INTRODUCTION

UNESCO demonstrated leadership in taking the initiative to organize, through its Communication and Information Sector, a major programme of activities in collaboration with LEARNTEC 2001. In the context of this “UNESCO Programme – Learntec 2001,” which was executed in Karlsruhe, Germany, experts from UNESCO Member States and other UNESCO partners participated, from 30 January through 3 February 2001, in a Workshop on “On-Going Distance Learning Projects in Different Regions of the World” and a Panel on “Opportunities for Partnership.” During the entire programme, the participants engaged in a process of acquiring and exchanging experience in the field of distance learning. They particularly had the opportunity to look at their own experience in the light of what is happening elsewhere in the world and against the backdrop of the latest technological developments and the evolving body of knowledge regarding the nature and meaning of learning. UNESCO’s aim with the programme was to facilitate participants’ access to practical and technical information so as to help them to draft national distance learning strategies for their countries and initiate partnerships with other institutions in different countries.

As an integrated part of the programme, participants visited the Faculty of Informatics of Karlsruhe University as well as the Corporate Research Centre of SAP, a major European software producing company, and the Research Centre for Informatics (FZI), a semi-autonomous research environment that draws on expertise of Karlsruhe University. They were equally the guests of the Klaus Tschira Foundation in Heidelberg, which gave them the opportunity for reflection on issues relevant to the building of learning societies and to familiarize themselves with the increasing role of informatics in the development of human health systems. They furthermore had the opportunity to visit the extensive display of learning technologies exhibited at LEARNTEC 2001 and to appreciate artwork displayed at the Centre for Art and Media Technology.

The participants are grateful to UNESCO (especially Mr. Mohsen Tawfik of the Communication and Information Sector) for taking the initiative and offering the opportunity of the workshop and the panel as well as to the organizers of LEARNTEC 2001 (especially Prof. W. Sommer and his co-organizers) for their eagerness to collaborate with UNESCO on this important programme.

PARTICIPATION

UNESCO selected 23 experts from different regions of the world to participate in the UNESCO Programme – Learntec 2001 as follows:

Group I (North America and Western Europe): 1 participant

Group II (Eastern Europe): 5 participants

Group III (Latin America & the Caribbean): 4 participants

Group IV (Asia and Pacific) 6 participants

Group Va (Africa) 4 participants

Group Vb (Arab States) 3 participants.

Six UNESCO staff took part as well, as did the presenter of the invited keynote address, Mr. Wadi Haddad. A full list of participants is presented in annex. The workshop and panel sessions were open to LEARNTEC 2001 participants in general, which resulted in the participation of and contributions to the discussion by a number of interested guests from outside the circle of invitees.

PROCESS

Major components of the “UNESCO Programme – Learntec 2001” were:

Exposure of the participants to recent developments in the area of electronic applications for the facilitation of learning, now often referred to as e-learning, through lectures at the above-mentioned research institutions and displays and demonstrations exhibited at LEARNTEC 2001.
Presentation and discussion, during three workshop sessions, of papers prepared by each of the participants on major distance learning experiences in their countries and regions.
Panel discussion on opportunities for partnership.
Dialogue on building learning societies.

REGIONAL REPORTS

With the exception of the North America and Western Europe region, which was present by way of a single participant, the reports of all other regions were presented and discussed by region. Regional rapporteurs subsequently summarized the reports of each region, bringing out the state of the art of distance education in their region as well as highlighting concerns and opportunities identified. Considering the relevance, richness and diversity of experiences in the various regions, the regional summary reports, together with the paper on North America and Western Europe, which was not summarized, are available separately. The remainder of this report is used to bring out salient conclusions and to make recommendations. The conclusions and recommendations are based in part on the regional summary reports and are otherwise inspired by the rich debate that took place during the workshop and the panel, as well as while participants took part in lectures and debates offered by the various institutions they visited.

SALIENT CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The State of Distance Education in the World

At the beginning of the twenty-first century distance education has become a significant reality all over the world. It is widely recognized as a valid mechanism to achieve educational goals. It is also frequently seen as the only practical way to reach such goals for significantly large populations. While in the recent past distance education might often still have been approached by governments and educational planners and leaders as something about which questions ought to be raised before it could be considered as a serious alternative to more traditional approaches to satisfy learning needs, that attitude has now largely disappeared. The fight for parity of esteem is over. An extensive body of knowledge, based on observable facts, exists that not only validates distance education as an effective and cost-effective instructional modality; such knowledge can also be most helpful in further advancing the field.

Recommendation 1: The past need for distance education to achieve parity of esteem with the traditional schooling systems has often led to the adoption of distance education practices that are based on the same outdated assumptions that underlie those schooling systems. Now that distance education has reached its desired level of recognition and esteem vis-à-vis traditional educational alternatives, time has come for it to take a critical look at itself, asking questions about how existing experience fits in with the requirements of and opportunities inherent in present day society and how it reflects the current state of knowledge about how people learn. It is recommended that such a critical attitude drive any future development in the field of distance education in UNESCO and its Member States. It is equally recommended that such a concern be placed in the context of the evolving notions of a learning society and of lifespan human development, distance education being just one modality – or set of modalities – among many others that together shape the learning environment, which is multi-modal and aware of multiple dimensions of human intelligence, at the cognitive, meta-cognitive and affective level. The scope of this recommendation suggests significantly more than a transient effort. A solid and lasting endeavour is required, on the part of UNESCO, in regard of which a major institutional environment, with a strong focus on lifelong learning and issues relating to constructing a learning society, could play a crucial facilitating role.

The Technology Factor

Distance education has evolved over at least the past 150 years. In its initial stages it relied heavily, and often exclusively, on the transmission of written text printed on paper. At later stages different other broadcast techniques, such as the transmission – whether terrestrial or via satellite – of audio signals via radio or of video signals via TV, were added to the range of possibilities to provide the autonomous learner with information thought necessary for that person’s learning process. Moderate levels of interactivity were gradually introduced through tutorial practices involving technologies such as occasional face-to-face contact between instructor and student, mail and telephony.

The advent of the Internet and the invention of the World Wide Web have, supplemented by a wide and growing range of multimedia technologies, particularly during the past decade, fundamentally changed the equation of what is and what is not possible. It has particularly created opportunities for the rediscovery of learning as a dialogic and social process through which diverse people join in the creation of dynamic learning communities, collaborating with each other while using their full human potential to continually develop their capacity to stand prepared for an ever-changing world. Such a process is one of shared construction, which, while it may contain linear elements, is greatly enhanced if the learning environment allows building blocks – of different granularity – to be brought in flexibly, as they are needed. The possibility to create, store and subsequently retrieve for use or further processing such building blocks in digital format is an important asset of today’s technology. It awaits further exploration, particularly in the context of the much needed reconceptualization of learning referred to in Item 1. In this process, the traditional roles of those who learn and those who facilitate other people’s learning are bound to change so fundamentally that terms like “student” and “teacher” become less appropriate to designate the actors in the learning environment. The human and social processes that can be created, while using these new technologies to attend in massive ways to the innate human need to learn, can and must take full account of research findings that have redefined learning as a process of participatory construction rather than as individual acquisition.

Recommendation 2: More than ever is there a need for experts in communication and information technology to work in partnership with those who, coming from a wide variety of disciplines, are in the forefront of reconceptualizing the world of learning. Without doing so there is the great risk that the use of improved technology will only reinforce and consolidate practices that, though unfortunately often part and parcel of established educational practice, have long been recognized to be counter to the development of humanity’s critical and creative capacity and of the human ability to confront the complex problems of today’s world. It is therefore recommended that the coming together of experts from around the globe during the “UNESCO Programme – Learntec 2001” be taken as the starting point of an evolving partnership to learn about learning. It is equally recommended that technology-enabled mechanisms be explored – and that UNESCO play a facilitating role in this process – to foster the development of the suggested partnership and that ways be found to further expand it. It is recognized in this context that the yearly LEARNTEC events are a good opportunity to complement the technology-enabled partnership processes with equally necessary face-to-face gatherings to discuss progress made and to inspire future action.

A Bootstrap Approach out of a Less Than Ideal World

Against the backdrop of the above recommendations, it is necessary to recognize that we are still significantly far removed from where the discussions during the “UNESCO Programme – Learntec 2001” indicate that the world should be going. Realistic pathways must be found that can help to support members of the aforementioned partnership to advance from where they are, avoiding recasting the past in new molds, but planting the seeds for a change of culture that will eventually lead to constructing new futures. A majority of current activities focus on teacher education and teaching support. Current educational practice attributes great value to the teacher. With the exception of those who believe that schooling should be done away with altogether, it is widely recognized that radical change in the learning landscape is contingent upon the transformation of attitudes and competencies among teachers. The change referred to in the previous two items requires learners and teachers to adopt entirely new roles and to be flexible in adapting their roles to learning processes that are always evolving and never static.

Recommendation 3: The take-off of the partnership among the participants of the “UNESCO Programme – Learntec 2001” will benefit from a focus. Such a focus should be chosen while avoiding to lock the partnership into a pattern of continuing the practices of the past. It is thus recommended that the initial focus for the partnership be the reconceptualization of the roles of teachers and learners in a technology-enabled environment, inspired by new visions of learning. A particular challenge in this context is not to be led by the cutting edge of what the industrialized world is able to provide, but rather by the foremost creative exploitation of what can reasonably be expected to be available and sustainably affordable for the world at large. It is equally recommended in this context that existing projects be further developed and new areas of work and research be created with a view to generating understanding of how these new roles of teachers and learners impact on the development of learning practices that are oriented towards the human capacity to deal with problems and interact constructively with continuous change. It is furthermore recommended that UNESCO play a catalytic role in this area, capitalizing particularly on its capacity to convene parties concerned and to facilitate their networking.

FINAL REMARKS AND NEXT STEPS

Experts from UNESCO’s Member States and UNESCO’s partners who participated in the “UNESCO Programme – Learntec 2001” look forward to each other and to UNESCO regarding the follow-up to the above recommendations. They recommend the use of electronic means of communication and community building to further develop their proposals as a collaborative effort among themselves and UNESCO.

In the framework of their continued collaboration and interaction they took the decision to attend specifically, and as a first set of steps, to the following two issues:

· (cross-)accreditation (to be coordinated by Dr. Bob Day of the University of South Africa (UNISA), South Africa)

· development of a pedagogical platform for e-learning (to be coordinated by Dr. Shyamal Majumdar of the Colombo Plan Staff College (CPSP) in the Philippines).

They considered opportune a continued focus on training of diverse personnel, including teachers, necessary for the sound functioning of effective learning environments. Emphasis in such training should be on new pedagogy and new technology.

The participants call upon UNESCO to continue to play an active role in this area, as a convener of similar and related events; in facilitating, promoting and actively engaging in capacity building in its Member States; in serving as a repository for relevant documented experience and accumulated knowledge; and as a networking agent among diverse developments around the globe. Within this context they wish to refer to their positive appreciation of the UNESCO-LEARNTEC partnership in this area and they look forward to their future involvement, as well as the possible participation of others, in it.

Karlsruhe, Germany, 3 February 2001

Jan Visser

Rapporteur-General

(with thanks to all participants and Regional Rapporteurs for their input)

ATTACHMENTS:

1: UNESCO Programme - Learntec 2001 (including details about timetable, chairpersons and rapporteurs)

2: Programme of field visits for UNESCO participants

3: List of participants