<<October 3, 2000>>
Archived distributions can be retrieved by clicking on the top lines of our home page at <http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/>.

Roberto J. Rodrigues, MD <rrodrigues@paho.org>

Prof. Dr. Fredric Michael Litto <frmlitto@usp.br>

Prof. dr. Cees J. Hamelink <hamelink@antenna.nl>

Dr. Marco Antonio R. Dias <mardias@club-internet.fr>

James Savage <jsavage@raincoastgroup.com>

Prof John Eger <jeger@mail.sdsu.edu>

Dear Bob:
=========

(1) Many thanks for your time for our mtg with Fred Litto on 9/20th in your office.

The Italian restaurant in Georgetown you introduced us was very good!!

Dear Fred:
==========

(2) Many thanks for your msg (ATTACHMENT I).

(3) I uploaded your Code of Ethics for Distance Education" into

Reference Materials for Constructing:
Guidelines for Global E-Learning" at

http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/Global_University/Guideline/List_of_Materials.html

(4) BTW, you mentioned a possibility of your approaching Xerox/Brazil's $50
million distance education project to finance our project of
constructing this guidelines.

I would be very grateful to hear of your succeeding it as Bob Rodrigues'
having constructed his "Setting Up Healthcare Services Information
Systems: A Guide for Requirement Analysis, Application Specification,
and Procurement" (which is a model for our guidelines as mentioned in
the page of the above URL) with $300,000 fund from IBM.

Dear Prof. Hamelink:
====================

(5) In the above URL, you may find several very interesting materials made
by Marco Antonio Dias along with the materials of the World Conference
on Higher Education which was held in October of 1998 at the UNESCO in
Paris by him.

(6) I was very much impressed with your talk on human right during the
annual conference of the International Institute of Communications (IIC)
in Tampa, FL last month.

Pls send me by email any materials along your talk -- I would like
to add them to the above URL page.

As mentioned, I would greatly appreciate it if you can kindly join in
our team of constructing this guidelines.

Dear Jim Savage:
================

(7) It was my great pleasure to have met with you at the IIC conference.

As mentioned, I would be very happy to have you in our team of this
project, especially on the subjects of market survey and feasibility
study -- as expanding your excellent web site materials.

Dear John Eger:
===============

(8) Many thanks for your introduction of our Global Service Trust Fund
(GSTF) project during the IIC conference. The materials of this project
I gave to you are now revised and retrievable as;

(a) Project to Create a Global Service Trust Fund (GSTF) for Tele-education and Tele-health" at

http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/Tampere_Conference/GSTF/Special_Version_10-3-00.html

(b) Discussion Paper with Regard to Holding a Global Summit:
Concerning the Establishment of Global Services Trust Fund (GSTF);
IIC Foundations Meeting on the Digital Divide, Tampa Bay, Florida,
September 25-28, 2000"

http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/Tampere_Conference/GSTF/Discussion_Paper.html

(9) BTW, I was very impressed with the huge material of your community
development project in California.

Pls let me know the URL of this project.

As mentioned, I would greatly appreciate it if you can kindly join in
our team of constructing the guidelines for e-learning which was
mentioned above.

Dear Electronic Colleagues:
===========================

(10) During my attendance at the conference of the International Council of
Distance Education (ICDE) and the Brazilian Association of Distance
Education (ABED) in Sao Paulo, Brazil in August (which was organized by
Fred), I was overwhelmed with enthusiasm of attendees to have distance
education in Brazil and Latin America.

However, on the other hand, I felt rather chaos, confusion and mis-understanding, etc.,

due to the fact that Internet itself is still in
infant stage and that the current developmental status of global tele-learning and tele-health/tele-medicine is like the day of wild west" as some panelists commented.

Subsequently, I felt the urgent need for our constructing guidelines for e-learning.

(11) Fred Litto kindly accepted to lead this project, and we hope that the
first draft in web format would be presented by him at our workshop in
Sheffield, England on April 9 to 12, 2001 with a full support of the
British Council and the UK Open University -- along with a large
conference on creating an e-University in England with 260 million pound
which is to be organized by the U.K. Sheffield Hallam University.

(12) The above URL page is still in draft form. I would greatly appreciate
it if you can kindly send me your suggestions and comments.

Best, Tak
****************************************
ATTACHMENT I

Subject: Re: Code of Ethics
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 14:03:32 -0300
From: "Fredric M. Litto" <frmlitto@usp.br>
To: <utsumi@columbia.edu>

hi
many, many thanks for the delightful, delicious and productive dinner in washington!
glad you found the code of ethics useful! here's a copy, and feel free to
use it as you see fit
cordial brazilian regards!
fred
========================================

BRAZILIAN ASSOCIATION FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION

A Code of Ethics for Distance Education

Approved by the General Assembly of the Association
on 17 August 2000 in Sao Paulo

Although institutions of Distance Learning (DL) vary greatly as to their
objectives, types of activity, resources and size, it is important to attempt
to establish a set of principles applicable equally to all of them, and
respected by all of them, thereby guaranteeing the orderly and qualitative
development of DL in Brazil. Such principles can serve various functions: as
internal policies of institutions for the task of continuous qualitative
improvement; as specifications for quality standards permitting the evaluation
of DL courses; and as indicators serving to protect the interests of students
who are the consumers of such educational services. This Code should be
revised frequently since the development of new pedagogical strategies and
technological advances is a permanent phenomenon, and rules and criteria can
easily turn obsolete and become barriers for progress in the practice of DL.

The institutions affiliated with the Brazilian Association for Distance
Education agree to comply with the following principles:

1. Institutions should give ample prior notice, for any course or program
of study to be offered, of a formal plan describing in detail the
objectives, content, criteria for evaluation, nature of student work,
basic bibliography, calendar of activities, types of support to be given
to individual students, requirements for a diploma or certificate (and
the legal status of such; that is, whether or not it carries official
accreditation, and by whom), and the financial responsibilities of both
institution and individual.

2. Institutions should use as the authors of courses, teaching assistants,
and all those who will participate in the teaching/learning process and
have contact with students, individuals of proven competency and probity.

3. Institutions should maintain legal contracts, stating the obligations
and rights of each party, with authors, teaching assistants and consultants.

4. Institutions should protect the freedom of expression of instructors and
students, avoiding any type of ideological, political or religious
censorship, and creating conditions for the manifestation of diverse
tendencies of social or scientific opinion. Likewise, they should
permit their pedagogical staff to enjoy freedom in the selection of the
best strategies and forms of arranging content and methods.

5. Institutions should attempt to guarantee that the pedagogical strategy
used always be centered in the student and his or her needs, and not
centered in the instructor.

6. Institutions should amply disseminate the criteria for admission to their courses.

7. Institutions should systematically accompany the progress of each
student (through tutorials, didactic support and counseling) and
motivate each to complete his or her program of studies with the best results possible.

8. Institutions should continually evaluate the materials used in their
study programs. with special attention to:

--the academic content and the level of the approach to it;
--the methodological and pedagogical goals;
--the adaptation of the material for the type of students enrolled;
--the linguistic aspects of the material used;
--the appropriateness of the media chosen for use;
--considerations of democratic access to knowledge, of special needs,
and questions of gender, ethnicity and social class.

9. Institutions should guarantee that all information and pedagogical
methods used in their courses be the most up-to-date possible.

10. Institutions should make avaliable those human resources and material
infra-structure adequate to the type and quantity of students enrolled
in each one of their courses.

11. Institutions should offer to authors, teaching assistants and
consultants that orientation and training appropriate to the operations
and pedagogical specificities of DL, so as to guarantee quality in their work.

12. Institutions should guarantee the rapid return of material sent by the
student for purposes of correction and evaluation, and in general carry
out all of the administrative routines involving students and
institutional staff with transparency, promptness and fairness.

13. Institutions should be capable of justifying the choice of media of
their courses and of the learning materials used based on the didactic
goals of the course and on the necessities, qualifications and
possibilities of the students.

14. Institutions should experiment with new pedagogic strategies in courses
offered as long as students receive prior notification of this fact and
in no way run the risk of having their learning penalized.

15. Institutions should maintain a regular policy of research, publishing
in respected academic journals the results of research with regard to
the learning performance of their students, the didactic strategies used
by the instructional staff, the media used, and the the situation of the
workplace in the community.

16. Institutions should do all in their power to preserve the right of
privacy of their students and their instructional staff, avoiding the
furnishing to third parties of information concerning any aspect of
their private lives.

17. Institutions should, by easily identifiable means, differentiate in
course materials pedagogic material from publicity material and merchandising.

18. Institutions should never use as parts of their pedagogic or promotional
materials any texts, images or sounds for which they have not obtained
the proper authorization from the holders of the rights of intellectual
property or clear evidence that the materials are in the public domain.

19. Institutions should avoid, both in their pedagogical and promotional
material, any presentation of information purposely altered by
electronic means which leads the student to erroneous conclusions. When
the motive is clearly to avoid false representation, it is recommended
that tags or indications be used with warnings such as: "Simulation,"
"Digitally Reconstructed Image," or "Digitally Altered Information."

20. Institutions should follow the strictest criteria of honesty and
transparency in their announcements and other promotional techniques to
attract students, avoiding any type of exaggeration or fraudulent representation.

21. Institutions should assiduously respect all current laws.

22. Institutions should agree to use the Brazilian Association for Distance
Education as the focal point for resolving eventual infringements of the
present Code of Ethics, reporting to the Association any practice or act
whose nature could be considered a violation of this Code or the
interests of DL as an educational strategy.

23. Institutions formally compliant with this Code of Ethics will have their
names listed in all the publications of the Association as being "In
Compliance with the Code," and will receive authorization from the
Association to publicize this fact in the announcements of their
courses. Institutions which are proven to have violated the principles
of this Code will have their names struck from the list of institutions
"In Compliance with the Code," and will lose the right of announcing the
support of the Association for their courses.

****************************************
List of Distribution

Roberto J. Rodrigues, MD
Essential Drugs and Technology Program
Division of Health Systems and Services Development
Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization
1889 F Street, NW 4th Floor Room 4-062
(Organization of American States Annex Building)
Washington, DC 20006 USA
Tel: (202) 974-3826
Fax: (202) 974-3610
rrodrigues@paho.org
NetMeeting Server: ils.paho.org
http://www.paho.org

Prof. Dr. Fredric Michael Litto
President, Brazilian Association of Distance Education
Professor and General Coordinator
Technologies as Applied to Education
Research Nucleus Investigating the New Communications
The School of the Future
University of Sao Paulo
Av. Prof. Lucio Martins Rodrigues, Travessa 4
No. 33 - Bloco 18 - Cidade Universitaria
CEP - 05508-900 - Sao Paulo, SP
BRAZIL
+55-11-3818-4924 (secretary)
+55-11-3818-6326
Tel/Fax: +55-11-3816-8168
Tel/Fax: +55-11-815-3083
frmlitto@usp.br
www.futuro.usp.br
www.abed.org.br

Prof. dr. Cees J. Hamelink
Editor-in-Chief
GAZETTE
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR COMMUNICATION STUDIES
Director Centre for Communication and Human Rights
Dept. of Communication
University of Amsterdam
Oude Hoogstraat 24
Burg. Hogguerstraat 123
1012 CE Amsterdam
Amsterdam 1064 CL
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 20 525-2820
Tel: +31 20 448 0460
Fax: +31 20 448 0461
Fax: +31 20 525-2845
hamelink@antenna.nl

Dr. Marco Antonio R. Dias
Vice President, Global University System
Consultant of United Nations University
Former Director, Division of Higher Education of UNESCO
36, Rue Ernest Renan
92.190 Meudon
FRANCE
Tel: +33-1-45 34 3509
+33-1-45-68-3009 (UNU office in Paris)
Fax: +33-1-45 34 3509
mardias@club-internet.fr
m.dias@unesco.org

James Savage
President & CEO
RainCoast Group LLC
RCX Networks Inc
4347 W Northwest Hwy
DM8-294, Suite 120
Dallas, TX 75220
USA
Or
141-757 West Hastings St., Suite 507
Vancouver, BC
V6C IAI Canada
Tel: + 1 214 352 7306
Fax: + 1 214 352 7321
jsavage@raincoastgroup.com
www.raincoastgroup.com

Prof John Eger
Executive Director
San Diego State University
International Center for Communications
College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts
San Diego, CA 92182-4522
USA
Tel No. +1 619 594 6910
Fax No.+ 1 619 594 4488
E-Mail: jeger@mail.sdsu.edu
**********************************************************************
* 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 Mid-2000 Correspondence