ABSTRACT:

The Global University System in the Philippines is a subset of the Global University System (GUS) formed in Tampere, Finland in August 1999 -- other regional activities are in North, Central and South America, Europe and Africa <www.uta.fi/EGEDL/>. This system in the Philippines will support GUS development and activities by establishing partnerships and distance learning demonstration projects in cooperation with the US counterparts. The consortium will explore technical capabilities and options, as well as match educational needs and resources, for the delivery of affordable, needs based distance learning in the Philippines and between the Philippines and the US, thus realizing global collaboration and partnership to ensure students’ learnability.
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PROBLEM OR OPPORTUNITY:

The digital revolution and economic globalization are taking us into a new era. We are moving towards a global knowledge society where information, skills and competencies become the driving forces of social and economic development. The problems associated with this transformation can no longer be solved with traditional educational paradigms. The Internet, with its extending and improving infrastructure, will be the main telecommunication media of tomorrow. It has been extended to most countries, albeit with slow-to-medium speed. The advancement of videoconferencing, telephony, broadband Internet, World Wide Web, and other communication and information technologies are rapidly creating new opportunities for establishing international distance learning and global-healthcare/telemedicine programs that will allow us to foster global citizenship and achieve "education and healthcare for all."

Broadband Internet backbone development such as vBNS and Abeline are expanding high-speed Internet access to higher education and healthcare institutions throughout the U.S.. This technology extends increased band-width to university researchers requiring the ability to manipulate large quantities of data and graphic images. In addition, this technology holds great promise for improving multimedia distance learning capabilities, especially in rural and isolated areas that are not well served by commercial network providers. The enhanced distance learning capabilities of broadband Internet are only beginning to be explored and offer an immediate benefit to the populations served by these networks.

In spite of its exciting promise and economical advantage, distance education technology has difficulty reaching those who need it most, particularly in rural area of the U.S. and in less developed countries. Although the opportunities for international distance learning are great, challenges to effectively utilizing this opportunity include technical and administrative infrastructure problems, language barriers, cultural differences, political unrest, costs, skills, appropriate matches between needs and educational resources, and lack of collaborative partners for establishing successful pilot programs.

The Global University System seeks to establish pilot projects that can be disseminated as "best practices" examples for the further development and deployment of effective international distance learning partnerships. In addition, GUS will foster the development of distance learning pilot projects using broadband Internet technology in order to enhance the teaching/learning capabilities of distance learning media.
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GOALS:

The goal of the Global University System in the Philippines is to spearhead the linkage of existing distance education and telehealth networks to establish equal access to education and healthcare in the Philippines and between the Philippines and the US.
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PURPOSES:

The purpose of the Global University System in the Philippines is to collaborate with people of the Philippines in the identification and assessment of their needs for education, professional development, technical training, and health care, and to identify how technology can be used to create a knowledge sharing network to meet those needs. The Global University System in the Philippines will promote sustained international cooperation, capacity building, and an inter-cultural foundation for the education and health care through the electronic sharing and exchange of information.

To accomplish this vision the Global University System in the Philippines will build upon progress that has already been made in order to:

• Promote accessible, affordable global distance education
  
• Increase understanding of diverse cultural values and needs
  
• Emphasize values of sustainability, equity and global peace.

This project will establish partnerships between educational institutions in Montana, Hawaii, and the Philippines in the first phase of this project and with others in ASEAN countries later. Distance learning and telemedicine opportunities will be made available to people living in the Pacific islands including Guam and American Samoa, and in the Philippines.
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OBJECTIVES:

Objective 1: Improve sustained connectivity between and among governmental, educational, health care institutions and non-profit organizations within the Philippines.

Objective 2: Promote the identification and/or creation of appropriate educational content, based upon the real and perceived needs and cultural values of the learners and participants.

Objective 3: Promote "best practices" in the distance delivery and exchange of knowledge and information through pilot projects, formal evaluation and scientific investigation.

Objective 4: Promote private sector involvement in the development and sustainability of the increased connectivity through the establishment of private-public partnerships.

Objective 5: Promote opportunities for sustainable economic development and entrepreneurship.
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PROPOSED PROCEDURES:

• Conduct a technical feasibility study for linkages between North America, Hawaii, and the Philippines;
  
• Establish needs and resources for pilot distance learning projects in the Philippines;
  
• Conduct a planning conference in Japan for further planning and proposal development with other ASEAN countries.

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ANTICIPATED OUTCOME:

• Technical feasibility study
  
• Needs assessment
  
• Pilot demonstration projects

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POSSIBLE DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS:

• Dissemination of the Emergency Medical Services for Children program in the Philippines;
  
• Information/Communication Technology training for educators and healthcare providers;
  
• Graduate and professional development programs for nurses.

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FEASIBILITY STUDY:

The proposed activities will establish feasibility studies in order to determine the lowest cost effective method to promote the use of advanced broadband Internet for the benefits of societies in the Philippines. The advantages for exploring wireless broadband Internet infrastructure for the delivery of distance learning is that it involves (i) fewer regulatory issues, (ii) less initial investment, and (iii) less ongoing operating costs. Distance Learning (DL) and teleMedicine can thus provide (i) more flexibility, (ii) more enhanced content and (iii) greater accessibility. Items to be considered for feasibility study are:

Infrastructure to possibly include:

1. satellite earth station,
   
2. microwave network,
   
3. fixed wireless broadband Internet,
   
4. Internet routers and servers,
   
5. system engineers, etc.

Content Development:

1. instructors,
   
2. programmers,
   
3. teacher trainers,
   
4. facilitators,
   
5. healthcare and instructional technology specialists, etc.

Administrators:

1. accountants,
   
2. financiers,
   
3. supervisors,
   
4. librarians,
   
5. fund seekers, etc.

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BENEFITS TO SOCIETY:

This activity is a community development approach, firstly with non-profit organizations and secondly with for-profit organizations, thus all applicable groups are inclusive. This activity is to be a model replicable to other localities and regions, as leading the use of the advanced Internet in various sectors of societies. The higher educational institution selected in the locality will have the broadband Internet satellite earth-station, and will become the major Internet Service Provider (ISP) to the local community of non-profit organizations. The higher education institution will then provide teacher training to secondary and elementary schools, and also act as facilitators and technical supporters to other non-profit organizations.
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SUSTAINABILITY:

This activity will be sustained by a regional and local coalition member of the Global University System. For-profit commercial industrial organizations will be invited into the local community gradually in the second (or later) phase of this pilot project in such a way that they will undertake a major portion of financial burden of this venture -- particularly subsidizing the Internet access fee of K-12 and secondary schools in the Philippines.
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ANTICIPATED MAJOR RISKS:

1. Government regulations on the establishment of broadband Internet infrastructure:

We plan to mitigate this risk as focusing and emphasizing on humanitarian purposes of distance learning and telemedicine, with implementation of the broadband Internet in non-profit organizations in the first phase, e.g., higher, secondary and elementary educational institutions, hospitals, libraries, local governmental agencies, etc.

2. Disintegration of local coalition:

We plan to mitigate this risk as providing the members of coalition with flexible, open, and equal information, collaboration and standings.
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EVALUATION:

Outcomes of this project will be measured in two ways:

1. Results of the mini-workshop in Manila for ongoing fund raising and proposal development; and
   
   
2. Measurements of pilot project activities:

Internet usage rates, growth rates of web sites, course wares, outreach students, number of occurrences of telemedicine events, etc. Acceptance of this venture by local community members, increase of outreach students with distance learning methodology, acceptance of telemedicine by local community, etc.

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PROPOSED PARTNERS:

Asian Development Bank (The Philippines)
Critical Illness and Trauma Foundation (USA)
Global University System (Finland)
GLOSAS/USA (USA)
Burns Telecommunications Center, Montana State University – Bozeman (USA)
Foundation for Support of the United Nations (USA, The Philippines and Japan)
Houston Community College System (USA)
Institute of International Education (USA)
Kagawa Junior College (Japan)
Maui High Performance Computing Center(MHPCC) (USA)
National Institute of Multimedia Education/Space Collaboration System (Japan)
Pacific Disaster Center (USA)
South East Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) (The Philippines)
Tripler Army Medical Center (AMC)/Center of Excellence in Disaster Management &
Humanitarian Assistance (USA)
Tripler Army Medical Center (AMC)/Information Systems Support, Inc. (USA)
University of California/Los Angeles/School of Public Health/International Distance
Learning (USA)
University of Hawaii/Curriculum Research & Development Group (USA)
University of Hawaii/PEACESAT (USA)
University of Hawaii/Maui Research and Technology Center (USA)
University of Hawaii/Maui Community College (USA)
University of Michigan (USA)
University of the Philippines/Open University (The Philippines)
University of Tennessee/Knoxville (USA)
World Health Organization (The Philippines)
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