Browsing by Author "Dhanarajan, Gajaraj"

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    Access to Learning and Asian Open Universities: In Context
    (1998-11-04) Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    My presentation this morning is about meaningful access and it begins with my belief that education, as a resource, is a basic and fundamental right. [...] I wish to take this presentation further in three parts: First, I would like to find out whom the Asian Learner is. Secondly, I would like to share with you some of the barriers that impede access to the Asian Learner. Thirdly, I would like to challenge you to design initiatives that would enable freedom of access to learning by ALL those who want that access, here in Asia. This challenge is not just to policymakers and senior managers, but also to academic colleagues who hold the key to ultimately make a difference and bring about change.
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    Changing Expectations of Global Education: Charting a New Course
    (2001-09-25) Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    Changing Expectations of Global Education: Charting a new course Keynote presentation at the: 15th annual IDP Education Australia conference University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 25 - 28 September 2001 by: Gajaraj Dhanarajan (Professor Emeritus) President and Chief Executive Officer, The Commonwealth of Learning // I feel privileged to be invited once again to your conference and to share some thoughts with you on matters that are of mutual interest to you and I. My relationship with IDP goes back to its very early days and it has been an enjoyable association. IDP and its subscribers have done much to promote the cause of global education and in the process, you have changed the way this part of the world looks at learning, teaching, trading in education and education in development. When you invited me in 1996 to address you annual gathering, I had just assumed responsibility for The Commonwealth of Learning. You treated me gently by suggesting that I speak on something very ordinary like quality assurance as it applies to off shore education [a field I used to have some knowledge of]. This time, perhaps for my many sins during these past few years, the organisers have suggested that I "provide insights into global education and where it is headed, in particular, exploring how international education is building global capacity on a national, institutional and personal basis and, as a related theme, how the internet and new communication technologies are contributing to the global development of global capacity in education". This is a very tall order - very few people these days want to speak about expletives like globalisation [fearing personal safety] and far too many speak about virtual education. I have to do all this in 15 minutes while sharing this platform with some of your great academics and academic administrators. Therefore, if you notice some nervousness on my part, you will understand that this is because of the daunting challenge of sharing thoughts with an audience such as yourselves, who know so much about globalisation and its impact on education and new forms of educational delivery.
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    Open Access
    Combating Poverty through Adult Education
    (2001-03-05) Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    Combating Poverty through Adult Education Silver Jubilee Celebration Institute of Distance and Continuing Education University of Guyana Inauguration of the Dennis Irvine Lecture Series First Lecture by Professor Gajaraj Dhanarajan President and Chief Executive Officer, The Commonwealth of Learning, 5 March 2001 // May I first congratulate and compliment the University, its Institute of Distance and Continuing Education, the Vice-Chancellor, and Mr. Samuel Small on the Silver Jubilee of the Institute and in celebrating and recognising a great regional academic leader, scholar, administrator, international public servant, Dr. Dennis H. Irvine, through a Lecture Series in his honour. Secondly, please accept my sincere gratitude for giving me the honour of delivering this inaugural lecture in the Series. I am humbled by your invitation, flattered at the thought of addressing such a distinguished gathering, enormously pleased to pay homage to a great friend of The Commonwealth of Learning (COL), and at the same time to also have the opportunity to publicly place on record the gratitude of COL for the unstinting service and support Dr. Irvine rendered to COL while he was in Canada and when he returned to his native land, Jamaica. All those who have come to know him, hold Dennis, in great awe. We are constantly amazed at the erudition, energy and passion he brings to the things he does and through his powers of argument, persuasion and clever diplomacy, the contributions he has made to education, not only here in Guyana but to the greater Commonwealth also. When he invited me, Mr. Small suggested that I speak of adult education and poverty alleviation. The first I know a little about through professional experience and the second, a little bit more through personal experience. This lecture is therefore based less on scholarship of the subject and more arising out of a sense of despondency witnessing the indignities and inequalities suffered by those who have been denied greater opportunities for learning for one reason or another.
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    Community Radio Case Studies
    (2002-12-02) Parsuramen, Armoogum; Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    The case studies challenge us to consider community radio as an effective means of reaching the targets of a world free of HIV/AIDS and of each child having access to educational opportunities if only, as Boulahya declares, 'we dare to dream'.
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    Convergence of Distance and Conventional Education: International Perspectives
    (1997-09-23) Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    Convergence of distance and conventional education: international perspectives by Professor Gajaraj Dhanarajan, President, The Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver to the Cambridge International Conference on Open and Distance Learning "The Convergence of distance and conventional education: Patterns of flexibility for the individual learner" Madingley Hall, Cambridge, England, 23-26 September 1997 // 1. On September 25, 1997, all 1000 courses offered during this quarter by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), will go on-line. By a simple decree, university administrators have made the web page mandatory for all the courses in their College of Letters and Science. The web page will be constructed using a programme called WebCT. Apart from basic information such as course description, syllabus, meeting time, it will also contain readings, slides, and audio and video links to other resources (The Chronicle, August 1997).
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    Delivery of Training Programmes: Changing Design
    (1998-03-25) Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    With a few exceptions, education, as it is currently practised, has undergone little change from the traditions of some nine centuries ago. Yet, there is a strong body of evidence and advocacy that is emerging, and which argues for these exceptions to become more common place than the current situation. This presentation will attempt to look at the reasons behind the clamour and consider the requirements for, as well as the response of, the academic and training communities to the change.
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    Distance Education And The New Technologies
    (1996-08-25) Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    I have this challenge to describe to you in ten minutes the world of distance education - an educational sector that is probably the fastest growing in the world, has some 867 institutions, uses, both experimentally or developmentally, every known communication technology and reaches out to about 10 million off-campus learners in their homes, work places, clubs and regular classrooms. The past and present successes of distance education itself are good reasons for a longer discussion but the future direction of the practice and its enormous potential to educate the world would warrant at some point, a more in-depth consideration by this audience because in one way or another, distance educators are going to be working with broadcasters even more intensely than they have ever done before. In the ten minutes I have, let me make 9 points - six on the application of the technology to education and three on its implications to the practice.
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    Open Access
    Distance Education: Crossing the Distance in the Commonwealth
    (1996-05-22) Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    The Commonwealth of nations is home to 1.2 billion people; one out of four human beings on earth lives in one of the 53 Commonwealth countries. Almost half these nations are small with populations under a million while three (or four) of them are among the nine populous countries of the world. Except for the richer countries of the Commonwealth (Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore) which are aging, the others have populations that are young (those under 15 far out number those above 65); those with younger populations are also among the poorest having a higher percentage of illiteracy and employing the working populations in less skilled and low paying jobs. The need for more education and training in these less well endowed nations is clearly obvious. // By and large, this group of nations subscribe to decent and participatory government, preservation of human dignity, improving the health and well being of its individual peoples and sharing of experience with member Commonwealth countries.
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    Open Access
    Distance Education: Status and Issues
    (1996-10-21) Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    The development of open and distance learning during the last 25 years has been described as a response to increased needs and demands on the educational sector by population growth and economic and societal necessities.
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    Education for All: The Mass Media Formula
    (2000-04-26) Walker, David; Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    Community radio is an immensely powerful technology for the delivery of education with enormous global potential reach. Creating opportunities for communities to utilize this delivery system will enable disadvantaged groups to engage in a development agenda, sensitive to their needs and aspirations. In order to serve the underprivileged and rural poor, mass media such as radio must create conditions and mechanisms that provide people with genuine access to useful information. Such mechanisms will offer ways in which people can express their sentiments, opinions, views, dreams and aspirations, their fears and insecurities, their strengths and capabilities, and, of course, their ideas for development.
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    Education in Knowledge Societies
    (2000-08) Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    I feel privileged to be associated with your Jubilee Conference and to share with you a few thoughts on the delivery of education in the context of a knowledge society.
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    Education in the New Millennium: Supporting a Learning Society
    (1996-11-01) Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    The organisers of this seminar invited me to speak on the present developments and future trends in Education as we prepare for the new millennium. Those of you who know me well enough also know that while I am modestly familiar with the former, I am not very good at the latter, i.e., soothsaying, and the few times that I have attempted doing this seemed to confirm my self assessment of a singular lack of this talent. But, there are some very clever people out there in the big world who, with their computers and uncanny foresight, are predicting the developments in industry, technology, communication, commerce, environment, population, governments and humanity's knowledge base. Using their wisdom, I will attempt to speculate on some new directions for education generally. Together we could also look at what entails for distance education, particularly, if indeed such a dichotomy continues to exist in the coming millennium.
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    Open Access
    Education: Equalising Opportunities
    (1996-10-16) Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    Transcript of presentation at Charter Fellows Presentation Ceremony, University of London Institute of Education, Wednesday, 16 October 1996, at 6.30 p.m. Presented by Professor Gajaraj Dhanarajan, President, The Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver.
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    Educational Broadcasting: Challenges of Shifting Paradigms
    (1998-02-02) Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    Ladies and gentlemen, the organisers of this conference gave me the liberty to determine the subject of my presentation. I thought it might not be inappropriate to perhaps share with you some thoughts on the human development and the role and challenges confronting broadcasters of educational programmes in a Media Rich World. And, if time and technology permit, my colleagues and I here in Vancouver would like to engage in a conversation with you after the presentation.
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    Open Access
    Enhancing Higher Education through eLearning
    (2003-11-17) Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    Enhancing Higher Education through E-Learning Inaugural address presented at the: University Grants Commission (India)-Commonwealth of Learning "Dialogue on Enhancing Higher Education through E-Learning" New Delhi, India 17 - 19 November 2003 by: Gajaraj Dhanarajan (Professor Emeritus) President and Chief Executive Officer, Commonwealth of Learning // In a report to the Canadian Council of Ministers of Education on e-learning, authors reflected, "In the fifth century, B.C., Plato predicted that the invention of writing would weaken the oral tradition that sustained poets such as Homer". Yet poetry is still alive and well 2500 years later. Similarly, 500 years ago many believed that the invention of printing, by making intellectual creations easily available, would dry up the springs of intellectual creations, by ending a long standing tradition of oral debate and expressions. As we look back over the last 500 years from the vantage point of our knowledge-based society, a decline in intellectual vitality is more than a little difficult to discern, though certainly there may have been changes in some aspects of intellectual life. In fact, the existence of today's knowledge-based society is in part a testimony to the enormous intellectual energy of the last 500 years. No one could seriously argue today that the intellectual enterprise or teaching has suffered because of the intervention of writing or printing. "The new knowledge tools represent similarly revolutionary technologies, and we ignore them at our peril. Their potential is also clear. Online learning will be central to fostering the lifelong learning culture that will be essential to sustaining a civil and prosperous society in 21st century Canada."[i] // On the one hand, it would not be inappropriate to state that the last 20 years have seen some remarkable innovations in the delivery of learning. On the other hand, many would also argue that as remarkable as these innovations are, they are no more than a beginning. Developments in the next 20 years will make, as one former Secretary of Education of the USA, John W. Gardner, remarked, ". . . education as it is practiced in most schools today (look) so primitive." While this may be overstating optimism Professor Gardner's views are not totally unrealisable.[ii] The technologies that are available today and emerging in the near future have the potential to transform the business of education. However, what may be impeding that potential is the culture and tradition of our academe. Nine centuries of organised education has strong views and deep roots on what is best and what is not. Notwithstanding the reticence and the strong pull of tradition and history, we need to consider in light of the demand, quality, relevance of curriculum, appropriateness of content, strategies to utilise the potential of the new technologies to support a nation's aspirations to train its workforce to be a modern, well educated and highly competitive one in the global environment.
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    Open Access
    Face to Face with Distance Education
    (1996-07-02) Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    I consider it a singular honour and a great privilege to be here this evening to remember and pay tribute to a caring leader, a great teacher, a wonderful friend, a faithful husband and a loving father. Professor Gaddam Ram Reddy was all of these things and more.
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    From Reality to Virtuality: Commonwealth Education in Transition
    (1996-11-29) Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    Therefore, I will refrain from tiring you with details of what you already know and attempt to discuss with you a few specific challenges that confront educational planners, policy makers and practitioners as they aspire to move away from high cost, elite, institution-centred provision to one where the focus is very much student centred, affordable and mass in nature. In doing so, one invariably must consider the practice of distance education as an important option in any attempt at coupling mass education and low cost (this may or may not be so but at least that is the perception) in most parts of the developing Commonwealth.
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    Open Access
    Global Trends in Distance Learning: A Broad Overview
    (1996-02-11) Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    It gives me enormous pleasure to attend this meeting today and share with you some thoughts on the environment, issues, challenges, opportunities and practise of higher distance and open education around us. I do not wish to describe ad nauseam the typologies of distance education around the globe (there are some good accounts of these which you can read for yourself), but look at some major trends that are emerging and draw some conclusions from these as to what future distance education globally may look like in the next century. As you would appreciate, given my experience, I am guided by what is happening in the dedicated distance teaching institutions around the Commonwealth rather than the entire world. However, important developments are taking place elsewhere which will have an impact on all of us. Therefore, with your indulgence, I will attempt to wrap this discussion by drawing on developments peripheral to education per se especially in areas such as the information highway which in one way or another will have a role to play in our sector.
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    Globalization, Competitiveness and Open and Distance Education: Reflections on Quality Assurance
    (1997-11-11) Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    Globalization, Competitiveness and Open and Distance Education: Reflections on Quality Assurance by Professor Gajaraj Dhanarajan, President, The Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, to the Asian Association of Open Universities, Eleventh Annual Conference "Quality Assurance in Distance and Open Learning" Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 11-14 November 1997 // 1. Colleagues, allow me a minute to thank the organisers of this Conference and the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) for this delightful opportunity to share some thoughts with you on a subject that is becoming increasingly important for education, generally, and higher education, particularly. The AAOU which is in its eleventh year of existence, has become an important forum for distance and open education in the region. Increasingly, it is being seen as a remarkable role model for professional distance education associations across the developing world. At the same time, its members are also held in high regard by peers across the world for the single minded way in which they have gone about creating their own forum to discuss issues of importance to their professional development. We, at The Commonwealth of Learning, are immensely proud of our association with you; in one way or another we have found occasions to work with your association on matters of mutual interest to both our organisations. We would like to continue this arrangement and explore opportunities to strengthen our ties even further in the future.
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    International and Inter-Institutional Collaboration in Distance Education
    (1998-04-20) Dhanarajan, Gajaraj
    I will share with you, a few specific challenges that confront educational planners, policy makers and practitioners as they aspire to move away from high cost, elite, institution-centred provision to where the focus is very much student-centred, affordable and mass in nature, in a global context. In doing so, one invariably must consider the practice of distance education as an important option in any attempt at coupling mass education and low cost (this may or may not be so, but it is the perception) in most parts of the developing world.