United States Distance Learning Association

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