2006-2010
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PublicationDeveloping a Common Wealth of Learning: Selected speeches of Sir John Daniel and colleagues( 2006)Part of the mission of the Commonwealth of Learning is to show intellectual leadership in the application of technology to learning. Although electronic communication is fast becoming a vehicle of choice for the discourse that sustains academic debate, the spoken and printed word retains a special role. The country visits that I undertake for COL include speaking engagements that allow me to explore a range of topics touching on learning for development. This booklet is a partial response to the requests that I receive for “hard copies” of these addresses and follows a similar publication in 2005 containing six speeches I gave in Africa.- Sir John Daniel, April 2006 Contents: 1) Mega-universities = Mega quality? / 2nd World Summit of Mega-Universities, New Delhi, 25 September 2005, Sir John Daniel, Asha Kanwar, Stamenka Uvalic-Trumbic // 2) Collaboration in the time of competition / International Conference on Open and Distance Education, New Delhi, 19-23 November 2005, Sir John Daniel, Asha Kanwar, Stamenka Uvalic-Trumbic, Zeynep Varoglu // 3) eLearning and free open source software: The key to global mass higher education? / International seminar on Distance, Collaborative and eLearning, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 4-5 January 2006, Sir John Daniel, Asha Kanwar, Stamenka Uvalic-Trumbic, Susan D’Antoni // 4) Open source for open learning / IDLEL02: The Second African Conference on Digital Commons, Nairobi, Kenya, 23 February 2006, Sir John Daniel, Paul West // 5) Open and distance learning in small states: Which models? / Ministry of Education, Mauritius, 11 January 2006, Sir John Daniel // 6) Virtual university, flexible learning: Why a Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth? / Orientation and Planning Meeting for Government Representatives of Small States of the Commonwealth National Institute of Education, Singapore, 12 September 2005, Sir John Daniel // 7) Open schooling for better working / Vocational Education and Training through Open Schooling, Kovalam, Kerala, India, 8-10 February 2006, Sir John Daniel, Susan Phillips -
PublicationeLearning and Free Open Source Software: the Key to Global Mass Higher Education?( 2006-01-04)As you can see, this paper is a product of collaboration between COL and UNESCO and each of the authors brings a different perspective to the subject of this address, which is eLearning and Free Open Source Software: The Key to Global Mass Higher Education? Our aim is to address a major challenge of the 21st century. Can we give billions of poor people access to post-secondary education? Can we connect technology to teaching and learning for their benefit? We shall explore eLearning in a global context through a wide-angle international lens.
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PublicationOpen and Distance Learning in Small States: Which Models?( 2006-01-11)What I shall do is to look at the field of distance education generally and ask what has changed and what has not changed since 1989. This will lead me to comment directly on my subject, namely the appropriate models for open and distance learning in small states. I shall conclude with an account of the Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth, in which both Mauritius and COL are involved, and then finally risk a few comments about what you should do next.
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PublicationThe Private Supply of Public Goods: Contradictions, Challenges and Choices?( 2006-02-01)My task is to evoke some of the themes of this forum, both explicit and implicit. Giving a speech a title helps to focus the speaker's mind, so my title is The Private Supply of Public Goods: Contradictions, Challenges and Choices.
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PublicationOpen Schooling for Better The Reality of Cross-Border Delivery in Higher Education: Challenge, Myth and Opportunity( 2006-02-03)Although other speakers have talked about cross-border higher education I shall begin by saying what I mean by it. Then I shall ask what role it plays in the diversifying scene of higher education? What are the challenges, the opportunities and the myths associated with it?
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PublicationOpen Schooling for Better Working( 2006-02-08)In these remarks we shall start with some reflections on the history of open schooling and on its nature. We shall also recall COL's involvement with NIOS and the open schooling movement. Finally, we shall look specifically at the challenges - but also the opportunities - that vocational education and training presents to open schooling.
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PublicationThe Greening of Open Learning( 2006-02-10)Transcript of speech delivered during the Visit to the Green Campus, Netaji Subhas Open University, Kalyani, India, 10 February 2006. Presented by Sir John Daniel, President & CEO, Commonwealth of Learning.
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PublicationHigher Education, Teacher Education, Distance Education: What is Quality and Who says so?( 2006-02-13)I have entitled these remarks Higher Education, Teacher Education, Distance Education: What is it and Who says so? These workshops are about Material Development for Quality Assurance in Higher Education. So we are talking about higher education. But we are also taking advantage of this gathering to release the new publication Quality Indicators for Teacher Education so the issue of teacher education is on our minds as well. And because this event involves COL we are also addressing distance education.
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PublicationOpen and Distance Learning and Development( 2006-02-15)My subject today is Open and Distance Learning and Development. In these remarks I shall begin by leading you in a reflection on development and its link to human freedom. This will tell you how I understand the links between learning and development. Third, I shall examine how open and distance learning can strengthen those links in various sectors. What kind of open and distance learning are we talking about? I'll talk about that too because it is a matter of confusion and debate.
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PublicationTechnology, Education and Sustainable Development( 2006-02-16)Our title is Technology, Education and Sustainable Development. Before I joined COL I spent a few years as Assistant Director-General for Education at UNESCO. Whilst I was there UNESCO's Education Sector was charged with laying the groundwork for the United Nations Decade for Education for Sustainable Development. It is a special pleasure to be in Ahmedabad, where the first major international meeting of the decade took place in January 2005. The Ahmedabad Declaration that emerged from that meeting has been very helpful to us in preparing this lecture.
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PublicationOpen Source for Open Learning( 2006-02-23)Our title is Open Source for Open Learning. COL is interested in the role of open source products in education, training and learning generally. We shall focus on the role that open source can play in open and distance learning or ODL.
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PublicationHigher Education Towards a Borderless Community( 2006-04-03)Our key question is how cross-border higher education can help developing countries provide higher education for their citizens. The challenge can be summarised in four 'A's: accessibility, availability, affordability and accreditation. // First, we shall outline this challenge by recalling the Declaration of the UNESCO 1998 World Conference on Higher Education and its sequel in 2003. This will set the scene for looking at the reality of cross-border HE on three continents and in three very different developing countries: India, Jamaica and Sierra Leone. // We shall conclude that to judge from these cases, cross-border HE is today making a negligible contribution to the provision of higher education that is accessible, available and affordable in those and most other developing countries.
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PublicationCultural Imperialism or Global Public Goods: Dilemmas of International Education( 2006-04-09)Mentioning international partnerships raises another question, which is our title today: Cultural Imperialism or Global Public Goods: Dilemmas of International Education. Is international involvement in expanding higher education in developing countries a benign expression of globalisation or sinister neo-colonialism? // We shall address this question through four others. // First, where should the drive for expanding postsecondary education in developing countries come from: the public sector or the private sector? // Second, how can providers, whether public or private, scale up postsecondary education quickly enough? In particular what should be the balance between building campuses and expanding distance education? // Third, what sorts of study programmes are needed? // Fourth, how will we know whether the expanded provision is any good? What quality assurance mechanisms are needed?
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PublicationBreaking New Ground in Open Learning( 2006-04-10)Transcript and slides of closing remarks at the Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth, 2nd Strategy Meeting for Interlocutors and Institutional Managers, Singapore, 10-13 April 2006. Presented by Sir John Daniel, President & CEO, Commonwealth of Learning.
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PublicationLearning for Development: The Role of Distance Education( 2006-04-10)I shall start by asking what we mean by development. We use the word often, but what do we imagine when we pronounce it? I shall suggest that development simply means increasing freedom. There are many sorts of freedom and many sorts of development. I shall suggest that three important sets of development aims for PNG are to be found in three sets of goals. // First there are the eight Millennium Development Goals that were proclaimed by the world's Heads of Government when they met at the United Nations in the year 2000. Second there are the six goals for education that were agreed at the World Forum on Education for All, also in the Millennium Year. Third, there are the goals espoused by the Commonwealth, the free association of 53 countries of which Papua New Guinea is a proud member. I shall then show you how COL simplifies these goals and groups them in its Plan of work for 2006-09. // Many things are needed for development to happen, but one common factor that unites efforts to achieve development goals is the need for learning - learning on a massive scale. But the challenge of learning is so huge that traditional methods of teaching are not sufficient to address it. Technology has helped us to improve the quantity and quality of products and services in other areas of human life so we must now apply technology to learning. That is the only way we can meet the learning challenge. The technology of open and distance learning has proved particularly successful. // I shall conclude my talk by showing how educational technology and distance learning is being used by COL to promote learning for development in various areas. I shall focus particularly on identifying models for using technology, models that allow us to scale up learning in such a sustainable way that they are widely adopted - what I shall call self replication. A key element of sustainability and self replication is for people to be able to do it themselves, with minimal outside involvement. The aim is for people to take charge of their own development - to aim for development without donors.
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PublicationWidening Access to Quality Higher Education: the Role of Private Universities and Open and Distance Learning( 2006-05-04)The title of the conference asks whether private universities and open universities are the future of education. My topic is Widening Access to Quality Higher Education: the Role of Private Universities and Open and Distance Learning. // Let me start by putting my remarks in context. Making quality higher education widely available is increasingly seen as one of the keys to national development and success in the 21 st century. It is not necessary to believe everything that one reads about our living in an information age or a knowledge society to subscribe to the view that wide participation in higher education is important.
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PublicationThe Role of Open and Distance Learning in Meeting the MDGs: A Global Perspective( 2006-05-11)I shall start by asking what we mean by development. What is the basic idea behind the Millennium Development Goals that figure in my title? I shall then ask about the role of learning in development and argue that it is a fundamental building block of development on all dimensions. Indeed, the title of COL's Plan for 2006-09 is simply Learning for Development. // The challenge that motivates our work is that conventional methods of education and training simply cannot meet the massive need for learning in support of development. Technology is transforming other areas of life and it is time to use it to improve radically the scope and scale of learning. // I shall describe four models for the use of technology in learning that countries around the Commonwealth are using in support of development goals. Thinking in terms of models makes you identify the essential components in the way that you are putting technology and people together. That is essential if you want to apply the model somewhere else because it helps you know whether it is suitable for the new environment. I shall give examples of such attempts at transfer.
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PublicationRemarks to the Commonwealth Youth Ministers Meeting( 2006-05-19)Transcript of remarks to the Commonwealth Youth Ministers Meeting, 19 May 2006, The Bahamas. Written by: Helena Fehr, Commonwealth of Learning. Presented by: Ignatius Takawira, CYP Director.
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PublicationQuality Assurance for Open, Distance and eLearning: Issues for Developing Countries( 2006-06-18)Asha and I have taken the title: Quality assurance for open, distance and eLearning: Issues for developing countries. Our comments will draw on a recent book in COL 's series Perspectives on Distance Education co-edited by Asha and Badri Koul. It looks closely at how institutions in developing countries are tacking quality issues and its title, Towards a Culture of Quality, is the underlying theme of our remarks.
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PublicationWhy All This Fuss About Monitoring and Evaluation?( 2006-07-11)Transcript and slides of opening remarks to a COL staff workshop on the monitoring and evaluation of achievement under the 2006-09 Plan, Vancouver, July 11, 2006. Presented by Sir John Daniel.