<<October 5, 1999>>
Joanne Curry <Joanne_Curry@sfu.ca>
P. Tapio Varis, Ph.D, Professor <tapio.varis@uta.fi>
Dear Ms. Curry:
(1) Many thanks for your fax of 9/30th (ATTACHMENT I) as cordially
inviting
me to attend your wonderful conference, TeleLearning*NCE99,
in Montreal,
Canada from 11/6th to 9th.
I received an email from Tapio Varis today saying that
he will attend
your conference also.
(2) Although not definite yet, I am inclined to attend, too.
Pls inform me
the followings.
(a) TRACK THREE: GLOBAL BEST MODELS
Tuesday, November 9, 1999
0930 - 1100 (Cote St. Luc)
Broadband Applications in Education and Training
This session seems not to have been decided yet.
Can Tapio present his talk on our Global University
System (GUS)
project in this session, and can I assist him on its
technicality?
If affirmative, the session title could be Global University
System (GUS) with global broadband Internet."
In order to support the GUS, we are now start working
on the
establishment of global broadband Internet in the major
regions of
our globe; i.e., Asia/Pacific, North, Central and South
America,
Europe and Africa with prominent group members in those
regions --
pls visit followings at
<http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/asia-pacific/index.html>;
1. Fundamental Projects of Dr. Takeshi Utsumi,
2. Proposed Global University System Structure,
3. World Regional Project Summaries,
4. Pacific/Asia Pilot Project Partners,
5. Pacific/Asia Brainstorming Summary,
6. Montana/Pacific Distance Learning Project,
7. Collaboration with Asian Open Universities,
8. Tokyo Workshop (Spring 2000)/Proposed Conference Activities,
9. Tampere Workshop (August, 1999): Emerging Global
Electronic
Distance Learning (EGEDL) International Conference
and
Workshop, University of Tampere, Finland
Our presentations may smoothly prepare for the next session;
Tuesday, November 9, 1999
1130 - 1300 (Cote St. Luc)
Regional and National Strategies
A profile of countries or regions that were
investing in
online education and developing regional and national
strategies. Presenters will feature the plans and
models
being pursued. In addition, an interactive component
of this
session will include discussions on issues such
as scaling
up programs, teacher/faculty professional development,
removing policy barriers, and financing.
(b) Your letter mentioned that meetings could be also
scheduled with
Canada's CIDA and representatives of the Department
of Foreign
Affairs."
Tapio's 9/30th email msg to you also mentioned I
would be very
anxious to make those contacts with CIDA and Ministry
for Foreign
Affairs that you mention."
I would like to know the details of these arrangements,
i.e.,
names and titles of the persons we can meet, place,
date, and
time, etc.
This is because;
1. We are now working if the University of Guelph
could become
the Administrative Center in North America for
our Africa
Region operation,
2. We are also now arranging the joint cooperation
of the US
Agency for International Development (USAID) to
enhance
their Leland program (which extends Internet at
128 Kbps to
more than two dozen African countries) with the
Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA),
3. Through Tapio's introduction to Canadian Embassy
in
Helsinki, our highly successful Tampere event has
already
been well informed to various sectors of Canadian
government
-- see ATTACHMENT II,
4. We were sorry we could not have enough time
to invite
Canadian's participation in our Tampere event.
We wish to
have their participation in our next Tokyo
workshop/conference next April (or May) with the
Canadian
government's support to Canadian educators' attendance,
as
the US National Science Foundation did for Americans'
attendance to our Tampere event.
(c) Lastly, I would like to respectfully ask if you can
provide me any
financial aid to attend your conference, since we are
still
fledgling organization with limited resources. As Tapio
said in
his msg of 9/30th that he has to plan his travel carefully,"
so
do I, since I receive many invitations nowadays.
(3) Anyway, if the above info is clear to me, I wish to attend
your
conference to rekindle our friendship with Canadian colleagues.
Incidentally, your Simon Fraser University was one of sites
of our very
first Global Lecture Hall (GLH)" videoconferencing
in July of 1986,
discussing the US/Japan trade issues due to crude oil price
fluctuations
with prominent economists of the both countries such as Lester
Thurow of
M.I.T., etc.
Looking forward to receiving your response soon,
Best, Tak
****************************************
ATTACHMENT I
September 30, 1999
Dr. Takeshi Utsumi
President, Global University in the USA (GU/USA)
Chairman, GLOSAS/USA
43-23 Colden Street, #9-L
Flushing, NY 11355-3998, USA
Dear Dr. Takeshi Utsumi:
I would like to invite you to the fourth annual conference
of the TeleLearning
NCE. The TeleLearning NCE is a Canadian Network of Centres of
Excellence
established in 1995. Twenty three universities and over 100 companies,
government departments and schools are working with our organization
to
develop and evaluate the effectiveness of networked learning using
collaborative learning and knowledge building models in K-12,
Post-secondary
Education and Workplace Training. The NCE is led by Dr. Linda
Harasim. Further
information about our organization can be found at http://www.telelearn.ca.
The conference, TeleLearning'99, is being held in Montreal,
Quebec, November
6th to 9th. Our conference keynote speakers are John Gage, the
Chief
Researcher and Director of Sun Microsystems; Roxanne Hiltz, Distinguished
Professor of Computer and Information Science Lessons at the New
Jersey
Institute of Technology; and Murray Turoff, Distinguished Professor,
Computer
and Information Science at the Now Jersey Institute of Technology.
The three
panel tracks are Research Advances, Preparing Postsecondary Institutions,
and
Global Best Models. Further information about our conference is
available at
http://www.telelearn.ca/conference.
We have heard much about your work and look forward to an opportunity
to learn
more about your vision for the Global University and discuss possible
avenues
for collaboration. If you traveled to Canada, meetings could be
also scheduled
with Canada's CIDA and representatives of the Department of Foreign
Affairs.
I hope that you will be able to attend. Please do not hesitate
to contact me
if I can provide further information. Thank you,
Joanne Curry
Executive Director
****************************************
ATTACHMENT II
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 14:56:57 -0400
To: utsumi@columbia.edu
From: Barry McLarnon <barry.mclarnon@crc.ca>
Subject: Re: Your report
Tak,
Below is my brief report on the Tampere event (in plain text
to avoid any
formatting problems).
========================================
<<October 1, 1999>> Removed here by T. Utsumi,
========================================
Best,
Barry
========================================
Report on the EGEDL meeting in Tampere, Finland (August 1999)
Although I do not work in the distance learning field, I found
the Tampere
meeting to be very interesting. Indeed, it was quite stimulating
to be among
a group of educators who are committed to tackling the challenges
of providing
affordable distance learning on a global scale. I particularly
appreciated
Roger BostonÅ[s workshop on low-cost teleconferencing. This was
a very
practical and down-to-earth exposition of how inexpensive conferencing
tools
can be used effectively with connections of differing bandwidths
and
latencies. In general, the meeting was very well organized, and
the local
hosts are to be commended for their thoroughness, and for their
hospitality.
My presentation on wireless Internet seemed to be well received,
judging from
comments I received later. Although it was focused primarily
on the use of
unlicensed spread spectrum technology, I tried to put this in
its proper
context by providing an overview of wireless technologies that
could be used
for Internet connectivity. A central point of the presentation
was that many
players are now entering the wireless Internet arena, and one
has to assess
them all. In some cases, it may make good economic sense to leverage
an
existing wireless infrastructure rather than deploying something
new. I
regret that I was unable to contribute much in the ÁbrainstormingÅEsessions,
as the proposals were rather general in nature at that stage,
but perhaps I
can provide some input at a later stage.
The Tampere meeting was a study in contrasts, and clearly showed
the enormous
gap between the ’havesÅ[ and the ’have notsÅ[. On the one hand, some
of the
players have tremendous resources with which to deploy broadband
wireless
technology; on the other hand, some must operate on a shoestring
budget, and
even lack adequate basic wireline services as a starting point.
A major
challenge will be to identify technology which will be appropriate
(in terms
of startup and operating costs, maintainability by local people,
etc.) in the
’have notÅ[ situations.
In closing, I will also note that the Tampere meeting has attracted
some
interest from the Canadian government. Although I did not attend
the meeting
as an official representative of the Government of Canada, I have
been
contacted by officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs
and
International Trade, and from Industry Canada, and asked for my
comments on
the meeting. I conveyed my perception that the Global University
initiatives
should be taken very seriously, and urged them to follow the activities
of Dr.
Utsumi, Professor Varis and their colleagues more closely in the
future. I am
pleased that my presence at the meeting contributed in some small
way to
raising awareness in Canada of this work.
Barry McLarnon
September 1999
--
Barry McLarnon (barry.mclarnon@crc.ca)
Project Leader, Radio Broadcast Systems
Communications Research Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2H 8S2
WWW: http://www.drb.crc.ca Fax: 613-993-9950 AKA: VE3JF
****************************************
List of Distribution
Joanne Curry
Executive Director
TeleLearning Network of Contres Of Excellence (TL*NCE)
Room 9701, Applied Science Building
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby BC V5A 1S6
Canada
Tel: [604] 291-5396/5397
Fax: [604] 291-3439
Joanne_Curry@sfu.ca
val@telelearn.ca
http://www.telelearn.ca
P. Tapio Varis, Ph.D, Professor
Acting President, Global University System
Chairman, GLOSAS/Finland
Professor and Chair
Media Culture and Communication Education
Hypermedia laboratory
University of Tampere
P.O.Box 607
FIN-33101 Tampere
FINLAND
Tel: +358-3-215 6110
GSM: +358-50-567-9833
Fax: +358-3-215 7503
tapio.varis@uta.fi
http://www.uta.fi/~titava
**********************************************************************
* Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., Chairman, GLOSAS/USA
*
* (GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A.)
*
* Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education
*
* Founder of CAADE
*
* (Consortium for Affordable and Accessible Distance Education)
*
* President Emeritus and V.P. for Technology and Coordination
of *
* Global University System (GUS)
*
* 43-23 Colden Street, Flushing, NY 11355-3998, U.S.A.
*
* Tel: 718-939-0928; Fax: 718-939-0656 (day time only--prefer
email) *
* Email: utsumi@columbia.edu; Tax Exempt ID: 11-2999676
*
* http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/
*
**********************************************************************
Return to: Global University System Late 1999 Correspondence
Web page by Steve McCarty,
World Association for Online Education
President