Threats and opportunities for distance education
10/25/2010
Speaking at the IDOL & ICEM 2010 Joint Conference and Media Days in Turkey earlier this month, the President of the Commonwealth of Learning, Sir John Daniel, highlighted the importance of promoting quality, equity of access and sound regulatory systems in the face of a new wave of hostility against the values and methods of distance teaching institutions.
Organized jointly by Anadolu University, Turkey and the International Council for Educational Media (ICEM-CIME) the conference focused on major trends and issues in open and distance learning.
In a presentation entitled Distance Education under Threat: an Opportunity?, Sir John Daniel (pictured) highlighted the paradox that while open and distance education is increasinlgy embraced by higher education, opposition is emerging all over the globe. He noted that this opposition appears to be a result of scepticism towards the values and effectiveness of open and distance teaching methods.
This is an important area for ICDE. The Policy Forum, which proceeded this year's ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents meeting, looked at governmental policy towards open and distance education around the world. This Policy Forum was the first of several activities in the ICDE Strategic Plan that aim to highlight the increasing number of government actions which restrict the success and impact of distance education as an instrument for lifelong learning, and hinder progress towards the UNESCO Education for All goals.
In his presentation, Sir John Daniel made reference to ICDE's work in this field and its recent initiative to launch a grant for research into the regulatory frameworks for distance education.
The full text of Sir John Daniel's presentation can be found on the Commonwealth of Learning website. Please click here for further information on the ICDE sponsored regulatory frameworks for open and distance education project grant.