The Consortium for the Advancement of Affordable Distance Education (CAADE) of the Global University in the U.S.A. (GU/USA) will have a meeting at the Academy of Educational Development in Washington, D.C., on July 10 to 11 to plan global activities, such as "Global Lecture Halls (GLH)" (TM) and the use of proper technology for global electronic distance education in the new telecommunications environment of Global Information Infrastructure (GII) movement initiated by the U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
This meeting has three purposes. First, it will discuss the fund-raising strategy for a later face-to-face meeting in Helsinki where international colleagues will concentrate on the institutionalizing of the Global University system, formulation of coursewares, transferring of credits, accreditation, etc. Second, it will plan future Global Lecture Halls like the one in October for a distance education conference in Costa Rica and in August 1966 for Hungarian/Fulbright Commission. Third, the meeting will describe/demonstrate CAADE activity and proposed technology. CAADE emphasizes the use of Internet.
The strategy setting should be attended by U.S. government officials, diplomats, representatives of funding sources, decision-makers on distance education and its practitioners of profit- and no-profit organizations, etc. We anticipate two to three dozen attendees for intensive discussions. Please contact Takeshi Utsumi, if you wish to attend this meeting.
First Day, 10 July:
a.m. Presentation of GLOSAS, GU, GLH and CAADE projects Report on the ITU plan of Global Telecommunication University (GTU) Distance education in New Zealand
p.m. Demonstrations of ShareView via POTS, CU-SeeMe via Internet with 2 Mbps wireless telecom, and FORUM slide show with audio teleconference, etc.
2nd Day, 11 July:
a.m. Fund raising strategy for the Helsinki meeting Issues of global electronic distance education
p.m. October GLH for a distance education conference in Costa Rica August 1996, GLH for Hungarian/Fulbright Commission, Other issues & closing
A global vision is now needed for distance education which would deal with the key issues of affordability and accessibility. Global (electronic) University (GU) (TM) consortium, a divisional activity of GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A. (GLOSAS/USA), seeks to improve the quality and availability of international educational exchange through the use of telecommunication and information technologies.
GU's main activity is to achieve global electronic distance education across national boundaries by developing a cooperative infrastructure, so as to enlarge and expand the present exchange of educational courses into a worldwide system. GU will provide underserved people of the developing countries with access to the educational excellence available from all the world's finest sources. Students could access the resources with a far greater variety of educational philosophies, courses and instructional styles than they could ever encounter on a single campus. This is "the 21st century version of the Fulbright exchange program."
The promise of electronic distance education will not be realized until we overcome the lack of accessibility in many places of the world to electronic communication technology. Likewise, many places of the world, particularly the developing countries, cannot afford much of the existing educational technology. To address these pressing needs, a group of concerned educators met in January, 1995 at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to form the Consortium for the Advancement of Affordable Distance Education (CAADE), under the joint auspices of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and GLOSAS, in cooperation with SYNECTICS in Seattle and others. CAADE's vision is a high-performance electronic communications infrastructure that can integrate mass delivery of instructional materials via satellite with innovative low-cost options for just-in-time interaction between students and teachers and collaborative learning among students. This is the so-called "Third Wave," asynchronous, just-in-time, individualized distance education, after the "First Wave" of analog terrestrial/ satellite distance education, and the "Second Wave" of the distance education with the use of PictureTel/VTEL via switched 56/64 Kbps or via digital video compressed satellite - both of which are to replicate classroom settings.
The CAADE project is a system with the use of inexpensive computer-mediated multimedia systems (CMMS) via low-cost Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) and multichanneled Direct Digital Broadcasting Satellite (DDBS) of instructional materials, in combination with highly interactive and individualized feedback and exchange/sharing of ideas/information with the use of innovative computer-mediated multimedia conferencing system (CMMCS) via Internet and various wireless telecommunications. The technologies are designed to develop critical thinking skills, problem solving, and collaboration experience.
The goal is to use experiences gained from tests on the new all-digital NASA Advanced Communication Technology Satellite (ACTS) and from recent developments of CMMS via telephone, terrestrial Internet and wireless telecommunications, in order to develop affordable and accessible alternatives to distance education. The increased capabilities of personal computers (PCs), wireless telecommunications, Internet, and digital satellites will converge in improving and reforming education instruction efficiently and affordably for the underserved world populations. A special emphasis of CAADE will be to integrate the mass delivery of instructional materials with innovative low-cost systems for post-broadcast terrestrial feedback from students to teacher and interaction among students. This approach will also help to take bandwidth pressures off the now-overburdened Internet.
The goal of the project's initial phase is to provide educators and their students with a single, integrated distance education system that has the following features:
CAADE project will demonstrate:
CAADE's proposed infrastructure will increase access to richer learning environments while enhancing interactivity and sharing of information among teachers and students. The result will be improved and reformed education instruction for the underserved population in the U.S. and around the world. In not so distant future, students in any remote locations can receive those courses from America (later from any other countries), and they can earn degrees from the Global University. On the other hand, teachers and professors (active or retired) can also transmit their courses from their offices or homes through ordinary telephone lines for worldwide broadcasting. GU has already gained wide support of prominent educational institutions, information technology specialists and industry in many countries. Global (electronic) University is an evolutionary concept with no global precedent. GU attempts to provide cooperative, experiential learning opportunities on the widest possible scale for fostering peace and sustainable development. The time is ripe for global electronic distance education.
The Senior Telecommunications Managers who participated in the World Development Conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) held in Buenos Aires in 1994 expressed the urgency of establishing a Global Telecommunication University (GTU). The GTU's mission would be to contribute to the development of human resources in the telecommunication sector, while GU is for all levels and fields. GTU was conceived by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the UN specialized agency for telecommunications issues. As freely acknowledged, ITU's planning was somewhat influenced by experiences gathered by GLOSAS and its vision of Global University.
Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D.
Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education
Founder of CAADE
President, Global University in the U.S.A. (GU/USA), A Divisional Activity of GLOSAS/USA
Utsumi@columbia.edu
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URL: http://library.fortlewis.edu/~instruct/glosas/news51.htm
June, 1995
GLOSAS NEWS was orinally posted to the WWW at URL: http://library.fortlewis.edu/~instruct/glosas/cont.htm by Tina Evans Greenwood, Library Instruction Coordinator, Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado 81301, e-mail: greenwood_t@fortlewis.edu, and last updated May 7, 1999. By her permission the whole Website has been archived here at the University of Tennessee server directory of GLOSAS Chair Dr. Takeshi Utsumi from July 10, 2000 by Steve McCarty in Japan.