Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Crossing Boundaries: Making Global Distance Education a Reality

1997; Athabasca University Press; Volume: 12; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

2292-8588

A. W. Bates, Jose Gpe. Escamilla de los Santos,

Online and Blended Learning

New computer and telecommunications technologies offer the possibility of global access to education. In theory, these new technologies should allow potential learners to access any course they want, at any time, from anywhere in the world. Perhaps most important of all, through widening choice, the new interactive technologies could empower individual learners on a global basis by making education more focused on their needs rather than those of the local providers of education. That is the promise. But what is the reality? The reality is that inter-national information-technology based distance education depends on developing curriculum that is relevant to learners wherever they happen to reside. It depends on well-developed information technology infrastructures whatever the location of the students. It depends on developing curricula that transcend local cultural and language barriers. And it depends on providing high quality learner support services wherever the learner happens to be. These are challenging requirements, and there are few, if any, guidelines or precedents to follow. It is a challenge that the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the Monterrey Institute of Technology set out to meet in 1997 when they signed a collaborative agreement to develop a set of five courses in the area of technology-based distributed learning. This is an account of how this challenge has been met. Les nouvelles technologies d'informatique et de telecommunications offrent la possibilite d'un acces global a l'education. En theorie, ces technologies devraient faciliter aux apprenants potentiels l'acces aux cours de leur choix a tout moment, a partir de n'importe quel endroit au monde. Plus important encore, la variete sans cesse croissante de contenus offerts par les technologies interactives pourrait avoir un effet d'empour-voiement sur les apprenants a l'echelle globale : l'education serait ainsi mieux adaptee aux besoins de ces derniers, plutot qu'aux besoins des etablissements locaux d'education. Telle est la promesse. Qu'en est-il de la realite ? A ce jour, les programmes internationaux d'education a distance fondes sur les technologies de l'information, reposent largement sur l'elaboration de cursus qui soient pertinents aux apprenants, peu importe ou ils habitent. Une infrastructure technologique bien developpee et accessible aux etudiants de meme que le developpement de cursus qui transcendent les barrieres culturelles et linguistiques apparaissent egalement comme des imperatifs. Enfin, cette forme d'education necessite que l'apprenant ait acces a des services de soutien de haute qualite, peu importe ou il se trouve. Ces conditions sont exigeantes et il n'y a que tres peu d'exemples a partir desquels s'inspirer en cette matiere. Il s'agit d'un defi que l'University of British Columbia (UBC) et le Monterrey Institute of Technology ont entrepris de relever en 1997, en signant une entente de collaboration portant sur le developpement d'une serie de cinq cours dans le domaine de l'education a distance basee sur les technologies. Le defi a ete releve. En voici le compte-rendu.