Another contribution from Carol Daunt:
- "Sir John Daniel, President & CEO, The Commonwealth of Learning, Canada addressed the topic: Digital Divide to Digital Dividend: What Will It Take?
He first posed the question: Does e-learning fit the bill?
In developing countries there are 4 billion people who need education. Can we combine connectivity to learning resources? He spoke about open educational resources (OERs) that apply to teaching & learning. These have the basic principle of sharing. There are several barriers to sharing: not invented here, copyright, non-digital formats.There are 4 questions to ask about e-learning:
– Accessible? – connectivity, OERs available
– Appropriate?
– Accredited? How to promote trust & confidence? UNESCO guidelines
– Affordable?Barriers to e-learning
*Issues of bandwidth:
– Telecoms legislation & monopolies
– Little joint buying – institutions should club together to buy bandwidth
– Poor policy & management* Non-technical issues
– institutional development
– Academic issues – choice of program, being student centred
– National & international environment – need for partnerships &
collaboration
– Management – propriety or open source?**Some sites for follow-up:
COL Learning Object RepositoryLMS Evaluation Tool User Guide
Lots of reports about e-learning across the Commonwealth:
http://www.col.org/resources/consultants/index.htm
Digital Dialogues 