(NATESD)
UNIVERSITY OF AMAZON
IMPLEMENTATION OF
AMAZONIAN CORE OF TECHNOLOGIES FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION AND HEALTHCARE (NATESD)
INTRODUCTORY
REFERENCES
(Translated
from Portuguese to English by R. A. Mueller;
Refined
English by S. McCarty;
Last
updated by T. Utsumi on 10/28/2001)
2. Experiences of Distance Education
2.1 Amazon Experiences Outside the
University of Amazon
2.1.1
State Secretariat of Education and Sport (SEDUC)
2.1.2 Municipal Education Secretariat
(SEMED-Manaus)
2.1.3 Foundation for Television and Radio
Culture of the Amazon (FUNTEC)
2.1.4 Commercial Apprenticeship for National
Service (SENAC)
2.1.5
Social Service of Industry (SESI)
2.1.6 Inter-Institutional Work Group on
Distance Education of the State of Amazon (GITEAD/AM)
3.
Distance Education at the University of Amazon
3.2
Perspectives on Distance Education at the UA
3.2.2 Federal Correlative Initiatives
3.2.3
Other Initiatives for Distance Education in the UA
4.
The Amazon Core of Technologies for Distance Education and Healthcare (NATESD)
1.
NATESD - Amazonian Core of Technologies for Distance Education and Healthcare,
based at the University of Amazon
2.
Commissioned - Portaria # 0573/2000-GR of April 12, 200
Prof. Silas Guedes de
Oliviera - Coordinator
Prof.
Jose Luiz de Souza Pio - Member
Prof.
Alexandre Almir Ferreira Rivas - Member
Prof.
Jose Alberto da Costa Machado - Member
Prof.
Cecilia Maria Rodrigues de Souza - Member
Prof.
Elizabeth da Conceicao Santos - Member
Prof.
Carlos Edwar de Carvalho Freitas - Member
3.
Address:
Av. Gen. Rodrigo Otavio
Jordao Ramos, 3000
Centro
de Ciencias do Ambiente - CCA
University
Campus - Manaus - AM
Aleixo
- CEP 69.077-000
Telephone:
+55-92-644-2384
5. Legal
Aspects:
Article 80, Law of Lines of
Direction and Bases of the National Education (Law #9394/96 of 20 December
1996) regulated by Decrees #2494 of 10 February 1998 and #2561 of 27 April
1998, complemented by Portaria #301 of 7 April 1998 of the Education and
Culture Ministry (MEC).
This document formalizes the
strategy of the University of Amazon (UA) to conduct distance education and
healthcare. These revolutionary modalities are not new. However for a long time
their possibilities have remained dormant, sometimes due to their being
unknown, other times due to preconceptions towards something new. But there is
a moment where "the embarrassment level" [1] compels the orthodoxy to
pay attention to the new standards in the society's configuration pattern. And
this is what the UA has done. Dedicated professors and technicians had been
called upon to discuss the subjects and to formulate a strategy to guide the UA
activities in this field.
[1 = Conceptual category in
the book "The Civilizing Process" by Norbert Elias]
As it tends to happen when
noble interests are discussed by competent interested parties, the question was
precisely postulated. It was neither a grandiloquent utopia disguised as a
project nor a routine operation under program frameworks. What we have in this
document is more than a simple core creation, it is the formulation of a
strategy, intentionally understood as provisional, to deal with distance
education and healthcare.
As consolidation goes on,
continuous corrections will be necessary from time to time and certainly will
contribute to the definitive profile that its format will yield, as foreseen
for the ultimate 180 days after implementation.
This document remains open
to examination, and we hope so with the same open spirit as those who prepared
it.
Prof. Dr. Silas Guedes de
Oliveira
Vice Rector
Distance education in this
document is considered as a teaching/learning modality, in which the relation
between professor and pupil is mediated by a technological bidirectional system
that uses proper features and online interaction methods. Obviously this
implies systematic actions, mobilization of suitable didactic alternatives
framed by organization and tutoring, as enabling the independent and flexible
apprenticeship of the pupils. With this vision, it goes without saying that the
educative process to be made effective by means of distance education is tied
more to the project's contents than the technology used in it for distance
interaction.
By this way, the distance
education is not a substitute for in-person education, but only a different
modality of the same process of teaching/learning. The difference between them
is the use of technological resources different from the traditional modality,
as combining conventional and modern technologies, enabling individual or group
study inside or outside meeting locations, by means of online advising and
tutoring methods and supported by specific in-person activities such as group
meetings for study and evaluation.
The prominence of distance
education as a form to endow higher educational institutions to meet with the
new demands for flexible education, is based on the comprehension that this
choice is distinguished as a non-traditional modality that is able to attend
more global expectations, and include proper ways to update the generated
knowledge.
Although attending to public
healthcare has always been associated with in-person interaction between
professional and patient, we can assume that the same technological support
used to enable distance education can also be mobilized for distance public
healthcare, a procedural modality known as telehealth.
For regions of great
territorial expanse like the Amazon with low demographic density, difficult
transportation conditions, communications and local access, distance education
and healthcarecare could figure as a feature of incalculable importance.
Therefore the UA has prompted investment efforts directed to enable its
actualization effectively in systematic form and by means of a project globally
conceived.
It is in this context that
NATESD - the Amazonian Core of Technology for Distance Education and Healthcare
- has committed to technologies production, infrastructure construction and
maintenance in order to enable distance education and telehealth initiatives. A
highlight is that the execution in itself of these actions is not the central
objective of the core. Although being able to carry through them and being a
unit with academic ends, and also because it will need to make pilot
experiences, it enables the ways so that they can be carried through its first
commitment, in coherent and synergetic form, by the diverse academic units,
thus becoming the legitimate responsible ones for the designs, so much in
relation to the execution in relation to the nature of its contents.
As it is to be a model
nucleus related to distance education and healthcare, it is natural that the
guarantee of the initiatives to be realized by its means could be assumed as
relevant opportune and of quality.
2. Experiences of
Distance Education
In the international
environment of distance education, its dissemination has gained such dimensions
that currently very few are the countries that do not adopt it as government
policy [2] and still fewer are the industries that do not use it in their
personnel training programs.
[2 = some examples often
cited in the literature: For middle school: Hermods NKI Skolen, Sweden; Radio
ECCA, Canary Islands; Air Correspondence High School, South Korea; School of
the Air, Australia; Telesecundaria, Mexico; and National Extension College, UK.
In higher education: Open University, UK; Fern Universitaet, Germany; Indira
Gandhi National Open University, India; Universidade Estatal a Distancia, Costa
Rica; Universidade Nacional Aberta, Venezuela; Universidade Nacional de Ensino
a Distancia, Spain; Sistema de Ensino a Distancia, Colombia; University of
Athabasca, Canada; and the People's University of China.]
In Brazil there are also
several instances [3]. Governmental, non-governmental and private efforts have
represented in recent decades a mobilization of great contingents of
technicians and financial resources. However, their results have not yet been
enough to generate an irreversible process of government and social acceptance
of distance education in Brazil. The main reasons for this are the
discontinuity of the projects, lack of administrative capability and absence of
rigorous and scientific procedures for the project evaluation.
[3 = Starting from the
foundation of the Institute Radio-Monitor in 1939, and soon thereafter the
Institute Universal Brasileiro in 1941, several experiments were initiated and
finished with relative success. Among the first experiences, the creation of
the Basic Teaching Movement (MEB) was outstanding in its basic focus on young
and adult teaching of reading and framing their first steps by means of the
"radio phonic schools" mainly in the North and Northeast regions of
the country. From its inception MEB distinguished itself by using radio and by
setting up a teaching system suitable for the general public. The political
repercussion of 1964 disintegrated the initial project, so that the popular
mass education proposal and ideals were abandoned. In the seventies when the
country witnessed distance education experiments, they were particularly outstanding
with telerooms. Due to the lack of preparation and extreme politics of that
era, the projects were extinguished. However, for that time the Minerva Project
was remarkable with the objective of teaching reading to adults by radio.]
Among the Brazilian
experiences some institutions are prominent. They are:
a) Priest Landell Moura
Educational and Cultural Foundation (FEPLAM): with unconventional educational movements in
Latin America, it searched to improve living conditions in the deprived
populations. The beginning of FEPLAM was by means of radio programs (College of
the Air) and by the series "Learn by TV" (courses for professions).
The communitarian basis was the starting and finishing point of its educational
practice, and its performance areas were general teaching, civic teaching,
rural (country) teaching and professional initiation.
b) National Industrial
Apprenticeship Service (SENAI-SP): its starting point was the Advised Self Instruction
(AIM) program, experimentally created in 1978, with regular operation in 1980.
This program was characterized as a distance education project turned
operational by means of a series of self-instructional programming. Since then
it maintains courses on Reading
and Interpretation of
Technical Mechanical Drawing, Basic Mathematics and Electronics, courses on
mechanical engineering, metallurgy, machines, resistance of materials, basic
electro-technics and formation of micro-entrepreneurs. Between 1980 and 1990,
23,684 of the 46,627 registered students concluded their courses.
c) Petrobras, with approximately 53,000
employees distributed almost around the whole country and in some exterior
locations, developed the Access Project, started in 1975, with the purpose of
providing education for employees at elementary and middle school level, and
offer specific professional education for oil fields. This project was
elaborated by the Center of Technical Education of Brasilia (CETEB). The CETEB
developed the methodology, and is following through with the implementation and
course development process. A general course (based on supplementary case
studies) for professionalization of the petroleum industry was offered to
people of age 20 to 40 who had interrupted their studies more than 5 years
before.
d) Brazilian Foundation
for the Development of Sciences Study (FUnBEC): developed under support of
the National Institute of Pedagogical Studies (INEP) a mathematics course by
mail, which was directed to elementary school teachers. The course was
propagated by the Teacher's Journal, edited by INEP. It received 24,934 student
registrations, and as of July 1991, 7,000 of them already concluded the first
course stage, while 13,361 had given up.
e) Center of Technical
Education of Brasilia (CETEB): since 1973, a unit of the Brazilian Education
Foundation (FUBRAE) has developed designs of half-direct education, mainly for
the development and perfecting of teachers during their jobs. It was
responsible for the execution of Projects LOGOS I and LOGOS II.
f) Brazilian Association
of Agricultural Higher Education (ABEAS): since 1982 it keeps a Specialization Course by
Distance Tutor (Latu Sensu graduate course). More than 5,000 professionals in
agricultural sciences have already graduated.
g) Brazilian Association
of Educational Technology (ABT): initiated in 1980 the Distance Teaching Professional
Program for teachers of elementary schools. The program was composed of courses
in areas of Reading for Learning, General Methodology, Portuguese Language,
Mathematics, Social Sciences, Physical and Biological Sciences. For university
teachers, a Specialization in Educational Technology by Distance Tutoring was
developed. Through partnerships with Secretariats of Education and
Universities, the program hosted 18,368 student teachers as of 1991, located in
697 cities.
h) Foundation of
Teleteaching of Ceara (FUNTELC): also known as the TVE of Ceara was created in the
process of implementation of educational television in the 70s, as
distinguishing itself from others by preserving a distance education project as
a central element of the institution. Since 1974 this institution has been
developing regular education to 5th and 8th grade elementary school with
implementation of telerooms in a great part of the cities of that State. In the
year of its implementation it counted 4,139 tele-students in the 5th and 6th
grades distributed in eight cities. In 1992, there were 60,822 tele-students in
5th and 8th grade in 94 cities, 400 districts, 725 schools and 2,300
tele-rooms. In 1993 the school reached 102,170 pupils in 150 cities.
i) University of Brasilia
(UnB): in
the middle of the seventies it began one of the first university-level
experiments in distance education in Brazil. Motivated by the success of the
British Open University initiative, the UnB aspired to be the Open University
of Brazil. It acquired all the translation and publication rights of the Open
University resources and started some courses also in the political sciences
field. The innovative initiative of the UnB did not attain success mainly due
to inadequate guidance on its direction that presented distance education as a
substitute for in-person education and a way to solve political conflicts of
the time. Additionally the lack of competence in project management led the UnB
to establish a distance education program that excluded the critical
cooperation of the participants of the University in production, evaluation and
management of the courses.
From 1985, with the
democratization of the UnB, the distance education project was tried again with
other bases and conceptions, new coordination, based on the universality of
knowledge and the pluralism of ideas. In 1986 it promoted a course on the
Constitution (the Constitution was under elaboration), organized study groups
and brought the constitutional debate to more than 100,000 course participants
in the whole country. Distance education in Brazil started to fulfill its
democratic role of objective knowledge. Currently the UnB counts on a Centre of
Open Continued Distance Education (CEAD) administratively under the university
president's office. It produced several courses of great success, among them
are a human rights-related course coordinated by Prof. Jose Geraldo Souza Jr.;
this experience was used in several universities, in the courses of advocacy
(law courses) and also by organizations of the civil society in the debate on
democratization of justice in Brazil. Recently it changed into a Introduction
to Critical Law, given by means of printed matters, videos and distance tutoring.
Additionally the UnB produced courses on Drug Abuse, Freud, Introduction to
informatics, and 'Computers Without Mystery' was presented in diskettes,
amongst others.
j) Brazilian Network of
Distance Education (READ/BR): created some years ago under the auspices of the
Organization of American States and under the incumbency of the Brazilian
Association of Educational Technology. The formation of this Network
represented an important phase in the integration of several institutions that
had developed plans for distance education and in spreading innovations under
development in Brazil and beyond.
But the Brazilian
experiments in progress and the spreading of Distance Education have been
experiencing significant problems that make it difficult in our country. Among
the more relevant, the following can be identified: (i) the organization of pilot
projects without suitable continuity preparation; (ii) lack of program and project
evaluation criteria (iii) lack of systematic archives of developed programs and
continuous evaluations; (iv) discontinuity of the programs without any accounts
presented to society, the governments and the financiers; (v) lack of institutionalized
structures to manage the projects and accounts or presentations regarding its
objectives; (vi) realization of programs unconnected with the real needs of the country and
applicable locals, or even organized without an exact link with federal, state
or city government; (vii) the permanence of an administrative and political
vision unaware of distance education's potential and requirements, allowing
technically and professionally unqualified personnel to manage; (viii) insufficient project
transparency, lack of social channels to facilitate intervention in them; (ix) elaboration of pilot projects
directly guided to test methodologies.
2.1 Amazon
Experiences Outside the University of Amazon
The Amazon
State Education Secretariat catalogued several distance education experiences
in Amazon in a 1998 survey. Those realized outside the UA contour are the
following:
2.1.1 State Secretariat
of Education and Sport (SEDUC)
a) SUMAUMA PROJECT - implemented in the State
in 1976 with the purpose of qualifying and certifying lay teachers. Its printed
materials was elaborated by SEDUC teachers and technicians and its transmission
was made by Educational Broadcasting in consultation with the Ministry of
Education and Culture (MEC).
b) Conquest Project: a production of the
Brazilian Center for Educational Television (SINRED) was propagated by TV in
didactic novel format and directed to the last grades of elementary school.
c) School TV Project: functioned in the State
between 1972 and 1978 in open channel, aimed for 5th, 6th and 7th grades of
public elementary schools. The lessons were produced by the Educational
Production Team of the Educational State TV. It was implemented in closed
circuit (videocassette recording) in the city of Iranduba, in agreement with
the SEMED.
d) The Logos II Project: was created in 1977 and
implemented in the State from 1978, its objective was to qualify teachers
currently teaching grades 1 to 4 of elementary school to teach further for
middle school, without removing them from the classroom. This project ceased
its operation in 1998.
e) "Skip to the
Future" program: conceived and produced by Foundation Roquette Pinto and propagated for all
Brazil by School TV. It has functioned in the State since 1992 and still aims
to update teachers including to organize teacher certification courses and to
teach for the first grades of elementary school. The program uses multiple
media (printed matter, radio, television, fax, telephone and Internet). For a
televised program of 1 hour in duration, a printed bulletin is combined. Its
objective is to deepen the program contents and is continuously evaluated at
the national level.
f) TV School Program: a television channel
dedicated exclusively to education, created by MEC in 1995 - as an experimental
phase. It initiated its activities officially in 1996. It is a project in
formation, as developing and evaluating teachers of public schools. It intends
to hasten the spread of wider and more democratic forms of programming to
develop and stimulate interaction and interchange among teachers and pupils.
g) Program Telecourse
2000: in execution,
propagated by the TV Globe, functioning in the State in closed circuit since
1996, with telestands in the capital and in the back country, aimed for young
and adult clients, supplementary in character. The teleclasses are produced by
the Roberto Marinho Foundation.
h) "Vitoria
Regal": radio lessons produced by SEDUCAM, propagated to the whole State since
1989, to organize the qualification of teachers from 1st to 4th grade in
elementary schools.
2.1.2 Municipal Education Secretariat (SEMED-Manaus)
a) DE/Pro-Citizen
Occidental Amazon Program: implemented in the State in 1995 with the objective
to teach reading to 500 thousand Brazilians in 5 years and to improve the
quality of life of the citizens of the State. It is carried out together with
SESI which supplies the technological resources and printed matters.
b) TV School Program: it functions in 105 schools
of SEMED in the Capital.
c) Telecourse 2000
Program:
basic education which functions in 5 schools along the Amazonas River since 1997.
d) "Skip to the
Future" Program: it records and releases programs to municipal schools for teacher
qualification courses.
2.1.3 Foundation for Television and Radio Culture of the Amazon (FUNTEC)
In the 1970s when it
functioned as Educational TV, it produced video lessons for the School TV
Project that functioned in the State up to 1978, organizing reception of the
clients of the 5th to 7th grade in public elementary schools. This project was
implemented in closed circuit (video cassette recording in Iranduba city - in
agreement with SEMED). It currently has produced: 1 to 3 minute mini-programs
on History and Geography of the Amazon, Vignettes on the 500 years of Brazil; 3
to 5 minute programs on the medicinal plants of the region (Green Drugstore), basic notions of
healthcare (How Are You?), Ecological Tourism, Manaustur, 15 minute program on Popular
Games and Professions, and a 30 minute program Culture
of the Land.
2.1.4 Commercial
Apprenticeship for National Service (SENAC)
It changed the dimension of pilot experience in Distance Education realized by the Regional Department of Minas Gerais in 1975. It created in 1992 the Centers of Distance Education with a didactical configuration of the current society, by means of multiple media (printed, radio, TV, audio, video cassette recorder, telephone and informatics). It organized them in integrated and complementary form, as establishing tutoring aimed more to the individual, for better apprenticeship as following procedures, successful meetings, seminars and other group activities. They are for study socialization, making acquired contents deeply internalized, solutions of apprenticeship problems, supervised examinations in order to guarantee legitimate apprenticeship evaluation, combination of studies carried by correspondence with in-person study sections. Currently it develops the following projects:
This is an entity maintained
and managed by Brazilian industry, belongs to CNI (National Industry
Confederation) at national level and to FIEAM (Federation of the Industries of
the State of Amazon) at the state level. It acts since 1995 with the For
Citizens and TC2000 Projects in 52 cities having the city halls and local
industries as partners.
2.1.6 Inter-Institutional Work Group on Distance Education of the State of Amazon (GITEAD/AM)
This is an initiative of
inter-institutional character that aims to coordinate and to act as an
articulating and advisory body. This Group consists of three representatives
designated by each of the ten signatory institutions. Its intentions are to
guarantee that distance education projects and programs take the following
lines of direction into account: (i) evaluation and disseminating of results;
(ii) continuity of the process; (iii) ratification of the partner's political
will; (iv) success of the connected institutional actions; (v) minimize
overlapping of the activities and wastefulness of resources; and (vi)
integration of the available methods.
3. Distance Education at
the University of Amazon
Distance education has been
recognized by the institution as necessary [4]. This has widely taken hold by
means of the participation in qualified events and courses, where teachers and
technicians have explored in many ways to inform themselves about diverse
technological knowledge and resources. For this way, the UA has introduced to
its personnel a valuable contingent of upper level professionals, qualified or
in process of formation, in such a way for the UA being able to place the
institution in wider programs in this field. Some initiatives in this direction
had been identified as indicated below:
[4 = The North Inward
Project, elaborated by the public universities of the region, had already
foreseen a possibility of differentiated educational proposals to be made
feasible in the qualified centers outside the main campus. These alternatives
were unfeasible due to the lack of Ministry and institutional support and by
the little perception acquired regarding the importance of the process.]
a) The College of
Physical Education Experience (FEF): it consists of the accomplishment of a physical
exercise and healthcare distance course of the Chronic Degenerative Disease
Program. With the objective of preparing technician in the healthcare (nurse,
medical doctor, attendant, instructor, physical education teacher), an accord
was affirmed in 1986 among the UA, the Health Ministry and the MEC. The course
is supported by the Municipal City Halls (lodging, transit and food) and the UA
is responsible for the coordination, accompaniment, resource distribution and
evaluation. In April of 1998 the Physical Exercise and Healthcare distance
course was at the 5th round, and already had 511 students involved in the
cities of Anori, Autazes, Benjamin Constant, Coari, Codajas, Humaita, Maues,
Sao Paulo de Olivenca and Tabatinga. With the activities developed in
Itacoatiara and Manaus (60 students), they served a total of 511 students
(1988);
b) The Exact Sciences Experience (ICE): The ICE through the Department of Computer Science (DCC) executed the following projects:
c) The Experience of the
Education College (FACED): the involvement of FACED with thematic [5]. Its first
attempt to develop activities in EAD was in 1991 through project IUME [6]
(University Integration with the Improvement and the Expansion of Kindergarten,
Reading lessons, and 1st to 4th grade of elementary school) which, due to the
extent and difficulty of execution, was divided into four goals: (i)
modernization and qualification courses of short duration (Kindergarten,
reading lessons, 1st to 4th grades elementary school); (ii) distance education
(teacher qualification); (iii) Pedagogy (competence in school supervision);
(iv) specialization course in youth and adult education.
[ 5 = The first document on
EAD is contained on Trade # 015/89 of 25 January 1989 where the director in
charge informs that FACED accomplish activities only on conventional programs
and reveals interest in engagement to the project sent by Secretary of Higher
Education, professor Jose Camillo Filho, to the managers of the IES through
Circular Trade # 325/88 GAB/SEESU/MEC of 15 of December 1988.]
[6 = Also known as project
Itacoatiara.]
The goal related to distance
education aimed for the qualification of teachers who did not complete their
full elementary school and as with the other goals, should benefit the middle
Amazon centered on Itacoatiara [7]. Unfortunately the results have not been
documented and what exists on this goal is a folder containing a large bibliography.
[7 = it includes also the
cities of: Autazes, Itapiranga, Nova Olinda do Norte, Rio Preto da Eva, Sao
Sebastiao do Uatuma, Silves, Urucurituba and Urucara]
In 1994, FACED with the
managers and IUME participants joined UnB
inter-university meetings on
Continued and Distance Education. The FACED also instituted in November of 1993
to develop cooperative actions in the area of EAD, which were coordinated by
the Faculties of Education and/or centers of equivalent education.
From August 1994 to August
1999, the FACED coordinated through the Access Project (UA/IEL/Petrobras),
administering activities for 52 Petrobras employees to complete their school;
32 started the course from the elementary school and 20 from the middle school
in Porto Urucu and in Coari City.
In April and December of
1995, FACED presented itself at the specialists' meeting that would act on the
specialization course accomplished by the consortium coordinated by UnB. Those
meetings excited the necessity of creating the EAD Core in all members of the
affiliated IES [8]. As traditionally, resources and personnel were lacking, and
the UA opted to initiate prioritizing basic work with the following highlights:
(i) articulation with institutions that already develop EAD activities, which
resulted in the creation of an Inter-Institutional Work Group of Distance
Education for the Amazon and accomplishment of three state seminars on distance
education, and (ii) formation of personnel that resulted, among other things,
in the acquisition of two scholarships for courses specialized in evaluation of
continued and distance education modality.
[8 = His Honor the Rector
Professor Dr Nelson Abrahim Fraiji who contemplated in his speeches the
challenge to improve the largest number of population sectors was informed by a
proposal issued by FACED and asked to the Vice Rector, Prof. Helvio Neves
Guerra to constitute a work group (Portaria #655 of 22 March of 1996) connected
to the Vice Rector's Office to plan and coordinate the university actions related
to EAD.]
Currently (October of 2000),
the FACED has initiated pilot work on a Distance Continuing Course through Line
#3 of the Pedagogical Workshop Project (UA/SEMED/Raytheon), with 90 teachers
and 40 SEMED technicians intending gradually to use integrated technologies,
multimedia resources and increase the number of participants, aiming to improve
teaching quality in the elementary schools. The initial stage prioritized
creation of a Home Page; use of a chat communication environment; use of a discussion
forum; participant preparation through an "Introduction to
Informatics" course and "Introduction to the Internet."
d) General Initiatives in October 1998: the University elaborated a Continued Distance Education Program conceived of as Program North, involving internationalization of the PROEXT:
3.2 Perspectives on Distance
Education at the UA
3.2.1 The SIVAM
With the institution of
SIVAM (System of Amazon Monitoring) [9], the thematic perspectives are
expanded. In its expansion, it affords the participation of the Amazonian
Universities, through the use of available technologies to unchain an education
process that can answer to the challenges of the larger playing field of the
national context.
[9= It is a
telecommunication apparatus network, stationary and mobile, interconnected by a
signal treatment system able to identify outstanding events in the airspace of
Amazon, for its reconnaissance and security. With this nature, SIVAM can also
be conceived of as a huge computerized network for large data transit, images
and the like in the region. This characteristic is what allows it to also serve
as an excellent infrastructure to accomplish distance education and
telehealth.]
On 30 June 1999, an Agreement of Cooperation was signed among the Amazonian Universities and the SIVAM. It foresaw the interconnection of all of the Amazonian Universities and their respective branch campuses through the SIVAM infrastructure of data transmission by satellite. Among its specific objectives, the notables are:€
This agreement still
foresees the application and development of activities in two areas, Distance
Education
and Telehealth, as motivated by the following factors: €
3.2.2 Federal
Correlative Initiatives
In the above-noted
agreement, the Federal Government expands the policy of telelearning of the
Ministry of Education together with the Solidary Community program, and it
offers itself to apply financial resources in three projects: School TV, Pro-Info and Radio
Broadcasting. These projects are as follows:
a) School TV
The School TV Project aims
to improve the development of teachers at public schools and to supply
subsidies to improve the knowledge propagated through the lessons by a
televising network of education. It presents as its goal to qualify one million
teachers, twenty three million pupils and to equip forty six thousand public
schools with Technological Kits (TV, video and parabolic antenna). The features
are of the order of R$100,000,000.00 (one hundred million Reais), proceeding
from the FNDE and destined for equipment acquisition.
b) Pro-Info
It is characterized
essentially as a program of education directed to the introduction of
technology in the teaching/learning process. It aims to offer to the young
Brazilian public good quality education and to promote professional
capabilities of teachers. It is a program integrated with the other MEC
actions. Its basic lines of direction had been elaborated by means of intense
discussions and negotiations in which participants included: a team of the
Distance Education Secretariat of MEC, the National Guidance on State Teaching
Secretariat (CONSED) and the State Commissions of Informatics for Teaching,
integrated by representatives of the state and municipal spheres, universities
and the general school community, including a group of educators of the
University of Sao Paulo (USP).
Structures named Cores of
Educational Technology (NTE) were to be shared by MEC for the program, with
suitably prepared groups and equipment. The two hundred NTEs were installed in
the biennium 1997-98 and functions as Internet access servers for the schools,
allowing connection with information sources from all the world. One of the
Programs' concerns is the qualification of human resources for the application
and utilization of computer science resources. With this in mind, the MEC
initiated a process divided into two stages: the formation at a specialist's level of
a thousand NTEs as multipliers and twenty five thousand teachers to be qualified
from the schools where the computers will be installed, according with the
equipment delivery time schedule. Equipment choices obey the following basic
premises: top technology should not be chosen, because it is not sufficiently
tested and robust to be used in the schools; a five years' lifetime must be
guaranteed for the equipment and a compatibility with most equipment available
in the market must be assured.
The Pro-Info also
co-ordinates the schools' adherence and the logistics of acquiring the one
hundred thousand computers. Through processes of international auction as well
as installations in about six thousand schools, all the public schools will be
able to participate in the Program using their own experience or NTEs' support.
A technological project is elaborated and a Commitment Term is signed by the
school and by the community, sharing physical installations and liberating
teachers for the qualification as demanded by computer pedagogical utilization.
These schools will have the support of at least one technician in charge to
receive the equipment and guarantee its adequate functioning. The translation,
adaptation and production of the educational software will be stimulated for
all the regular disciplines. There are negotiations in progress with similar
agencies, to expand the telecommunications infrastructure and to establish
subsidized communications tariffs for educational projects. It is understood
that the participation of SIVAM is salient in this context.
It is noteworthy that the
NTEs will have to be connected at the RNP points of presence, assuming the role
of Internet server for the connected schools. This function guarantees a
prominent status to the NTEs in the process of the National Computerized
Teaching Network as the communications aggregators for schools'
interconnections. This decision is of essential importance for the UA where it
has a point of presence.
c) Radio Programming
This will characterize
educational programs for communities below the poverty level. These programs
will go on the air daily. The communities must organize themselves around a
(radio) receptor installed in some place (city hall, church and so on) that
will count on a professor (or assistant) to follow the course transmissions.
3.2.3 Other Initiatives
for Distance Education in the UA
The Campuses of the Amazon
University network and its interconnection with the other campuses of Amazon
Universities is foreseen as part of the North Project of Internalization. In its current version the
project contemplates a set of local networks installed in each back country
campus and its interconnections to the headquarters in Manaus.
The AMCORA Project is a "A Cooperative
Environment for Constructive Learning Using the Internet", accomplished in
agreement between the Computer Science Department (ICE/UA) and the Federal
University of Espirito Santo. Its objective is to investigate models for the
description of cooperation among real and virtual agents in a constructivist
learning environment. It is intended to build a telematics support to
contribute to distance education and in-person education framed by these
models.
The Multimedia Unique
Health File for the Integrated Public Hospital through Metropolitan High Speed
Network:
the main objective of this project is to integrate the hospital health files of
the population that uses the healthcare services offered by the public
healthcare organization. It aims specifically as objectives: to facilitate
public healthcare organization data access (health tests, illnesses,
internment, handling, and so on); to improve the treatment services to people
with the availability of patients' information to any hospital, emergency
department or public healthcare center; in order to contribute to a better
diagnosis through available information.
4. The Amazon Core of Technologies for Distance Education and healthcarecare (NATESD)
a)
General
To implement and maintain
the necessary infrastructure for the production of distance education and
healthcare technologies as well as to enable initiatives in the scope of the
University of Amazon in this performance modality.
b) Specific
The Amazon always represents
a challenge for the national government. To extend the benefits of progress to
its inhabitants has required a huge effort, not always crowned with success.
Its territorial extension and the difficulties to access its diverse localities
not only on the Amazon River and its tributaries, but also in the myriad of
small rivers and bounded lakes spread across the great basin, impose obstacles
unknown in other regions of the country. This way the Amazon was not reached by
the conquests already attested in other geographical areas in the nation.
In relation to education and
healthcare, basic necessities of any human being, these difficulties add to
other, more serious ones. The traditional services to attend them always
require high investments in infrastructure, transport and sufficiently trained
human resources. However these investments are always postponed, and all kinds
of investment restrictions hamper the region, especially in its localities far
from the capitals, to remain unattended despite the longing for improvements
for its inhabitants.
The UA, an institution among
many others, involved with attending to the necessities of the region,
searching to answer the social demands for good quality education increasing
daily, is confronted with the above-related circumstances, beyond others, that
are difficult to be treated in traditional ways. Some of them are: €
All these circumstances compel the UA to search for unconventional alternatives and NATESD is salient in this context. However, this option is not a choice that is following fashions. Characteristics that make it competent to succeed under adverse circumstances in the above-mentioned demands are gleaned in its intrinsic nature and in the engineering foreseen for its functioning. The gleaned features are:
An alternative like this opens an ample field of action for the UA and gives it possibilities to take care of an array of societal needs, so far without a proper equation for the scope of its activities. Among these areas are the following:
Distance education and
healthcare are actuation modalities that offer truly new possibilities analyzed
from all viewpoints, and in this sense, the UA must not be marginalized in its
utilization.
Initially the NATESD will
function with a physical base in the Centre for Sciences of the Environment,
where it will occupy part of its facilities and will receive from that center
the logistical and infrastructural support to execute its activities.
NATESD will be answerable
directly to the Cabinet of the Rector until its implementation is consolidated,
but will have its management under the responsibility of the Director of the
Centre for the Sciences of the Environment.
To guide its performance, a
Permanent Commission formed by a representative of each academic unit will be
constituted, and also by a representative of the University Hospital and a representative
of the Centre for Sciences of the Environment that will preside over the
commission.
The Core functioning details
will be consolidated in an internal regimen, then prepared and approved by this
Permanent Commission and submitted to the Rector for promulgating, within a
period no longer than 180 days.
5. Conclusion
This contains the references
that will guide the UA in the development of activities related to distance
education and healthcare. For being the initial document for the direction, it
will necessarily to be revised from time to time with the experiences gained by
practice. Only in this way, it will assure the authority of permanent reference
for these issues.