United States Distance Learning Association

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Using IT-Based Distance Education for Global Environment and Development Learning Jane Dougan We must look at today’s radical changes in technology, not just as forecasters but as actors charged with designing and bringing about a sustainable and acceptable world.… The problems we face go well beyond technology: problems of living in harmony with nature, and most important, living in harmony with each other. Information technology, so closely tied to the properties of the human mind, can give us, if we ask the right questions, the special insights we need to advance these goals. —Herbert Simon (1916-2001) Nobel Laureate in Economics, 1978 Jane Dougan, Coordinator of Distance Learning, The Oceanographic Center, Nova Southeastern University. 8000 North Ocean Drive, Dania Beach, FL 33004. Telephone: (954) 262-3621. E-mail: douganj@nova.edu INTRODUCTION The political, social, economic, and ecological complexities evident at the dawn of the twenty-first century underscore the reality of “a dramatically changed, and increasingly interconnected, world”; one that is adjusting to “new forms of worldwide communication and collaboration that were, until recently, unimaginable” (Ford Foundation, 1999, p. xi). By 2025, projections are that almost two thirds of the world’s population will be urban or suburban, and already 60% live within 100 km of a coastline. To give just one example of the ecological and socioeconomic challenges, increased concerns regarding health of the world’s oceans and freshwater bodies highlight a critical need to share knowledge of water issues and solutions regionally and globally, and to raise awareness of this among the general Volume 4, Issue 4 Distance Learning 35
population. The argument is made that any such diffusion of knowledge and awareness must be broadly-based. It should include civil society, the private sector, grassroots and non-governmental organizations, local communities, and academia, and must relate to real situations and action. Environmental problems and solutions transcend national borders. It is therefore important to communicate and understand a diversity of international perspectives on how these issues are interpreted and perceived at an individual and local level. Such concern for widespread dissemination of critical knowledge and resulting praxis is not new; arguably, what has changed radically is the form and reach of the tools by which these educational goals can be achieved. In 1980, the Belgrade Conference related to a New World Information and Communication Order, enshrined principles of “respect for the right of all peoples to participate in international exchanges of information on the basis of equality, justice and mutual benefit” and “respect for the right of the public, of ethnic and social groups and of individuals to have access to information sources and to participate actively in the communication process.” We have embarked upon the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014), a major tenet of which is the goal of allowing “students to develop the skills to understand and act on both the global and local nature of the wide range of issues that are included in sustainable development (SD)” (Combes, 2005). All well and good, but how is this to be achieved USE OF IT IN ENVIRONMENTAL LEARNING The rise of IT-based distance learning courses and knowledge networks is welldocumented. Increasingly, environment and development organizations and related learning institutions are looking to the use of instructional technologies (IT) in formal and informal learning as a tool for local and international knowledge-sharing and communication with particular regard to ecological and social challenges. There is a rich literature suggesting that the spread and reach of instructional technologies is shaping the development of new transnational networks across environment and development concerns (Albirini, 2005; Bracey & Culver, 2005; Rohrschneider & Dalton, 2002). Michael Totten is cofounder of the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology, and senior director for climate and water with the Washington-based Center for Environmental Leadership in Business. In a recent interview, he recognized all too well the environmental challenges: We face multiple problems, and in fact the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in their last report that climate certainly is not an isolated problem, it’s intimately linked to other major problems we face on this planet. For example we have more absolute poor than any other time in human history, and we have the sixth largest species extinction spasm in the history of the planet.… How do you get a Win-Win-Win-Win when you are looking at issues of poverty alleviation and creating sustainable livelihoods, without compromising other species in our search for energy and resources and water How do you ecologically sustain over the long-term, over many generations, for a large population at a level of well being (Totten, 2006, p. ) Totten is one example of those who envisages the potentially positive educational and communicative role that may be realized through IT-linkages. We have a new tool that’s emerged right at a time when we face so many problems and that, of course, is very low-cost computing power with very low-cost connectivity worldwide that now enables people 36 Distance Learning Volume 4, Issue 4
Page 2 and 3: DISTANCE LEARNING FEATURED ARTICLES
Page 4 and 5: DISTANCE LEARNING MAGAZINE SPONSORE
Page 6 and 7: SPOTLIGHT ARTICLE Barriers and the
Page 8 and 9: THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW ECONOMY A de
Page 10 and 11: Table 4. Rank Order of the 10 Facto
Page 12 and 13: ORGANIZATIONAL PERSPECTIVE STRATEGI
Page 14 and 15: Table 5. Solutions to Barriers to D
Page 16 and 17: Table 5. Continued Social Interacti
Page 18 and 19: management. In L. Lau (Ed.) Distanc
Page 20 and 21: compensation, incentives and releas
Page 22 and 23: Pedagogy --Course Development --Cou
Page 24 and 25: Quality in Distance Education A Tri
Page 26 and 27: ability to understand and apply tec
Page 28 and 29: CONSTITUENCIES IN DISTANCE EDUCATIO
Page 30 and 31: control and responsibility for the
Page 32 and 33: Kirtley, K. E. (2002). A study of s
Page 34 and 35: Distance Education in the Public Hi
Page 36 and 37: distance education courses and Inte
Page 38 and 39: need, in a distance education class
Page 42 and 43: to participate and share and exchan
Page 44 and 45: to a teacher and get to get filled
Page 46 and 47: Online High School Courses Preventi
Page 48 and 49: students. Fourth, a program that in
Page 50 and 51: independently (November, 2001). Thi
Page 52 and 53: tion. Both classes had a 100% compl
Page 54 and 55: that allow instructors and students
Page 56 and 57: own graduate experience as being fa
Page 58 and 59: tional delivery. The knowledge that
Page 60 and 61: APPENDIX B: WIMBA LIVE CLASSROOM IN
Page 62 and 63: Access to College for Nontraditiona
Page 64 and 65: coast through by quietly sitting in
Page 66 and 67: institutions. According to Shanika,
Page 68 and 69: Distance Education at the Universit
Page 70 and 71: Figure 1. UF/IFAS IT’s relationsh
Page 72 and 73: Figure 2. IFAS 2005-06 operating bu
Page 74 and 75: ida Division of Continuing Educatio
Page 76 and 77: Institute of Food and Agricultural
Page 78 and 79: Learning Objects What Are They, and
Page 80 and 81: Table 1. Goals of Learning Object D
Page 82 and 83: easoning as to how they are built,
Page 84 and 85: INTERVIEW The Perils and Promise of
Page 86 and 87: 4. Limiting the enrollment in dista
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ence since it did not figure in the
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INTERVIEW Here Come the Marines! An
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demonstrate, within a set of proced
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and this is significant, the Corps
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Ends and Means Developing a Digital
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artifacts one wants to include in t
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New Media, New Learning School for
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And Finally … continued from page
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United States Distance Learning Association

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