Alexandre Rivas <alex_mau@argo.com.br>
Dear Alex:
==========
(1) ATTACHMENT I is my message to be delivered in the morning of 5/31st at your mini-workshop.
(2) Pls give its copy to your interpreter for his translation into Portuguese.
Thanks in advance.
Best, Tak
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Message of the Program Chairman to be delivered at theMay 26, 2000
International Workshop on Technology and Distance Education
for Sustainable Development of the Amazonia
Manaus - AM - Brazil, May 31, June 1 and 2, 2000
Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E.
Program Chairman
Founder, President Emeritus
Vice President for
Technology and Coordination
Global University System (GUS)
Chairman
GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A. (GLOSAS/USA)
43-23 Colden Street
Flushing, NY 11355-3998, U.S.A.
Tel: 718-939-0928
Fax: 718-939-0656
utsumi@columbia.edu
http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/
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Message of Program Chairman
Distinguished delegates and guests, ladies and gentlemen.
I am extremely delighted to be invited to this historic event
organized
by Professor Alex Rivas of the University of Amazonas, the General
Chairman of
this workshop.
The dawn of the twenty-first century comes with a digital revolution
and
economic globalization with a New Economy.
The digital revolution started with the invention of digital
computer and
was fueled by the advent of personal computers in the past two decades.
Internet, which is the convergence of computer and telecommunication
technologies, is now becoming the main telecommunication media of tomorrow,
accelerating the globalization of economies around the world.
The key principle of Internet is to SHARE valuable telecommunication
media.
This "sharing" principle is now being extended to the sharing of information
and knowledge, and even sharing of joy, and hence creating egalitarian
global
society. In this sense, Internet will act as the effective tool
for achieving
ultimate democracy, i.e., participatory democracy, crumbling down all
kinds of barriers, i.e, national, parochial, cultural, continental
and oceanic.
The sharing of information and knowledge also establishes a global
knowledge society where information, skills and competencies become
the
driving forces of social and economic development which will be based
on
creativity. The New Economy now burgeoning in the US totally
depends on this
creativity, which largely stems from youngsters' energetic motivation
in an open
and flexible society. This is to have them transform the world
from the
industrial age (where obedience predominated) to a knowledge age (where
creativity and competence predominate). The world renowned economist,
Joseph
Shumpeter, once coined the word "Creative Destruction." Youngsters
have to
have courage to break their shell to emerge into their new life.
Oldsters have to
encourage youngsters to break their shells. This is the essence
of teaching,
because creativity is a prudent province of Homo sapiens.
It is this confluence of social, economic, and technological
forces that
create both opportunities and challenges for global society as a whole.
The
challenges associated with this transformation can no longer be solved
with
traditional educational paradigms. Old wineskin no longer works
for new wine.
In addition to the fact that the sharing of Internet will bring
cost
reduction and productivity increase, asynchronous features of the Internet
can
also be of benefit in access to the information and knowledge, by outreach
to learners of all ages anywhere and anytime.
The Internet will rapidly create new opportunities for establishing
international distance learning and global healthcare/telemedicine
programs.
In this age, effective learning requires upgraded multimedia educational
materials that can best be distributed using broadband Internet applications.
Although the opportunities for international distance learning are
great and
with creativity flowering almost everywhere the Internet reaches, the
global
digital divide is also becoming a new dividing line between connectivity
haves
and connectivity have-nots. The use of global distance learning
and
telemedicine must be efficient and cost-effective, enabling educational
institutions that will allow us to foster global citizenship and achieve
"education and healthcare for all" at anytime and anywhere. Education
and
healthcare are two basics of human development.
In October, 1998, Dr. Rivas invited me to conduct a "Global Lecture
Hall
(GLH)" multipoint-to-multipoint, multimedia, interactive videoconferencing
from Manaus. This was at the occasion of the conference on "New
Technologies
and Distance Education." It was an extraordinary historical event
with
panelists located from Tokyo, Japan to Lviv, Ukraine, spanning almost
18 time zones.
The most significant finding at this event was the clear audio
of
NetMeeting videoconferencing on distance learning from Houston Community
College via mere 56 Kbps Internet line. This was thanks to EMBRATEL's
installing four of 34 Mbps digital satellite channels between the US
and Brazil.
We then held a highly successful International Workshop and Conference
on
"Emerging Global Electronic Distance Learning" in August, 1999 at the
University of Tampere in Finland, with financial support from the World
Bank,
the US National Science Foundation, etc...
We formed a Global University System (GUS) with group activities
in the
major regions of the globe, i.e., Asia-Pacific, North, Central and
South
Americas, Europe and Africa to establish distance learning pilot projects.
The GUS will harness the emerging technologies of high speed Internet
connectivity among institutions of higher learning in developing countries
to
provide learners of all ages with global distance learning across national
and
cultural boundaries. The goal of GUS is to foster youngsters
around the world
for the Virtual State of the 21st Century with competition for excellence
through affordable and accessible broadband Internet. A central
theme is the
integrated flow of knowledge among educational, research, industry
and trade
sectors. Inclusion of basic schools in the design would ensure
the
acquisition of this new learning culture at an early stage of education.
Dr. Tapio Varis of the University of Tampere, a former rector
of the United
Nations University of Peace in Costa Rica, accepted to be the Acting
President
of the GUS. Dr. Marco Antonio Dias, former director of Higher
Education of
UNESCO, also kindly accepted to serve as the Vice President for
Administration. I became the Vice President for Technology and
Coordination.
Each of those regional groups are now planning to hold mini-workshops
to
prepare for their large workshop similar to our Tampere event in the
near
future. They will formalize their pilot projects during the large
workshop
which will foster the establishment of GUS in their respective regions
with
the use of advanced global broadband wireless and satellite Internet
which is
to be financed by the Global Service Trust Fund (GSTF). The pilot
projects
will be disseminated as "best practices" examples for the further development
and deployment of effective international distance learning partnerships.
Thanks to Dr. Dias' introduction of UNAMAZ consortium of 77 universities
in
8 Amazonian countries to Dr. Rivas, UNAMAZ officials kindly decided
to pursue
the proposed pilot project further, and Dr. Rivas organized this mini-workshop.
The success of this Manaus event will be the first example to
other
regional activities. This occasion will also secure close partnership
between
universities in Amazon areas and the universities of the Tennessee
Virtual
University System and in the US to ensure students' learnability.
This
partnership will become the educational exchange among them in the
near future
-- i.e., "the 21st century version of the Fulbright exchange program."
During this workshop, in addition to presentations of outstanding
activities by many Brazilian colleagues, you will firstly witness exciting
demonstrations of low cost teleconferencing technologies via narrow-band
Internet for distance learning by Professor Roger Boston of Houston
Community
College. He has already prepared sophisticated web site for this
event where
you can obtain necessary software template free of charge to emulate
his
approach. He is a top notch expert in this field. Since
he performed a similar
demonstration during our Tampere event, he has been invited to China,
Hawaii,
and so on several times. I hope you will get acquainted with
him as you
may need to have his performance in your town in the future.
This evening, you will also participate in our telemedicine demonstration
and videoconferencing. Thanks to generous arrangement of AMAZONSAT,
these
will be held in one of their conference rooms where there are necessary
telecommunication lines and equipment.
The telemedicine demonstration will transmit the echocardiogram
of a
pseudo-patient at AMAZONSAT to the University of Michigan via 384 Kbps
ISDN
line for diagnosis. The 3D image of his heart will also be produced
to
examine its inside. The scanning of the echocardiogram can be
done by a
nurse, but its diagnosis requires expert doctors with several years'
experience. High demand exists for the telemedicine in global
scale. This
demonstration will also show the value of high-speed telecommunication
lines to
open the eyes of decision-makers for their installation in remote/rural
areas.
During the videoconferencing with Renaissance Center in the middle
of farm
land in Tennessee, you will see its new splendid planetarium, chemistry
lab,
multimedia video production facilities with advanced web technologies
of
walk-through, 3D rotation, panning, zoom-in and -out, etc. The
highlight will be
the view of space and universe with hi-fi sound and flashing laser
beams in the planetarium.
In the following two days, we would like to brainstorm with you
on (1) the
deployment of domestic and international distance learning and
telehealth/telemedicine in your localities and region with the use
of
currently available narrow-band Internet and ISDN, (2) the same via
broad-band
Internet when it will be available in the near future, and (3) to plan
a joint
fund raising for a large workshop in the near future at which time
we can
further brainstorm on the feasibility study for the broadband Internet,
action
plan, content development, and configuration of administrative structure,
and
business scheme, etc.
Thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts with you.
We have a lot
of things to do! Please enjoy this workshop.
****************************************
List of Distribution
Alexandre Rivas, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor
Director of the Center for Environmental Sciences
University of Amazonas - Brazil
C.P. 4208, Manaus 69053-140
BRAZIL
+55-92-644 23 22
Fax: +55-92-644 23 84
alex_mau@argo.com.br
http://www.argo.com.br/~alex_mau/alex.htm
http://www.argo.com.br/~alex_mau/workshop/workshop.htm
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* 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/
*
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