Euclides da Cunha Foundation of the Universidad Federal Fluminense (UFF), is a private legal entity, established on November 19th, 1997 to support the UFF, within the guidelines of Federal Law No 8.958/94, accredited by the Ministries of Education and Science & Technology and registered as a Foundation with the Ministry of Public Works of the State of Rio de Janeiro. Since 1999, when it opened, the FEC has promoted training and access to UFF academic, scientific and extension activities for different social sectors and in different areas of human knowledge by means of agreements, contracts and other types of association with both public and private institutions. The Foundation assists the University faculty in developing professional and scientific ideas, by creating the necessary conditions for the execution of their projects, and by seeking funding. The institution also promotes the participation of students in research and extension projects coordinated by University faculty, thus creating opportunities for them to obtain the practical experience they need to enter the labor market. The validity of this scheme has been confirmed by important projects in well-known organizations such as: Financial Aid Organization for Studies and Projects (FINEP), the Ford Foundation, PETROBRAS, The National Petroleum Agency (ANP), Niterói Water Company, the National Agency for Sanitation Oversight (ANVISA), the Electric Company of Rio de Janeiro (CERJ), the National Steel Plant (CSN), The National Weights and Measures Institute (INMETRO) and the Social Commerce Service (SSC). Projects have also been carried out with state governments, city councils and ministries. As a partner of the UFF, the FEC has worked with funding institutions, obtaining resources, facilitating opportunities and service proposals, negotiating agreements and contracts, and also executing and administering resources derived from University projects and programs. In spite of its brief existence, the FEC has participated in more than 400 projects, and constantly embarked on new opportunities, the benefits of which have accrued to society in the form of resources for teaching, research and extension, in fulfillment of its institutional mission.
TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY USA Texas Tech University has been offering educational opportunities at a distance since the college opened in 1925. With technological advances, Texas Tech University’s Division of Outreach & Extended Studies (OES) now offers distance learning opportunities worldwide, offering educational programs to K-12 and college students. OES operates Texas Tech University Independent School District (TTUISD), an accredited primary and secondary school that culminates in a high school diploma. TTUISD works with schools and other educational organizations around the world to provide customized K-12 educational options to enhance current offerings, or for use as a primary curriculum. One of these special projects is Centro Educacional Leonardo Da Vinci, a private school in Vitoria, Brazil that offers a concurrent diploma program in which high school students graduate with a Brazilian diploma as well as a Texas diploma. Since 2002, 56 students have graduated with the dual diploma. Currently there are 123 students enrolled in the various cohorts of the program. Other international special projects include work with institutions in Buenos Aries, Argentina; Victoria School in Mexico; and Meishi International School in China. Texas Tech also offers the Intensive English Program (IEP) for college students and business professionals. The IEP is Texas Tech’s year-round program designed for international students and others who wish to improve their command of English before entering an educational institution or business in the United States. Other community outreach non-credit programs include K-12 academic enrichment, lifelong learning options for people age 50 and older, and short courses for adults.
The Consortium of Universities is a non-profit association of four universities: Pontificia Catholic University of Peru, Cayetano Heredia Peruvian University, University of the Pacific, and the University of Lima. Since its creation in 1996, the objective of the Consortium of Universities has been to combine the individual strengths of these universities and pursue joint activities to assist in the integral development of Peru. Its values are truth, respect for personal dignity, freedom of thought, social responsibility and commitment to development. Consortium activities are carried out by means of commissions and committees; for example: Self-Evaluation and Accreditation, Student Exchange Programs, Healthy Communities, Library Service, Image Management, and Distance Education. In the Distance Education Commission, based on these principles and characteristics, we have proposed working on several activities in parallel in three dimensions: institutional, national, and international. At the institutional level we believe in strengthening the synergy of the four universities by investigating the use of new technologies by the faculty. We believe that this will make training and collaboration in distance education more relevant. Similarly, for some time, we have had a presence on the Consortium Web page with a space that enables us to give distance education training and disseminate our activities. That is why we have placed online our most recent publication: “The social impact of the new technologies in Distance Education in America and the Caribbean,” which collected the contributions from the Fifth Regional Distance Education Meeting organized by ICDE and the Consortium. At the institutional level, we also believe that it is essential to continue the distance education activities of the Consortium, which is why we have been working to adapt and apply the standards of quality in distance education. At the same time, we are conscious of the social, economic, and cultural diversity of our country, and that is why at the national level we are offering distance education at different universities in the interior and national seminars in distance education. At the international level, we value the importance of a growing dialog with prestigious individuals and institutions; thus, we have links to CREAD, ICDE, and RIBIE and have participated in various Latin-American and global distance education events, including organizing the Fifth Latin-American Meeting of the ICDE in 2002 in Lima. All of this has become possible in the last few years, thanks, above all, to the dedication and responsibility of our 2003 and 2005 coordinator, Professor Haydée Azabache, who has been succeeded in the position by our recently elected coordinator Professor Estela Rodríguez with whom we are preparing to face new challenges. PROFILES OF INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF CREAD
A member of CREAD since 2000, Paul Edelson is Dean of the School of Professional Development and Director of the Professional Development Research Center at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His school offers both online and classroom based graduate degree programs, principally in the areas of teacher education and educational administration. Dr. Edelson, whose most recent book Drawing on Experience in Adult and Continuing Education (Krieger, 2006), actively participates in CREAD conferences and has addressed issues pertaining to international accreditation and collaboration, quality in e-learning, and pedagogy. “Being in CREAD enlarges my frame of reference on higher and distance education”, Dean Edelson observes. He also believes that Western hemispheric cooperation is a steadily growing force that has yet to achieve its true potential. “Through CREAD this dream can be realized. Professional contacts and the exchange of ideas, which are at the core of CREAD activities, help us to act in concert shaping a future world of greater opportunity for all.” Dr. Edelson received the Research and Scholarship Award of the University Continuing Education Association in 2003. In addition to serving as dean, he teaches graduate courses at Stony Brook University and Teachers College, Columbia. Dr. Paul Jay Edelson
Dr. Zélia Ribas Varajão Teixeira Soares has been a member of CREAD since 1997. She is Brazilian, a resident of the city of São Paulo, a graduate in Philosophy and Education, with a Masters in Distance Education, from the São Marcos University of São Paulo. She has worked in education for more than twenty five years, twelve of them in distance education. She has been active in the Department of Education of São Paulo in technical positions of coordination and evaluation of distance education courses. She has also been a university professor and coordinator of graduate courses in marketing and human resources at Paulist universities. She is currently working in two areas:
In its 41 years of existence, CIEE has facilitated the participation of more than 5.5 million students in internships in companies and educational institutions. More than 220, 000 companies and 16,000 teaching institutions are participants. In the organizational database there are, at this moment, approximately a million youth who are on the way to internships and future employment. One of the objectives of CIEE is to be able to train these young people by distance education. “For me it is an honor to be a member of CREAD. My participation at the annual meetings and the possibility of sharing experiences of distance education, have significantly contributed to my personal and professional growth.” Dra. Zélia Ribas Varajão Teixeira Soares Evelia Derrico is a university Professor of Education, a graduate of the National University of La Plata, Argentina, and has been interested in distance education since 1980, when she was working on her first doctorate in Informal Education at the National University of Buenos Aires, with a dissertation on didactic language. Because of this she has been a part of CREAD practically from the beginning, since she considers it a way to promote the distance modalities in the region which are developing new models of educational organization and administration all the time. For her second doctorate, at the University of La Plata, she focused on the cognitive processes and heuristics of the virtual student and in this the Consortium became a rich space of academic and institutional interaction for her. She is the pedagogic advisor at the Juan N. Terrero Institute of Teacher Education which enables her to develop, apply and evaluate blended learning courses and collaborative projects which can profit from the CREAD networks. She has also worked professionally in positions of administrative responsibility, both in higher education institutions and with companies and public organizations, in charge of their training sectors, using the ISO quality processes. Currently she is the quality administrator and head of training in the public sector, a task for which she has received special recognition from the IRAM-IQNET Certification Department for Administrative Systems,. The citation read: “The simplicity of the evaluation method for the training activities and the analysis carried out by the evaluators, were outstanding, which served as a useful foundation for planning the training for the next period.” She is hoping to share some of her experience and knowledge with the Consortium, especially with regard to good practices in education, which can definitely form a basis for validation and regulation for distance education systems. She has participated in most of the CREAD Mercosur conferences. Dra. Evelia Derrico Mr. Bureau serves as project manager for the Pan-Canadian Online Learning Portal, an initiative of the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada. The Portal aims at becoming the main source of information about education in Canada and at raising the profile of provincial/territorial education systems to the international community. Mr. Bureau is currently acting director for Cegep@distance, Quebec’s Open College. The college offers more than 300 courses and registers over 18,000 students annually. He is also a key consultant for the Ministry of Education in British Columbia in the development of quality delivery standards in distributed learning. Since the early 90's, Mr. Bureau has overseen several international development projects. He provided guidance to UNESCO’s Institute for Information Technologies in Education. Mr. Bureau has been involved with the World Bank as: Chief Technical Advisor for the Education Development project in Lebanon, Evaluator for the Vocational Training Reform project in Tunisia, and Advisor to the African Virtual University. As a team member on an Asian Development Bank project in the Maldives, he was responsible for providing distance education expertise to the country’s Human Capital Development Framework. He has recently facilitated two Institutes on open and distance learning and development for the Commonwealth of Learning. An organization such as CREAD plays a vital role in bringing distance educators together. I have had the pleasure of working closely with the Asociación Nacional de Universidades e Instituciones de Educación Superior, (ANUIES) and the Autonomous University of Baja California, as an external advisor. This summer, I will be offering a seminar at the Autonomous University of Yucatan. Over the years, CREAD’s network has allowed me to develop meaningful professional and personal relationships. June 20-23, 2006
WORLD CONGRESS
OF HIGHER DISTANCE EDUCATION
THE DISTANCE MEGA-UNIVERSITY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY:
A CHALLENGE TO THE HISTORICAL IMAGINATION The National Open and Distance University of Colombia – UNAD – is pleased to
This event will be part of 25th anniversary celebration of the founding of UNAD. TENTH CREAD MERCOSUR/SUL CONFERENCE 2006 Universidad Católica del Norte August 2-4, 2006
General Objectives:
• To analyze experiences in Quality, Learning and Technology in the light of challenges in the field of distance education, in the MERCOSUR countries as well as in other countries within the region, in the
• To give an overall view of the use of the new technologies and their strategic importance. Intituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) September 27-29, 2006 This will be the fourth in a series of congresses organized by members of CREAD in the SECOND INTERNATIONAL MEETING OF EXPERTS IN LINK CHILE 2006 UTEMVIRTUAL and the Technical Training Center CFT UTEM of the Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana are pleased to invite the national and international community to join us at LINK CHILE 2006, an academic meeting that will bring together experts from different parts of the world to share their experiences with e-learning, to contribute to the processes of teaching and learning at all educational levels with an emphasis on quality. Topics of interest that will be covered at this meeting include:
A number of important experts in the field of e-learning will be in attendance, among them the well-known academic, Dr. Tony Bates, who will give a keynote address. There will also be representatives from more than 14 countries, from universities and organizations with links to distance education. This important event will take place in Santiago, Chile from October 16th to 20th, 2006. If you would like to take part, you are cordially invited. For more information, please go to http://utemvirtual.cl/link/2006.
Universidad Estatal a Distancia November 2006
This conference is being organized by the State Distance
University (UNED) and will be held in FIFTEENTH INTERNATIONAL DISTANCE EDUCATION CONFERENCE
This conference, which is the most important of its kind in Latin America, will again be held in conjunction with the International Book Fair, in FIRST CREAD MEXICO
The FIRST CREAD MEXICO CONFERENCE seeks to promote the creation and increase the competitive capacity of our small businesses in the global market, thus building new pathways towards economic growth. The Latin-American Institute for Educational Communication is 50
ILCE’s mission involves service and commitment between people and countries, and between institutions and governments; implies the establishment of collaboration and cooperation agreements to implement proposals that apply the resources delivered by the advances of technology and take them even further; represents the opportunity to hear and be heard in meetings where interests are shared and where allies may be found to go forward; to share with those who use their effort and capacity in the production of knowledge, in obtaining results that benefit their communities. Thus, since these fifty years are the result of our shared efforts:
CREAD BOARD OF
DIRECTORS CONTACTS
PRESIDENT Lic. Patricia Ávila Muñoz Directora de Investigación y contenidos educativos Instituto Latinoamericano de la Comunicación Educativa (ILCE) México, DF, México E-mail: pavila@ilce.edu.mx EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Dr. Armando Villarroel CREAD Executive Office Nova Southeastern University E-mail: villarro@nsu.nova.edu REPRESENTATIVE OF NOVA SOUTHEASTERN
UNIVERSITY Dr. Anthony J. DeNapoli Dean Nova Southeastern University E-mail: denapoli@nsu.nova.edu ANDEAN REGION ( Dr. Luis Miguel Romero Fernández Rector-Canciller Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja E-mail: lmromero@utpl.edu.ec Professor Luiz Valter Brand Gomes Diretor Presidente Fundação Euclides da Cunha Niterói, RJ Brasil E-mail: lzvalter@fec.uff.br ENGLISH-SPEAKING Dr. Nancy Van Wagoner Director Continuing and Distance Education Email: nancy.vanwagoner@acadiau.ca CARIBBEAN (Antilles, Belice, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico,
Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela) Prof. María de Lourdes López Vice Presidenta Auxiliar Sistema Universitario Ana G. Méndez E-mail: ac_mlopez@suagm.edu CENTRAL AMERICA (Costa Rica, El
Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama) MBA Rodrigo Arias Camacho Rector Universidad Estatal a Distancia E-mail: rarias@uned.ac.cr Maestro Manuel Moreno Castañeda Rector Sistema de Universidad Virtual Universidad de Guadalajara E-mail: mmoreno@redudg.udg.mx SOUTHERN CONE ( Dr. Héctor Alejandro Barceló Rector Instituto Universitario de Ciencias de la Salud E-mail: hbarcelo@impsat1.com.ar Dr. Marshall E. Allen Director Institute for Telecommunications E-mail: marshal@okstate.edu LIFETIME HONORARY MEMBER Dr. Patricia A. Book Vice President for Regional Development E-mail: pbook1@kent.edu CREAD REGIONAL OFFICES Dra. Marlene Blois Diretora de Educação Universidade Carioca – UNIVIR E-mail: m.blois@terra.com.br Lic. Norma Lidia Carosio Coordinadora Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria Proyecto de Capacitación a Distancia E-mail: ncarosio@correo.inta.gov.ar Dr. Alejandro Rada Director Université
du Québec a E-mail: arada@uquac.uquebec.ca 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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For the Latin-American region, the Virtual Educa series of congresses has been a unique and continuing stimulus for its societies and universities to wake up to the urgent need for the practical incorporation of modern information and communication technologies; and yet there is an inherent danger in implanting the newest technologies in universities that remain wedded to their obsolete structures and practices. Thus, at the same time as they make the necessary technological advances, they should also have the courage to define basic changes that will allow the networks and university institutions to adapt to some of the new social and scientific conditions that are transforming the Region. Otherwise, by basically continuing to do the same things, these universities and societies will be headed for continual and irreversible deterioration. Recently two Latin-American university ex-rectors (Buarque of Brazil and Tünnermann of Nicaragua) warned that if we do not make the decision to fundamentally restructure our universities now, there will be such a loss of prestige that this will facilitate the rise of new educational forms and a “post-university.” Tünnermann also comes to the terrible conclusion that with universities that are not helping to change society we run the danger, in Latin America, of putting “dependency” in place of “avoidance.” And UNESCO has concluded that “higher education itself has to embark on a more radical transformation and renovation than ever before.”
Dr. Paul Jay Edelson
invite the national and international university community to participate in the World Congress of Higher Distance Education, at which the main topic of analysis will be the new university practices generated by the distance mega-university. This congress will take place in the city of Bogotá, from July 4th to 7th, 2006. Representatives of most of the world’s open universities and of international universities linked to the university sector and distance education will be taking part. The conference topics are:
on the responsibility of hosting this congress – the Open University for Adults in 2003, the University of the Caribbean in 2004, and APEC University in 2005.
The creation of ILCE, the Latin-American Institute for Educational Communication, a CREAD member since the beginning, was an outcome of an initiative presented at the Eighth General UNESCO Conference in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1954; in May 1956 it was established in Mexico.