Blockchain Papers

Breno Jacinto Duarte da Costa, Márcio Ferro, Mohamed Yassine Zarouk, Alan Silva · 6 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Raimov Ulugbek Yorkinbek ugli

This article analyzes the possibilities of developing an adaptive learning model based on Web3 technologies (blockchain, smart contracts, tokenization, and decentralized applications) and implementing it in the higher education system. The study used mathematical modeling and systems analysis techniques to provide a learning experience tailored to the individual needs of students. The model provides for a correspondence between the level of knowledge of students and the complexity of educational materials, updating the level of knowledge based on a Bayesian model, storing assessment results on a blockchain network, and an incentive system through tokens. The experimental results showed that the Web3-based adaptive learning system increased the level of mastery by 18% and motivation indicators by 22%. Also, transparency in assessment and timely feedback mechanisms have built student confidence.

George Veletsianos, Elizabeth Childs, Robin S. Cox, Isabel Cordua-von Specht · 8 authors

Online and distance learning is a practice situated in environments—places, spaces, and times, with particular people, in particular contexts, with particular technologies, within particular institutions. In other words, the practice of online and distance learning is not wholly individual: it is situated within broader environments. In this reflective article, we argue that to understand learning in online contexts, it is important for researchers to understand the broader environments in which learners are located. We illustrate this argument by presenting a narrative of a fictitious learner pursuing a degree in decentralized finance.

سيد طنطاوي

The aim of this research is to develop some concepts of web3 for the education technology specialist, to present a proposed training program for web3 technology, to define the concepts and technology of web3. There is a statistically significant difference at the level (0.05) between the average scores of education technology specialists in the pre and post applications to test the web3.0 concepts in favor of the post application. In light of the significance of the differences using the "T" tests, the square of ETA (2η) was calculated using the equation Eta square (2 η) to find the magnitude of the effect of the independent variable (training program) in the dependent variable (development of web3.0 concepts), and by calculating the value of the square of ETA (2)) (Al-Amiri, 2006, 233), reached (0.98), which indicates that the training program has a significant impact on the acquisition of some concepts of web3.0, where this value shows that the training program contributed (98%) of the total variance In developing these concepts,It is a large percentage indicating the effectiveness of the training program in developing web3.0 concepts for the target research sample, which is the education technology specialist (if the effect size = 0.2 is the effect is weak, and if the impact size = 0.5, the effect is moderate, and if the impact size is = 0.8 The effect is significant), (Asr, 2003). From the above it is clear that the training program contributed to the development of the targeted web3.0 concepts for education technology specialists, as it found a difference between the median of the pre and post applications to test the concepts of the web3.0 in favor of the post application at the research group, which averaged (51,85) compared to (16) , 75) for pre-application, with a large effect size of (0.98) according to the ETA square measure (2η) of the effect size.

Alexander Mikroyannidis, Allan Third, Niaz Chowdhury, Michelle Bachler · 5 authors

This paper presents the initial implementation, deployment and evaluation of a pilot case study, aiming at supporting lifelong learning through the use of Blockchain technology. This pilot case study uses Blockchain technology for decentralising lifelong learning and providing lifelong learners with transparent and immutable educational accreditation in the form of Smart Blockchain Badges. At the same time, lifelong learners are provided with personalised recommendations that help them reach their personal and professional learning goals. This paper presents a web-based prototype implementing the main scenario of this pilot case study, as well as the initial deployment and evaluation phases conducted with stakeholders from the education community.

Stephen Downes

While previous work has recognized the potential for open badges and blockchain to play a role in online courses, this potential has yet to be realized in a fully decentralized cMOOC. This paper describes the design objectives of an application that integrates open badges and blockchain with a cMOOC. The work described was undertaken during the offering on an online course, and thus development took place in an actual course context with interaction with course participants. The full workflow from course content to storage on the blockchain is described, and some concluding comments are offered on the results of this course, and the potential for future applications.

Purna Prabhakar Nandamuri

Emerging economies are building up their education systems by overcoming the major challenges of finance, infrastructure and planning and control of resources and internal processes through ‘school-based management’ reforms. To achieve relative competitiveness, school management must deal with these challenges. Governments consider decentralization as an indispensable step in efforts to provide quality education. Many successful schools set up committees and undertake improvements in planning. The Indian school education sector is not an exception. This study sought to explore the nature of planning function being practiced at the school level as a source of competitive advantage. A sample of 188, among the population of 557 secondary schools in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh in India, was selected through stratified sampling. The primary responses were collected through a structured questionnaire administered to the respective school heads and analyzed with chi-square and simple descriptives. Decentralization is a management strategy which demands flexible implementation with a balance between the autonomy and the characteristics of its beneficiaries. Improvement of the quality of education needs the functioning and management of schools to improve. The findings indicate that the planning framework is either nonexistent or inactive in a majority of public sector schools. The inclusion of community members in school management is comparatively better in the public sector schools run by the State government of Andhra Pradesh than those run by private managements. The academic, infrastructure and financial planning activities are highly centralized, giving no scope for innovation and autonomy at the school level.

Catalina Laserna, Henry Leitner

faculty instructional time is a critical resource at all universities, but particularly in a major research institution like Harvard. Operating on the periphery of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard’s division of Continuing Education is often at a disadvantage when attempting to recruit senior faculty. However, through its distance education program and its innovative use of technology, the Harvard University Extension School has been able to offer online some of the finest courses taught to the residential Harvard College students without making extraordinary demands on faculty. as a direct consequence the school is being repositioned from a peripheral role as Harvard's “evening school” for local area adults to one that is available 24/7 to a growing population of enthusiastic students around the world. as the program matures, it has gained visibility and high regard by a growing number of senior faculty and by the central administration. This paper describes how Harvard Extension School’s distance education model has evolved over the past ten years using the innovation life cycle methodology1, and illustrates how case studies inform the development of the program. ContinUing HigHer eDUCation review, Vol. 72, 2008 163 InnOVATInG AT THE PErIPHErY TO EXTEnd HArVArd'S COrE ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT Harvard University is decentralized, with authority distributed among the central administration and the 14 schools that comprise it. the president and provost are at the administrative core of the university, and if there is one unit that is its academic core, it would be the faculty of arts and sciences (FAS), which includes Harvard College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), and the division of Continuing Education (dCE), of which the extension school is a part. the degree of decentralization ensures a certain measure of independence on the part of the different schools; at the same time, for smaller units like DCe, it can mean operating on the margins of the parent institution. However, every unit of a major research university such as Harvard is mindful of its responsibility to maintain the school’s values in everything that it does, and a commitment to academic excellence is of primary importance. Established a century ago as an “experiment in popular education,” the Extension School was charged with using its resources to benefit the local Boston-area community by making it possible for nontraditional students to receive a liberal education. By maintaining a policy of open enrollment and affordable tuition, the extension school has remained faithful to President Lowell’s original vision. For the most part, the Extension School has reflected the orientation of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, offering courses primarily in the liberal arts. Comparatively recently, the school has introduced professional courses in disciplines such as computer science, management, environmental management, educational technology, and journalism in order to respond to student demand. With the advent of distance education technologies, the scope of President Lowell’s vision has been extended to include a global audience. DISTANCE EDUCATION AT HARVARD EXTENSION Although invited to do so, Harvard University did not take part in the higher-ed “dot-com” revolution of the 1990s in a meaningful way, at least not on a broad institutional level.2 This is perhaps due to both Harvard’s decentralized structure in which individual schools decide what works for them, and the fact that faculty are highly autonomous with respect to their teaching responsibilities. By the same token, individual units have a certain freedom to experiment with technology provided that they stay within their own budgets and do no harm to the Harvard brand. 164 ContinUing HigHer eDUCation review, Vol. 72, 2008 Harvard dCE’s mission contains a commitment to “experimenting and innovating with courses and teaching techniques that enhance the learning of non-traditional students.” Within dCE, the Harvard Extension School in particular has a tradition of embracing technology not only to improve and to complement the learning process, but also to make possible the delivery of its courses to what we today call “distance students.” Such efforts began in the 1950s, when the Extension School offered courses via educational radio and television, and continued in the 1960s when courses were presented via kinescope to US navy personnel on board Polaris submarines. During the fall semester of 1997, the extension school carried out a controlled experiment in which a computer science course—“Communication Protocols and Internet Architectures”—was offered to both local and geographically distant students who were unable to attend lectures in person.3 The format of that course remains as the template for the majority of courses offered since that time: the instructor’s lectures are recorded and digitized, and relevant materials (blackboard illustrations, slides, in-class video, etc.) are integrated with streaming audio and video for on-demand access through a web browser. An example from the “Communication Protocols” course is shown below; the PowerPoint slides on the right-hand side are synchronized with the audio/video presentation that appears on the left. InnOVATInG AT THE PErIPHErY TO EXTEnd HArVArd'S COrE ContinUing HigHer eDUCation review, Vol. 72, 2008 165 Building on this initial success, courses offered during the next five years (1997-2002) were primarily in computer science for the following reasons: broadband Internet bandwidth was extremely limited; our production and delivery infrastructure was crude and occasionally unreliable; and the computer science student pool, comprised mainly of experienced hardware and software engineers, could provide much of its own technical support and was accustomed to receiving feedback via email. Within a relatively short period, the distance education operation attracted attention. in 1999, a technology writer for the Boston Globe wrote favorably about the Extension School’s early efforts in a feature story, “Plugging in to the Electronic Campus.”4 internally, the central administration, through the Office of the Provost, funded a study co-conducted by one of the authors that centered on two questions: How fast should the program grow? in what ways was online education transforming teaching and learning at the Extension School? Evaluation results showed clearly that faculty and students received the program well, and the growing percentage of students who were participating exclusively online proved that Extension school students were becoming comfortable with teaching and learning in virtual environments. The report helped sharpen the vision for a multi-year process of strengthening the distance program by recommending that DCe focus on pedagogy and evaluation research, as well as continue to develop student-centered tools to enhance the online learning experience.5 By 2003, the production process had become more sophisticated, as professional videographers replaced part-time student help, and the production and delivery platforms were reengineered to become stable enough to permit scaling up. Administratively, the school developed a system for online course evaluations and a method for compiling distance education student demographics through online surveys. By that point, dCE was prepared to invest heavily in infrastructure and personnel. renovated space created a professional environment for production, research and development, and allowed for staff expansion. Between 2004 and 2007, these investments paid off in the form of a rapid increase in the number of online courses offered: InnOVATInG AT THE PErIPHErY TO EXTEnd HArVArd'S COrE 166 ContinUing HigHer eDUCation review, Vol. 72, 2008 InnOVATInG AT THE PErIPHErY TO EXTEnd HArVArd'S COrE THE HARVARD COLLEGE DISTANCE EDUCATION INITIATIVE As the IT production and delivery infrastructures became stable and sophisticated, and we learned that students and faculty were satisfied, the challenge was to attract more of Harvard’s senior faculty to take advantage of our increased capacity. Over the years, various Harvard College faculty had expressed interest in teaching for the extension school, but many felt that they could not afford the time to teach an additional course in the evening. In a brainstorming conversation we came up with a simple solution to this seemingly intractable problem: If Harvard faculty did not have the time to come to us, could we go to them? in other words, could the same course that was offered during the day to Harvard College undergraduates be offered simultaneously online to extension school students? to test this idea we sought a suitable faculty member, i.e., someone who was tenured, well-respected, and interested in expanding his teaching to new audiences using digital technologies.6 in the fall, 2000, Professor H. t. Kung, the william gates Professor of Computer science and electrical Engineering, agreed to offer his CS-143 course, “Computer networks,” to an online extension school audience. as a world-renowned authority on computer networks, Prof. Kung had been experimenting with distributed 1998-99

Bogadi Nage-Sibande

Botswana is a landlocked semi-arid country sharing boundaries with Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Its land area is 581,730 square kilometers, most of which (about 60%) is covered by the Kalahari Desert. The desert, consisting of rolling sandy land with wide plains, depressions, and pans, covers a major part of the southern and western parts of the country. The eastern part, characterized by fertile grassland savannah, accounts for nearly two thirds of the population. The country has four seasons: summer (November-January), autumn (February-April), winter (May-July) and spring (August-October). Most of the rainfall is experienced during the summer time. Temperatures range from a maximum of about 40°C (104°F) in the hottest parts of the country during summer, to a minimum of about 2.6°C (approx. 37°F) and an occasional 0.0°C (32°F) in some places, in the coldest winter months (Central Statistics Office 2000).The country’s enumerated population was 1,680,863 during the 2001 population census, with an average annual growth rate of about 2.4%. The population structure indicates a youthful population, with a mean age of 24.5. The age below 15 years constitutes about 36.7%, while those between 15 and 64 constitute about 58.3% of the total population. The population at 65 and older constitutes an average of 5.0% of the total population (Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, 2003). The population is mainly concentrated along the eastern belt of the country, where there is better rainfall and cultivatable land, and comparatively fewer people are scattered in the western parts of the country and the Kalahari Desert. Noted from the 2001 population census were declining fertility rate—from 6.6 in 1981 to 3.3 in 2001, increasing mortality rate, and a decline in life expectancy from 65 in 1991 to 55.3 in 2001. Due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the crude death rate rose between 1991 and 2001 from 11.5 to 13.5 (Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, 2003). The fall in life expectancy, notwithstanding a significant rise in living standards, is largely due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic that has been most severe among the most disadvantaged, especially women and girls who constitute more than 50% of the population and within the most economically productive ages of 20 to 49 years.Setswana and English are the official languages, with English being the most used as the language of government and business transactions. In comparison to most African countries, Botswana is culturally homogenous, and nearly 80% of the population belongs to one ethnic and linguistic group (Tau, 2003). For close to 4 decades since independence in 1966, Botswana has maintained a stable democracy, experienced a stable government, and a steadily expanding economy. This has contributed to a steady growth in the education system.In 1966, the landlocked Botswana was labeled “the least educationally developed British African colony … caught in a poverty trap,” with no infrastructure or financial resources and extremely limited developed human capital (Colclough & McCarthy 1980). A railway line connecting the two then-apartheid neighbors of Northern Rhodesia in the north and South Africa in the south was the only reliable mode of transport along the eastern part of the country. There was not a single tarmac road. Communication across the country depended on a very poor postal service. The western part of the country, which is mainly covered with the thick sands of the Kgalagadi Desert, with difficult terrain, was then accessible by fourwheel drive vehicles only (Mokaeya, 1986).The above scenario posed a grave access challenge for the education sector of an extremely poor country situated within a politically hostile immediate environment and a fast-moving international economy. The first 10 years of independence were an uphill struggle for the education sector, services impossible to take to some parts of the country. Botswana’s tradition of shuttling between village, cattle-post, and land areas throughout the year compounded the problem. Seasonally, boys followed their fathers to the cattle posts and girls their mothers to go and mind crops at the land areas. The much more nomadic groups in the Kgalagadi and other remote areas were the hardest hit with inequalities of service provision and scarcity of education opportunities.Until 1935, there was neither a government school nor an education department within the country (Mokaeya, 1992). At the time, the few Botswana students who obtained secondary or higher education qualifications did so through South African and Southern Rhodesian institutions. Secondary education was introduced in the Botswana education system in the late 1940s through efforts of the Roman Catholic Church, followed later by the establishment of a tribal college. Mokaeya (1992) notes that it was only toward independence, around 1958, that plans to develop the education system of Botswana began. Records indicate that, by 1966, there were 251 primary schools with an enrolment of 71,546, serviced by a teaching force of 1,673 (Ministry of Education, 1986). There were nine secondary schools with 1,531 students between 89 teachers, most of whom were expatriates, and only about 40 Batswana graduates at the time (Crowder, 1998). With this state of affairs, government (a major employer) depended mainly on expatriates.At independence in 1966, development and expansion of education was identified as a major tool for Botswana’s development process (Crowder, 1984) through which government intended to make available a stock of trained local manpower capable of servicing the country’s economy.Table 1 reflects, by percentage of age group, expansion of enrollment at the various levels of the education system between 1965 and 1975. To date, there is only oneAs noted by Tau (2003), education developments in Botswana are attributed to two landmark policies. The first National Policy on Education, adopted in 1977, put more emphasis on access, mainly to basic education and, to a lesser extent, other levels. Consequently, educational opportunities were substantially expanded at this level, as evidenced by increased enrollments between 1979 and 1991. There were about 700 primary schools by 1991, while secondary schools increased from 23 to 230 during the same period. Teacher training colleges increased threefold from two in 1979, while vocational institutions were introduced in most of the major population centers. Implementation of the 1977 National Policy on Education saw a massive expansion of school places. Between 1979 and 1991, enrollments in primary, secondary, and the University of Botswana rose by 91%, 342% and 315% respectively. Corresponding expansion was experienced in the teacher training sector, where the Ministry of Education succeeded in reducing dependence on expatriate teachers and achieved a significant drop in pupil-teacher ratio, from 1:40 in the 1980s to 1:27 in 1999 (Nhundu, Kamau, & Thutoetsile, 2002).As part of the Ministry of Education policy to increase access into postprimary education, a 10-year basic education program is being implemented, consisting of 7 years of primary and 3 years of junior secondary schooling. Examinations are taken at the end of each level to qualify students for entry into the next higher level, depending on availability of places. A 100% transition rate has been achieved for primary to junior secondary school while, in 2003, about 52% of students who completed Junior Certificate were able to gain admission into senior secondary schools (Tau, 2003). The remaining 48% find places in private secondary schools, brigades, and distance education. The transition rate into senior secondary schools is expected to increase to 100% by the year 2016, as per the National Vision 2016, when Botswana will attain 50 years of independence. The second education policy, the Revised National Policy on Education (RNPE), was adopted in 1994 following recommendations of a 1993 Presidential National Commission on Education. Though quantitative expansion of education is still a major concern, the second and current education policy focuses mainly on qualitative improvement of the education system.The 1993/1994 review of the education system identified several key issues that will continue to guide developments in the education sector in Botswana over a period of 25 years from 1994.Equity in terms of delivery of social services, including education, remains a far cry since rural/urban disparities are huge, mainly due to the terrain. To date, even though the situation has changed dramatically, and primary as well as secondary level education is reaching most parts of the country with comparative ease, the western part is still the most disadvantaged. There is still one university in Botswana, and the majority of students access university education outside the country, which is a huge expense for the government. Access, equity, and equality of opportunity are still a challenging concern for the education sector.Another serious challenge for education and all sectors of the economy, threatening to undermine or even reverse achievements recorded so far, is the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Botswana, with a prevalence of about 35.4% within the 15–49 years population (Ministry of Finance & Development Planning, 2003). HIV/ AIDS has far-reaching implications for efforts so far made in education, resulting in slow pace of expansion and service improvement. Absenteeism, increased morbidity, and mortality of teachers affect productivity adversely. Learner attendance is also highly affected, with students either ill or nursing relatives. Currently, more and more children of school-going age are becoming heads of families because of loss of parents and the need to look after orphaned siblings. The epidemic is reported to be more prevalent and claiming life mainly in the 15-49 age bracket, which is the most sexually active and also including the majority of trained personnel. In a few years, the economy might be back to where it was at independence in terms of skilled and experienced manpower if people continue to die at the present alarming rate. Another challenge for the education sector is to provide adequate support, knowledge, and skills to students and teachers to cope with the challenges of HIV/AIDS.Since the colonial era, through independence, and until 1973, adult Batswana needing formal qualifications could only enroll with institutions from outside the country for correspondence courses, mainly through South African, British, and Rhodesian institutions. For university education, the University of South Africa was the main correspondence institution in the region (Mokaeya 1992). Within the country, government and nongovernmental organizations offered sporadic and nonexamination courses of various lengths. Churches were the first to offer adult literacy classes. Government departments started offering nonformal courses immediately after independence.According to Mokaeya (1992) the first traces of formal distance education date back to before independence when an Elementary Teacher Training project of 1960-1965 was undertaken at Lobatse Teacher Training College, facilitated by colonial masters from Mafeking in South Africa. By the time the project came to an end, it had demonstrated the viability of distance education as an alternative method of training teachers. Hence, government attempts to overcome severe shortages of trained primary school teachers due to post-1966 demographic pressure for education should be attributed to the success of the 1960-1965 project (Tau, 2003). The local Ministry of Education’s first attempt at an organized distance education program developed in Botswana was another teacher-training project for primary school teachers, from 1968 to 1973 in Francistown. About 700 teachers joined the program, receiving self-instructional printed materials at their schools, supported by radio broadcasts. Occasionally the student teachers had access to some face-to-face tutorial assistance from tutors at the Francistown Teacher Training College, as well as regular assistance from qualified teachers from their own schools. By the end of the project in 1973, about 88% of the teachers had graduated (Mokaeya, 1992). The success of this project influenced the government to set up the Botswana Extension College (BEC). Two consultancies by UNESCO and International Extension College (IEC) UK spearheaded the establishment of Botswana Extension College in 1973, with financial support from the Ford Foundation and professional guidance for setting up the institution from IEC. BEC became the first government secondary-level correspondence school in Botswana.BEC’s mandate was to offer a wide range of subjects’ using ‘correspondence courses, radio and face to face methods. The college intended to offer Junior Certificate courses to upgrading adults and young people who did not do well in their examinations at this level and then move on to offer Ordinary Level courses.In addition to formal courses leading to examinations, BEC also offered nonformal courses to the adult rural population, and some extension workers in other Ministries. The college and the Ministry of Local Government and Lands ran a program for Village development Committees, with Ministry of Agriculture a program for 4B clubs (clubs that provide youth with agricultural skills—ed.) and a land reform program through radio learning groups (Mokaeya, 1992). BEC, in collaboration with UNESCO and the Extra Mural Services of the University of Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland, which later became the Institute of Adult Education, initiated consultations for a functional literacy training program that targeted about 250,000 adults and youth. A literacy project by BEC was consequently implemented from 1977 to 1978 (Mokaeya, 1986).Experiences of BEC resulted in the creation of the Department of Non-formal Education (DNFE) in 1978, following recommendations of the 1977 National Commission on education. DNFE created several units, among them a unit responsible specifically for the development and delivery of a distance education program. The distance education program of DNFE got entangled into the problem of inadequate Junior Certificate places in secondary schools for primary school leavers. DNFE found itself having to admit children of schoolgoing age (i.e. primary school leaving), into Junior Certificate program, which was for adults and youth who were from the Junior Certificate program and to their The unit developed printed materials for and secondary school teachers as support at learning centers. The department experienced several in the of distance education among them were the as identified by the 1993 National Commission on the of the second National Commission on Education the establishment of a distance education college that take over the of the distance education unit of the Department of Non-formal Education. Consequently, a distance education the Ministry of College of and in by a of and with the of expanding education and training opportunities through the of distance education is Batswana with education and skills through access to distance learning and the of a of of the current education policy are to Batswana for the transition from a economy to the economy to which the country (Ministry of Education, The education and training to that the country in as a major for Botswana, by them an education for for of education are the school system and face-to-face and institutions do not cope with for education and training or the of skilled manpower for Botswana’s economy. to increase access to education and training and to of the 1993 National Commission on Education distance education as an part of the education Kamau, and the that the Botswana government should develop and the of distance education. The government has since serious to the of distance education as a alternative for increasing access to education and training in To this end, in addition to the establishment of a college of distance education, the 1993 Commission on Education also that the for Education of the University of Botswana be to in the development and delivery of distance education in the two institutions are the for distance education in Botswana, there are other government and private organizations that distance education, for development through departments at in the capital of Botswana, and to the country. the the college a system through learning and mainly within schools in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. services remote who no or limited access to secondary school and school and services of the school teachers outside school over and during school Ministry of Education of education and sharing of courses in the secondary school level of Junior Certificate and Botswana Certificate of Secondary Education For the program, the student is made up mainly of upgrading since the school system is able to about 100% of primary school into junior secondary schools. The of the student than is made up of in the senior secondary program For the school and the college recorded an enrolment of by within about years of Currently, the college in of on an annual and has a student of about The college is able to take about through examinations at levels. the same examinations of the Ministry of Education as the of the schools in the country. A comparative of between distance education and school indicates that is very well since first examinations in level, was from and for and For the examinations, government schools achieved higher in A to the of is very 1 that is at with government schools, even though the of is still addition to school the college has also introduced and professional courses at level for professional business basic and for The courses are offered to of the or in with other organizations for groups of their or courses the college and the development and delivery of are mainly in with and other Botswana & Botswana, Ministry of education, Ministry of Botswana and are among the and who either courses and services or in and services of the in with level through distance education, in collaboration with other institutions in the as to Kamau, and by the University of Botswana to offer distance education date back to when the Certificate in Adult Education was by the then Institute of Adult Education, in collaboration with the Department of Non-formal Education to workers literacy group teachers in the DNFE National By the time this program was to to the in Adult Education, over literacy had been The main mode of delivery for this program materials supported by face-to-face and a in Education distance education program, to and professional qualifications of some primary teacher to teachers could not be to courses in institutions primary school the primary teacher training sector had no to cope with of At that time, the four colleges of primary education and could only admit about 10 teachers per college. At this rate of it was that it take an years to teachers through the face-to-face the distance education program a The mode of delivery for the program is mainly printed supported by and face-to-face during school This program is a between the Ministry of Education and the University of The university and and training of and and for that are at of Education during school To the and the of and examinations, the university has from among college who in close with college The Ministry of Education is responsible for the program and other resources that be to the program. this end, the has a within the Department of Teacher Training and to the of this program within various departments terms of infrastructure for support services, in of education are at the of the program. The is also using Education for of materials and The is a policy for of all educational resources in Botswana to be in support of nonformal and education a of this that plans are at an to from which schools or for the University in Education will be in secondary schools and Education will be to so that and other support services will be within of from that the opportunity to as their during the and social with a The in Education program has demonstrated that with it is to of resources as and when the students are on for Education also a in in Development through distance education. This program is offered with the which is the and the that the The first of 25 students has completed the program, which has been other government the Ministry of has been on the in the of distance education to to level since In collaboration with the Foundation this initiated an upgrading program for about to The program used a of printed face-to-face and as well as and to support in identified and them to the in By of had been to the nursing level through distance education. this program came to an end in it demonstrated that distance education be to courses in and other professional courses the of the areas 1994 Revised National Policy on Education that education institutions should make formal for courses and government departments and colleges are the of distance education in and for into development in which their in distance education in other and distance learning institutions all over the while continue with their At for more than 25 graduated from various distance education institutions in of from the of Botswana, and South Africa in Southern Africa, and and in the has graduated more than in the first of the English for The second and are expected to be around per The is to about over a period of the Botswana College has initiated with and to of offering some of courses through distance education. other institutions are distance education to training and in the environment of the Botswana, education and training are as two of the most of education has a very alternative for the provision of opportunities for people to continue learning while go on with their and or With for education and training that expansion of the face-to-face and limited distance education has one of the most to up access and opportunities for The mode has itself to be it is the support and financial

Manuel Moreno Castañeda

I consider it important to begin this article by making an essential observation: research on distance education in Mexico is still in the embryonic stage, in spite of its long history. One indication is that among the lines of research defined by the Mexican Council on Educational Research, the leading organization in the field in Mexico, distance education does not even appear. Only recently, in the last few years, has an effort been made by educational institutions and professionals interested in doing research in this field, to set up working associations, such as the Distance education Researchers’ Network and Technologies for Learning.Since research on distance education is just beginning, it should come as no surprise that the definition of its field of inquiry and its conceptualization are imprecise as yet. As a result, the theory and methodology of research into its history are in their infancy, and studies must resort to methodological tools taken from other fields or use information technology and tele-communications as partial reference points. The limitations of these approaches make it difficult to offer in-depth explanations of the current status of distance education, not to mention justifiable proposals for its further development.It is the intention of this article to look for criteria that take the historical character of education as a starting point. In its origins, education was open and ongoing, a process that is innate in the human condition. In its process of institutionalization, it took on the form of school systems, with a structure and a legitimizing function that excluded those who could not, or would not, adapt to schools’ schedules, spaces, and learning methods. This situation created a need for educational programs that were not bound by such rigid conditions. On the basis of these considerations, I undertake this study with the following premises as my starting point: (a) education is a sociocultural product that had a beginning, has evolved, and will one day disappear; (b) distance education develops just as school-based education does, but with an inversely proportional growth curve, because as schools make their admissions and operating processes more closed and rigid, alternative educational options arise; and (c) research into the history of distance education needs its own theoretical and methodological approach, because it is a field that is still in the process of formation. It is hoped that this article will contribute to the development of the field.To begin, it is important to take a look at the concepts of open and distance education. Depending on the context, they are sometimes taken as synonyms, and other times their uses can be confused.Unlike in other places, where open refers to unrestricted access to educational institutions with no need to demonstrate previous studies, in Mexico the concept refers to the fact that traditional school processes are made more flexible; for example, class attendance, the school calendar, and examination periods for certifying learning. The documentation of previous studies, however, is still a prerequisite.Distance education refers more often to the methodological and technological strategies that make it possible to deliver educational contents and provide communication among participants in an educational process even though they do not coincide in space and time. As paradoxical as it may sound, the driving force behind distance education is the desire to do away with distance.In view of the ambiguities in the use of the term, and not wishing to enter into a debate about its concept or use, I will consider distance education not in its literal meaning, but as the intention to overcome the distances that deny many people access to educational services. In short, and from a social standpoint, we should conceive of distance education as more than a way to overcome distance in space and time, for which a number of methodological and technological resources are available. Our biggest challenge is to overcome the tremendous social, cultural, and economic distances reflected in unequal access to educational services.The purpose of this article is to establish a perspective for the historical analysis of distance education by proposing categories that coincide with the premises that underlie this mode of education: (a) greater and more equitable coverage; (b) self-reliance and independent learning; and (c) flexibility in adapting to participants’ living conditions. From this perspective, there are many approaches for looking at the changes that have taken place in distance education, such as educational policies and their social orientation, distance education models that have been implemented, and the most typical approach, the technological supports on which they are based.Among the factors that have had an impact on the origin and development of distance education, there are three that I consider crucial: (a) the development of traditional classroom education, which limited the times, places, and modes available for learning, and thus led inexorably to the creation of new modes for those who could not go to school; (b) the development of different media and modes of communication that allowed for contact among people from different locales who were participating in the same educational process; and (c) the educational policies that were implemented in each stage of the history, and the role played by distance education. These considerations will give structure to my analysis within the historical framework outlined below, which does not so much mark boundaries between periods as indicate educational policy shifts that led to new perspectives for distance education.Itinerant distance education was characterized by the distribution of educational materials designed for independent study and subsequent visits by educators to students’ places of residence, as in the cultural missions created in 1923 to provide service to rural professors in their own community. This model was formalized in 1945 with the Federal Teachers’ Training Institute, which provided an array of support services, combining long-distance communication like radio and mail service with face-to-face individual and group advisory sessions, as well as different learning situations such as correspondence courses, complementary oral courses, individual study, local study and advisory centers, and group classes. The institute was phased out in 1971, but its methods have survived in teacher training institutions.Correspondence courses date back to the nineteenth century, when regular postal service was institutionalized, and continue up to the present day. In fact, educational programs that limit their activities to distributing courses, giving online educational support, and evaluating by Internet, are in essence offering correspondence courses.The creation of telesecundarias in the 1960s ushered in large-scale use of educational television that now reaches over 30,000 locations. The coverage and student-support strategies used in this experience give it a massbased, standardized quality, which allows it, on the one hand, to reach large numbers of students, while on the other hand running the risk of offering inadequate support to each student in his or her regional and personal circumstances. Face-to-face instructors are an attempt to remedy this situation. Television has also been used for educational purposes in higher education, but not on a systematic, massbased, and exclusive basis.The 1960s witnessed the influx of the universities into distance education, a new era marked by the opening of the great European universities that worked within these educational frameworks, such as the Open University in Great Britain and the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) in Spain. Along these same lines, the National Autonomous University of Mexico created the Open University System, aimed mainly at people who for one reason or another could not study within the traditional system. The Open Teaching System of the National Polytechnic Institute, while not distance education per se, did represent a milestone in the creation of nonclassroom formats of higher education. When the National Pedagogical University (UPN, in its initials in Spanish) created the Distance Education System in 1979, it became the first public institution of higher learning in Mexico to offer this type of education on a nationwide basis, by setting up distance education units in every state. The UPN to this day has continued to give priority to the use of printed materials for independent study, while maintaining the Saturday advisory sessions that require professors and students to meet face-to-face. In this sense, the itinerant model of the last century is still in use.In the 1990s, the e-learning rush began in earnest, owing to the development of the Internet, which made communication access easy and readily available, thereby providing distance education with an excellent platform for educational communication, access to information, and more reliable learning processes. The momentum continues to grow as technological innovations open avenues for new educational possibilities.We must not lose sight of the uneven Development of these processes. Many institutions remain faithful to the structures and practices of the time of their founding, and new proposals are often overlaid on traditional processes. Socioeducational practices tend to encompass processes that are simultaneous and disparate, even recurrent and regressive. It is not at all uncommon to find the most traditional teaching methods presented with the latest technology, or trend-setting pedagogical innovations supported by traditional technologies. We can therefore conclude that the new media are not about to displace the old ones; instead, they serve to diversify the menu of possibilities, in an ongoing search for the best options for distance education.In general, it can be stated that distance education in Mexico is a mixture of the traditional and the modern, forever caught in a tugof-war between the inertia of routine on the one hand, and rupture and progress on the other. Some aspects of the educational system become more flexible, such as classroom time, curricular options, and so forth, while other control mechanisms typical of school systems remain firmly entrenched, such as the centralization of teacher-training processes and an overall school-bound vision of educational situations.The following categorization shows different organizational models for defining the relationship between educational modes and institutions.The National Pedagogical University in its beginnings could be considered emblematic of this category, when its Distance Education System controlled more than 70 centers all over the country and concentrated academic, administrative, and educational processes. This model, with its mass production of materials, permits greater coverage and exclusive, specialized personnel, but at a cost: standardization, lack of regional variation, and obsolescence of materials due precisely to their mass production. This model eventually came under the fire of teachers’ unions and decentralization policies and gradually lost ground. Now the academic oversight of curricula remains centralized, but the administration has been delegated to the state governments, and the professors themselves are in charge of evaluating the students’ learning processes.An illustrative case is the National Autonomous University of Mexico, which organizes its Open University System on the basis of its existing structure, by simply adding to each department a division that takes care of open education, with a separate faculty, but the same programs, curricula, and calendars as the classroom-based system. It has the advantage of making use of resources that are already in place, and offers the possibility of introducing flexibility into the classroom-based system, but runs the risk of imposing school-bound structures on distance education.With this model, nonclassroom education can have its own curriculum, with specially developed spaces, materials, and personnel. This obviously implies an extra investment, but allows for an organizational model that is designed expressly for this kind of education. An example is the National Polytechnic Institute, which in 1974 started up its own program of nonconventional education—the Open Teaching System—with its own curriculum, personnel, study materials, and administration. More recently, in 2005, the Virtual University System of the University of Guadalajara was created, with its own administration and its own academic offerings.With these models, the members negotiate their academic, administrative and technological responsibilities. This format also allows for optimal use of resources, manageable production scales, and regional and institutional adaptations. Problems can arise, however, if collaboration and cooperation policies are not renewed and the results of joint work are not distributed evenly. Of the examples of this type of collaboration in Mexico, the EDUSAT Network deserves special mention. It provides a technological platform that covers a significant portion of the population of Latin America, and serves educational institutions using all modes of learning, at all levels.Outside influences are undeniable in our educational culture in general, and in distance education in particular. This influence is evident in a number of aspects, including: (a) the way institutions from countries with preponderant economic power have gained easy entry into our educational systems by taking advantage of their technological advances, their excess academic production, and the need for flexible versions of higher education to meet the demand of Latin American institutions; (b) the tendency to imitate foreign models, either conventional universities that incorporate distance education in different ways, or universities that engage exclusively in distance education; or c) alliances among institutions from different countries, alliances that are not always balanced or beneficial to our needs and purposes.The history of distance education in Mexico is highly complex, and reflects the multiple causes to which it owes its origin, as well as the outside influences that have shaped the programs and institutions that work in this educational mode. The origin and subsequent trends are characterized by the following features:There is a certain amount of confusion and ambiguity in the definitions given to the concepts of open and distance education, and even more in the uses to which these concepts are put, which makes it difficult to delineate the field and object of study with any kind of precision.Distance education systems tend to preserve their original format; they are unwilling to abandon the strategies, methods, type of material, and media they used when they first started up. It is thus common for programs to include a hodgepodge of learning and teaching strategies, resources, and media from all the stages of distance education.Distance education has been used primarily for compensatory purposes, intended for people who do not have access to traditional education, rather than as a strategy for diversifying and strengthening learning processes.Depending on the role that we wish to assume in the global knowledge society, we can aim at a whole range of goals: from being knowledge generators, to being knowledge disseminators, or merely consumers. Here is where key decisions must be made that will allow us to move up from our status as technology and information consumers, which relegates us to a position of dependence, and aspire to full participation in the globalization process by means of our own home-grown proposals, rooted in our particular identities and social projects.In terms of organization, the trend seems to point to institutions that engage exclusively in distance education, or that combine it with face-to-face education, which is the tendency that is gaining momentum and moving toward proposals involving formats without borders.Depending on the coverage strategies, we have, on the one hand, large-scale, standardized systems for the majority population groups that demand education and, on the other hand, personalized systems with greater academic and technological support for the privileged few. An alternative proposal for distance education should offer quality education for all. If distance education is to continue promising a ticket to better living conditions in Mexico, it needs to open up more and overcome distances in time and space, but above all, social, economic, and cultural distances.The problems affecting distance education are serious, numerous, and hard to overcome: dependence on imported projects, standardization, a bureaucracy that leads back to traditional school-bound formats, traditionalism, a lack of adequate policies, and isolation. However, we must not overlook its strengths, such as the existing infrastructure, the wide range of valuable proposals that have already been made and, above all, the spirit of collaboration that characterizes us, and that only needs greater organizational efforts to become a consolidated force.

Roger C. Schank

Universities are scrambling to get into the distance education business. They see the computer as vital to this enterprise, but it is not obvious that they know why it is vital. Universities want to deliver courses via the Web. They want to do this because they are frightened that someone will do it before them and gain more prestige or more student revenue. The people who are putting their courses on the web are not doing it because they are interested in the exploration of new teaching methods. They do not see the web as a revolutionary instrument. But that is just what it is.It is easy to imagine that universities have suddenly become fascinated by the power of the computer, or that they have begun to worry about the poor and only moderately bright kid from Dubuque who will never get to Boston let alone attend Harvard. But what is really going on has nothing to do with computers or with education for the masses. 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Stan Ketterer

Journalists and journalism educators worldwide are indebted to Pierre Salinger, the former ABC-TV reporter and press secretary under President John F. Kennedy. Salinger unintentionally issued a wake-up call when, based on apparently fictitious information on a home page on the World Wide Web, he alleged in November 1996 that a U.S. Navy missile downed TWA Flight 800 in July, killing the 230 people aboard (Associated Press, Nov. 8, 1996). accusations sounded the alarm that traveling on the so-called Information Superhighway is fraught with danger (Coates, 1996). They also reinforced the importance of teaching students how to critically evaluate the credibility and to ensure the accuracy of information. The U.S. government was quick to rebut accusations, which he said were based on an assessment by French intelligence (Anderson,1996: Dine,1996). Salinger said he had received a tip via an electronic mail message and checked it out on a Web page (Coates,1996). Ironically, it was credentials as a journalist that made the story credible to the main- stream press (Achenbach, 1996; Turner, 1996). The rumor had been circulating months among discussion groups on the Internet, whose members had better tools to evaluate it and had largely rejected it. One source interviewed a story in Newsweek (Turner, 1996) put it this way: Well, Pierre, if you'd get a little Net-savvy, you'd figure it out. Learn to surf, Dude. Initially, the press appeared to consider Salinger the target of a cruel hoax and thus appeared to feel some sympathy him. Journalists also recognized the ability of Salinger and the Internet to mislead and increase public confusion (Dickey and Hosenball, Nov. 25, 1996). But the press' treatment of Salinger changed in March 1997 when he went on the attack again, this time contending that a blip detected on radar was proof of his friendly fire theory (Goodman,1997; Rashbaum,1997). The FBI said the blip was an unarmed Navy reconnaissance plane (Associated Press, March, 21, 1997). For example, the San Francisco Examiner's editorial called the allegations Salinger's Sad Obsession (March 16, 1997). The Rocky Mountain News (March 5,1997)proclaimedSalinger's recklessness and lamented that although this explanation of the crash doesn't begin to make sense, it do untold damage. But the opinion section article that offered perhaps the insight into how this episode affected journalism and how it illustrated the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet as a information source appeared in the Arizona Republic on Nov. 18, 1996, with the headline A Tangled Web. The article noted for all its potential being an extraordinary, enriching opportunity unlimited access and delivery of information, the Web as a source of news is a place rife with pitfalls. Pointing out Salinger was snagged by some phony information, some official-looking trash, the article emphasized most anybody, anywhere and at any time create an item on the Internet and make it look credible. Importantly, the article said online information doesn't follow standards and can be disseminated with a high degree of anonymity. Noting the information had attached itself in a circuitous way to a famous newsman's reputation, the commentary concluded by pointing out the Internet's dangerous potential of gaining unearned respect and credibility from millions of people. Tackling the Web If a veteran reporter like Salinger be easily snared by misinformation on the Web, what about a student reporter? Should journalism schools teach students the skills needed to assess the credibility of information on the Web? What about the accuracy of that information? Should colleges and universities graduate students who critically assess information and verify its accuracy? As the Salinger episode indicates, the credibility of the profession, which a recent Pew Research Center survey indicates has fallen sharply in the past 10 years (Nelson, 1997), is also at stake. …