Education for a Digital World Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe, 2008a

2 – Virtual Design Studios
Learning outcomes
After completing this chapter, you should be able to:
• Describe the onset of the digital revolution by
emerging technologies.
• Argue the need for design studios in design studies.
• List the benefits and limitations of conventional studios.
• Describe additional advantages offered by virtual
studios.
• Detail the steps by which potential users would post
their designs and developments, and communicate with
their supervisors and other designers across the globe.
Introduction
The onset of digital outreach with emerging technologies
in developing countries is akin to the industrial
revolution in Europe. In the scenario of education, the
revolution led to the emergence of distance learning
universities, some of which have since become among
the top education providers. Their emergence in the
Western world was followed by more open universities
in Hong Kong, India, Australia, Sri Lanka, and other
countries. Digital revolution is more than a buzz phrase;
it is bringing the previously neglected continent of Africa
into the sphere of higher education. It is expected to
bridge the digital gap by employing better and cheaper
means as “weapons of mass communication” (Tapscott and
Williams, 2008), such as e-learning, videoconferencing,
podcasting, and virtual studios, etc.
A special area of learning is how to design and display
their progress of designing and development in a studio.
Design studios are expensive to build and most African
and Asian universities cannot afford them although they
have courses of study on industrial design, interior design,
textiles and leather design, and so on. This chapter
dwells on the creation of virtual design studios and
demonstrates how virtual design studios may replace
conventional studios because they provide an extended
connectivity, in addition to enabling the functions of a
conventional studio. In doing so, Afro-Asian universities
may collaborate among themselves, as well as with
the advanced countries in the world. It may also enable
them to pursue collaborative design projects and enhance
export potential, both of which are so important
for the developing countries to bring about two-way
globalization. The fact that e-learning can deliver more
training to more people at more places in less time and
at less cost with less supervision makes it worthwhile to
explore the possibility of e-designing.
It is unfortunate that Africa has had the least per
capita enrollment in tertiary education. A study reported
by UNESCO Global Education Digest (2006)
puts it at 3.5 percent, stating it as 1.9 million against a
world figure of 81.7 million enrollments. It is also noted
that scientific articles worldwide rose by 40 percent
whereas the same fell by 12 percent in Africa during the
period 1988 to 2001 (Adekanmbi, 2007). However, the
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2006) observed that
African students are the most mobile in the world,
mainly in search of better educational facilities, with one
out of every 16 students studying abroad.
Digital divide estimates reported by International
Telecommunications Union (2007) show that during the
ten-year period, 1994 to 2004, some figures in developing
countries (with 83 percent population) compared to
those in advanced countries (with 17 percent population)
are as follows:
Internet users/100
inhabitants
Mobile telephone
users/100 inhabitants
Developing Countries
Increased from 0.03 to
6.7
Increased from 0.19 to
18.8
Advanced Countries
From 2.18 to 53.8
From 5.2 to 76.8
It reveals the fact that the digital gap continues to widen,
despite newer initiatives and emerging technologies.
Whether or not the digital divide can now be arrested
with the latest technologies and innovative use of the
same is, therefore, an open question. An attempt is made
to project the optimism in the developing world.
The scenario in developing
countries
It is necessary to understand the scenario in Afro-Asian
countries. Although they differ appreciably in their policies
and plans most of them are committed to improving
the life and education of people by legislating several
different national documents. Almost all national institutions
have formulated vision, mission, and values
statements. For example, in Botswana, there is the longterm
vision document Vision 2016: Prosperity for All
(1997), which is being implemented and monitored in a
phased manner. Alongside it are the National Education
Policy, National ICT Policy and University Policies on
Shaping the Future, as well as a Computer-aided Learning,
Digital Outreach Policy, etc. At the time of writing,
the Botswana National Development Plan 10 is being
24 Education for a Digital World