2005 LINC Symposium & Workshop Conference Proceedings
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2005 “Impacting Social and Economic Development Through E-Learning” 3rd Annual International Symposium Learning International Networks Consortium 2 7 & 2 8 O c t o b e r PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM OF THE LEARNING INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS CONSORTIUM OCTOBER 27 AND 28, 2005 EDITED BY ELIZABETH MURRAY TABLE OF CONTENTS Forward Opening Remarks by Dr. Richard C. Larson 1 Welcoming Remarks by Dr. Philip L. Clay 4 Panel One: Challenges and Solutions for Virtual Universities 6 E-Learning: Challenges and Breakthroughs in the Middle East 7 by Dr. Milad Fares Sebaaly A Look at a Number of E-Learning Initiatives in the Middle East: 15 Problems and Solutions by Dr. Said Hammad Jahama Distance Education: Quality Education or Second Rate? 21 by Dr. Naveed A. Malik Important Lessons Learned about Delivering Virtual 26 University Education by Dr. Laura Ruiz Panel Two: Innovations in Teaching and Learning 33 MyCyberTutor by Dr. David E. Pritchard 34 Creatively Diverse Teams by Dr. Douglass J. Wilde 39 Community of Inquiry Model for E-Learning by Dr. Reuven Aviv 43 Panel Three: Distance and E-Learning for Social and Economic Development 48 Higher Education as a Stakeholder for ICT in Development 49 by Dr. Royal D. Colle Bridging the Digital Gap and Establishing a Harmonious Society 54 through ICT: A Case Study of the Education to Alleviate Poverty Program at Tsinghua University by Dr. Feiyu Kang ICT-Based Mentorship in Science, Technology and Engineering 58 in the Middle East by Dr. George H. Atkinson The Community Learning Center Program: What We Have Learned So Far 66 by Dr. Laura Ruiz Enhancing Human Identity and Social Capital of Rural Teachers 71 through E-Learning: Experience of Living Knowledge Communities in China by Philip Kwok Eai Hui E-Learning Initiatives To Reduce Poverty and Support Socio-Economic 74 Development: Case Study – Laos by Sisavanh Boupha E-Learning for Chilean Teachers by Dr, Jaime Sánchez 78 Panel Four: E-Learning Across Borders 84 The UNCTAD Virtual Institute of Trade and Development: 85 Building National Trade Policy Capacity with Universities by Peter Froehler The E-Lane Project: Reinforcing E-Learning in Latin America 90 by Dr. Carlo Delgado Kloos The E-Learning System of Inha University by Dr. In-Joo Chin 95 Panel Five: E-Health in the Emerging World 98 The Use of E-Learning for Health Care Education by Dr. Honorio Silva 99 Integrating E-Learning into the U.S. E-Health Environment 102 through Standards by Dr. Ross D. Martin Project Globe: Excellence in Education for Physicians 108 Working in Primary Health Care Services by Dr. Pablo Pulido E-Medicine in Action by Dr. Sean Rowland 112 Distance Learning in Continuing Medical Education 116 by Dr. Robert H. Rubin Using Blended Learning to Strengthen Management and Leadership 120 across the Globe by Jennifer Stavrou Rodine ICT Initiatives in Africa: Challenges and Achievements 126 iLabs: Carrying Out Experiments across the Digital Divide 127 through the Internet by Dr. Jesus del Alamo A Strategic Approach to Open Educational Resources (OER’s) 133 at the African Virtual University by Dr. Peter Kuzvinetsa Dzvimbo Eduvision E-Learning System: the Mbita Project in Kenya 138 by Matthew Herren and Maciej Sudra The Will to Move Forward by Dr. Alex Pentland 142 The eGranary Digital Library: A New Tool for Information Equity 147 by Cliff Missen Panel Seven: Adaptation and Use of MIT’s OpenCourseWare 152 in Developing Countries Bringing MIT’s OpenCourseWare to the Developing World 153 by Anne H. Margulies Use of OpenCoursWare: Opportunities and Challenges 157 by Dr. Mohamed-Nabil Sabry The Africa Internet Technology Initiative (AITI) 162 by Bryant Harrison The MIT-China OCW Initiative: Adaptation, Implementation 165 and Dissemination of MIT OCW with Partners in China by Sean Gilbert OpenCouseWare Beyond MIT by Dr. Shigeru Miyagawa 168 Forward The third annual international symposium of Learning International Networks Consortium (LINC) took place on October 27 and 28, 2005 at the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. LINC, an MIT managed initiative begun in 2001, is an international community of individuals and organizations that focuses on higher education in emerging countries and the role that technology can play in expanding educational reach. It is a collaboration of practitioners and scholars from around the world whose purpose is to share best practices and to learn from each other’s mistakes, in order to move forward with successful distance learning projects in tertiary education in their respective countries. The theme of the 2005 LINC symposium was “Impacting Social and Economic Development through e-Learning,” and the conference brought together education officials, practitioners, researchers, and funders from twenty-four countries - each with a singular view of this highly critical topic. The thirty-six conference talks contained in this book present a frank and comprehensive overview of current successes and continued challenges in the ambitious international effort now underway to spur development in the emerging world through ICT initiatives. Conference participants heard a wide range of powerful presentations including, among the many others, talks by: the Science and Technology Adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State; two idealistic young innovators from rural Kenya; a government official from impoverished Laos; and the Rector of Pakistan’s Virtual University, who asked for a moment of silence in memory of victims of his nation’s recent deadly earthquake. Each speaker brought a unique expertise and passion to the discussion, and the symposium succeeded in its goal of approaching this important subject from a broad spectrum of valuable perspectives. As you will discover as you read through these pages, conference speakers reported on exciting innovations and remarkable collaborations in the current international effort to expand distance and e-Learning to all parts of the developing world. The following quote from Professor Mohamed- Nabil Sabry of the French University of Egypt eloquently expresses the message of mutual respect and collaboration echoed at the symposium: “The ultimate goal of Open Educational Resources will be to train educators all over the world to incorporate available quality content and up-to-date knowledge from around the world into their own university courses, in a way that preserves their cultural identity while at the same time providing them with a space where they can add their own creative production. In this regard, while it is good to give a hungry man a fish, it is better to teach him how to fish.” Opening Remarks Presented by Richard C. Larson Mitsui Professor Engineering Systems Division and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Founder and Director of the Learning International Networks Consortium MIT Good morning everyone. Welcome to MIT and to LINC, 2005. We started LINC as an MIT volunteer activity late in 2001. The focus of LINC, as you know, is advanced technology in higher education, advanced educational technologies in developing countries. At LINC, we are interested in leveraging the technology to get quality education to underserved people in developing countries. As you also know, LINC is not a content producer but rather a community of professionals - professors, e-university presidents and rectors, practitioners, as well as dedicated people from industry, foundations, and governments. Our focus on technology is not narrow engineering, but rather we are interested in embedding the technology in the social and learning systems in which they are to function. Issues of pedagogy, culture, traditions of learning, financing - all these are just as important as bandwidth limitations, supplies of reliable electricity, computer operating systems, and other bits and bytes. Speaking of bits and bytes, as you will see in the next two days, the engineers at MIT have figured out how to get around lack of telephones and lack of reliable electricity in villages in South Asia and Southeast Asia. LINC 2005 is our third international symposium. Many agree that the speakers we get here - including rectors of major virtual universities, leading thinkers in the field, and important e-Learning innovators - represent a group of people that is difficult to find elsewhere at any other conference. Thanks to our volunteers and LINC presenters, we have been able to publish the proceedings of both our LINC 2003 and 2004 conferences, and the 2004 proceedings are now available to you in hard copy at the registration desk of this conference. We sincerely thank Liz Murray who has tirelessly and unselfishly served as Editor for these volumes. With very limited resources, LINC has managed to support other activities during its 3- plus years of existence. For instance, LINC has supported AITI, the African Internet Technology Initiative. AITI is an MIT student-led activity that sends fifteen to eighteen students to Africa each summer to teach teachers as well as students in computer- related subjects. You will be hearing from the AITI current president tomorrow in Panel Seven. LINC has also worked with the Pfizer Corporation, a LINC supporter. Pfizer has helped fund us this year, and we sincerely thank them. LINC has worked with Pfizer to create and install a trilingual website in Beijing. This website, called “Good Clinical Practices” (GCP), is a LINC initiative which was started and is now successfully completed. Originally this website was created in Spanish and English, and it continues to be used to educate doctors in Latin America to become certified as clinical researchers. Now that Mandarin Chinese has been added as a third language, thousands of physicians in China are being educated in GCP to become certified clinical researchers. LINC has also generated considerable interest in at least two initiatives that will require substantial funding to become reality. One is what we call the “LINC Greater Middle East Initiative.” Former and current LINC participants from the greater Middle East, from the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Syria, Pakistan and Algeria, got together last year at the 2004 LINC Symposium and invented this initiative.