Peace Through Superior Education: Notes

Notes for the seminar "Peace Through Superior Education", 2pm, 22 August, ANU. All welcome, free but please book.

About the Peace Through Superior Education proposal: 

'Many of the world’s most intractable problems occur on Australia's doorstep: where the trade-routes of the world's emerging economies meet. The Australian National University (ANU) was created by the Australian Parliament to meet these challenges in this region. The ANU does this by bringing together the best and brightest young people of the region to learn and to cooperate. Can this can be extended through the use of digital networks, particularly mobile devices, with an order of magnitude increase in the number of students? Can we use digital networks to engage, educate and influence the behaviors of the indo- pacific publics? How can we best do that? To answer these questions a longitudinal exploration into the transformative learning will be conducted. In this way can we can address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): "... end poverty ... protect the planet ... ensure prosperity for all ... foster peaceful, just and inclusive societies ... based on a spirit of strengthened global solidarity ...".'

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Peace Through Superior Education

M-learning for the indo-pacific to address radicalization, climate change, food and energy security.

 Chris Barrie
Adam Broinowski
Catherine Settle
Tom Worthington

A Grand Challenges Proposal

 

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   ANU Grand Challenges Scheme

"... identify a problem or challenge that research can address. What's unique about the program is the way it seeks to bring people together from all across the University to bring new perspectives to a major challenge confronting society."

From VC's Update - ANU Grand Challenges Scheme, ANU, 7 July 2017

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   Scheme Stages

1. Call for Ideas: 3 minute videos (ended 24 July)
2. Assembly of Teams: two-page proposal by 28 August
3. Selection of Finalists: by 8 September
4. Selection of the 2018 ANU Grand Challenge: TBA
   
5. Full Business Case: TBA

Process is similar to the Innovation ACT completion.

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First stage: three minute videos

Some of the entries:

1. Peace Through Superior Education 
2. Zero-Carbon Energy for the Asia-Pacific
3. Grand Challenge of Negative Emissions

More detailed proposal due 28 August.

Others entries and details at the ANU Grand Challenges Portal (ANU access only).
 

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Top 20 Words in the Entries

health, science, change, social, policy, law, sustainability, knowledge, climate, energy, food, environmental, education, economics, politics, sciences, computer, Futures, complex, public

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The Indo-Pacific

Many of the world’s most intractable problems occur on Australia's doorstep: where the trade-routes of the world's emerging economies meet.  

Map by Eric Gaba (Sting) CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

 

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South China Sea

USS John S. McCain

By Todd Frantom [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

"A U.S. guided-missile destroyer came within 12 nautical miles of the contested Chinese installation built on an artificial island off the coast of the Philippines on Thursday ..." Sam LaGrone, August 10, 2017, US Naval Institute

"... U.S. guided-missile destroyer collided with a chemical tanker in the South China Sea ..." Sam LaGrone, August 20, 2017, US Naval Institute  

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The Australian National University (ANU) was created by the Australian Parliament to meet the challenges in this region. 

 

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John Dedman

"... the Government had decided to proceed with the establishment of an Australian National University ... Both in Australia and in the world at large, innumerable problems await solution if the future is to be made safe and the people placed in a position to enjoy the fruits of the developments in science and in human relationships which have taken place ... We have also greatly increased responsibility to shoulder in relation to other people, particularly to those with whom we are associated as a' Pacific power. ..."

From ANU Bill Second Reading Speech, Mr. John Dedman, Minister for Post-war Reconstruction, Australian Parliament, 19 June 1946

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The Colombo Plan

• Cooperative Economic and Social Development in Asia and the Pacific
• Educational and scientific aid from Western countries
• Multilateral 1950s cold war soft diplomacy
• Included Australian government scholarships to study in Australia
• Mostly on-campus face-to-face classes and research, at existing universities
• Six “cinema vans” for Indonesian vocational training (early mobile educational multimedia).

See: D. Oakman, "Facing Asia: a history of the Colombo Plan", ANU E Press, 2010.

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ANU Education

The ANU brings together the best and brightest young people of the region to learn and to cooperate. 

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ANU Education in the Region

Apia Harbor Sunset,
Worthington, 2005

• Imran, A., Turner, T., & Gregor, S. (2008). Educate to Innovate-Fast Tracking ICT Management Capabilities Amongst the Key Government Officials for eGovernment Implementation in Bangladesh. GlobDev 2008, 9.
  
• Worthington, T. (2006, 30 January). Report on a Workshop on the Use of Technology for Museums of the Pacific Islands Region, Pacific Museums Capacity Building Workshop, ANU, 30th January 2006

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Can this can be extended through the use of digital networks, particularly mobile devices, with an order of magnitude increase in the number of students? 

Pictographs by Carlos Sarmento from the Noun Project (CC BY 3.0 US). 

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Responsive Web Design

Desktop Computer

Smart Phone

No attendance is required. All materials and assessment are on-line.

Same e-learning content for desktops and low bandwidth smart phones.

Example from "ICT Sustainability" COMP7310, ANU.

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To answer these questions a longitudinal exploration into the transformative learning will be conducted. 

Pictographs by Carlos Sarmento from the Noun Project (CC BY 3.0 US). 

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"... end poverty ... protect the planet ... ensure prosperity for all ... foster peaceful, just and inclusive societies ... based on a spirit of strengthened global solidarity ..."

UN General Assembly resolution 70/17, Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, A /RES/70/1 (21 October 2015).

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Field/s of research

Pedagogy, digital networking, climate change adaption, ethnopolitics, energy efficiency

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Interested parties

Chris Barrie (CAP), Adam Broinowski (CAP),

Catherine Settle (Medical School), Tom Worthington (RSCS)

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References

• UN General Assembly resolution 70/17, Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, A /RES/70/1 (21 October 2015).
  
• Worthington, T. (2014, August 23). Chinese and Australian Students Learning to Work Together Online: Proposal to Expand the New Colombo Plan to the Online Environment. Paper to be presented at the 9th International Conference on Computer Science & Education (ICCSE). Vancouver, Canada. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICCSE.2014.6926448
• Worthington, T. (2017). Digital teaching in higher education : designing e-learning for international students of technology, innovation and the environment. Belconnen, A.C.T. TomW Communications Pty Ltd. http://www.tomw.net.au/digital_teaching/ 

Peace Through Superior Education

Peace Through Superior Education is an entry in the Australian National University's ANU Grand Challenges Scheme. This entry proposes to test the use of  mobile learning to connect people across our region to address radicalization, climate change, food and energy security.

Other ANU Grand Challenge entries include: Zero-Carbon Energy for the Asia-Pacific and the Grand Challenge of Negative Emissions.  ANU researchers and students interested in working on these can access the ANU Grand Challenges Portal. Non-ANU researchers can contact the project personnel to express interest in participating.

About the Peace Through Superior Education proposal: 

'Many of the world’s most intractable problems occur on Australia's doorstep: where the trade-routes of the world's emerging economies meet. The Australian National University (ANU) was created by the Australian Parliament to meet these challenges in this region. The ANU does this by bringing together the best and brightest young people of the region to learn and to cooperate. Can this can be extended through the use of digital networks, particularly mobile devices, with an order of magnitude increase in the number of students? Can we use digital networks to engage, educate and influence the behaviors of the indo- pacific publics? How can we best do that? To answer these questions a longitudinal exploration into the transformative learning will be conducted. In this way can we can address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): "... end poverty ... protect the planet ... ensure prosperity for all ... foster peaceful, just and inclusive societies ... based on a spirit of strengthened global solidarity ...".'

---

Peace Through Superior Education

M-learning for the indo-pacific to address radicalization, climate change, food and energy security.

 Chris Barrie
Adam Broinowski
Catherine Settle
Tom Worthington

A Grand Challenges Proposal

 

---

 

The Indo-Pacific

Many of the world’s most intractable problems occur on Australia's doorstep: where the trade-routes of the world's emerging economies meet.  

Map by Eric Gaba (Sting) CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

---

The Australian National University (ANU) was created by the Australian Parliament to meet the challenges in this region. 

---

The ANU brings together the best and brightest young people of the region to learn and to cooperate. 

---

Can this can be extended through the use of digital networks, particularly mobile devices, with an order of magnitude increase in the number of students? 

Pictographs by Carlos Sarmento from the Noun Project (CC BY 3.0 US). 

---

To answer these questions a longitudinal exploration into the transformative learning will be conducted. 

Pictographs by Carlos Sarmento from the Noun Project (CC BY 3.0 US). 

---

 "... end poverty ... protect the planet ... ensure prosperity for all ... foster peaceful, just and inclusive societies ... based on a spirit of strengthened global solidarity ..." 

UN General Assembly resolution 70/17, Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, A /RES/70/1 (21 October 2015).

---

Field/s of research

Pedagogy, digital networking, climate change adaption, ethnopolitics, energy efficiency

---

Interested parties

Chris Barrie (CAP), Adam Broinowski (CAP),

Catherine Settle (Medical School), Tom Worthington (RSCS)

---

References

• UN General Assembly resolution 70/17, Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, A /RES/70/1 (21 October 2015).
  
• Worthington, T. (2014, August 23). Chinese and Australian Students Learning to Work Together Online: Proposal to Expand the New Colombo Plan to the Online Environment. Paper to be presented at the 9th International Conference on Computer Science & Education (ICCSE). Vancouver, Canada. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICCSE.2014.6926448
• Worthington, T. (2017). Digital teaching in higher education : designing e-learning for international students of technology, innovation and the environment. Belconnen, A.C.T. TomW Communications Pty Ltd. http://www.tomw.net.au/digital_teaching/

Australian Virtual Colombo Plan helped fund the African Virtual University

In looking at research on international distance education I stumbled across the "Virtual Colombo Plan" (VCP). This which was a $230M Australian Government/World Bank initiative from 2001 to 2006, to fund on-line education for developing nations (Curtain, 2004 and McCawley, Henry and Zurstrassen, 2002). The VCP ended in 2006 with little ceremony, but it did help fund the African Virtual University, which continues today (Wolff, p.25, 2002).

The original "Colombo Plan" was a cold war era multi-nation effort to combat the rise of communism, through education and scientific aid to developing nations. Australia funded students from developing nations at Australian universities. The Australian Government later again appropriated the "Colombo Plan" name for its own national program, in the form of the "New Colombo Plan" in 2013. The New Colombo Plan reverses the approach of the old, sending Australian university students to nations in the region, as part of their education.

Also, the Australian Academic Research Network (AARnet), in a submission to the Australian Government  Draft National Strategy for International Education, proposed a “Digital Colombo Plan". This was similar in aim to the Virtual Colombo Plan, to provide high speed broadband to universities in developing countries in the Pacific to improve education, participially for on-line courses from Australia. The proposal was not adopted.

References

Curtain, R. (2004). Information and communications technologies and development: Help or hindrance. AusAID Virtual Colombo Plan. Retrieved from http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN014679.pdf

McCawley, P., Henry, D., & Zurstrassen, M. (2002, March). The Virtual Colombo Plan: Addressing the ICT Revolution. In Global Summit of Online Knowledge Networks Conference, Adelaide, Australia (pp. 4-5). Retrieved from http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/apcity/unpan007799.pdf

Wolff, L. (2002). The African Virtual University: the challenge of higher education development in sub-Saharan Africa. TechKnowLogia, International Journal of Technologies for the Advancement of Knowledge and Learning, 4(2). Retrieved from http://www.techknowlogia.org/TKL_Articles/PDF/384.pdf

Digital Colombo Plan

In a submission to the Australian Government's  Draft National Strategy for International Education, AARnet have proposed a “Digital Colombo Plan". Australian students would use video conference and collaboration tools, during and after their studies (as reported in The Australian). I proposed something similar in my paper "Chinese and Australian Students Learning to Work Together Online: Proposal to Expand the New Colombo Plan to the Online Environment" presented at the 9th International Conference on Computer Science & Education (ICCSE). Vancouver, Canada in 2014. However, I suggest the emphasis should be on the skills the stud nets need to be able to work together effectively. AARnet's submission emphasizes having quality telecommunications links to university in the region, which would certainly help, but the staff and students need formal training in how to use the technology they have.  

ps: When teaching a couple of dozen students how to design web pages at the University of Samoa, my class managed to use up all of the bandwidth allocated to the entire university (fortunately the course was during vacation time). 

Researching the New Colombo Plan

Professor David Lowe, Director of the Alfred Deakin Research Institute, will speak on "International students as foreign relations: a research agenda in the context of Colombo Plans old and new", at the Australian National University in Canberra, 28 August, 2014. Also may be of interest is my proposal to extend the New Colombo Plan On-line.

When she launched the New Colombo Plan in December 2013, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she hoped that Australian tertiary students would come to see a period of study at an Asian university as ‘a rite of passage’ associated with their transition to adulthood.

This lecture suggests that much is being asked of the New Colombo Plan, including the constant invitation to recall the successes of the original Colombo Plan; but I also suggest that now is the right time to be setting both research and policy directions in relation to the subject of international students as a dimension of foreign relations. Much has changed for connections between Asia and Australia since the original Colombo Plan gave way to other aid programs and revised thinking on international students in the 1980s. But one of the most enduring sources of narrative about connections, and one that taps directly into memories of the original Colombo Plan, is that of shared learning and life experiences – the personal reflections that featured in AusAID, and now feature in DFAT, stories about student experiences. At a time of when international students are being considered elsewhere as an under-appreciated dimension of foreign relations, Australians should logically be extending their thinking in how best to ‘listen’ to student reflections and communicate with overseas alumni.

New Colombo Plan

The Australian Coalition has proposed to establish a New Colombo Plan as part of its policy. It should be noted that the Colombo Plan, for cooperative economic and social development in Asia and the Pacific, is a multinational initiative which is still in operation, with Australia providing university education as part of the plan.

Proposals for a new plan would need to be negotiated with the other countries involved. The plan is named after the location of its foundation meeting in Colombo in 1950. There is a detailed history of the politics behind the plan in "Facing Asia: A History of the Colombo Plan" by Daniel Oakman (ANU e-Press, 2010). The Colombo Plan Secretariat is still located in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

A Steering Group was formed for the New Colombo Plan in June 2013:

• Chair: Mr Kevin McCann AM, Fellow of the Senate, University of Sydney; Chairman of Macquarie Group; Chairman of Origin Energy Limited
• Deputy Chair: Professor Sandra Harding, Vice-Chancellor, James Cook University; Chair, Universities Australia
• Members: 
  • Professor Kent Anderson, Pro Vice Chancellor (International), University of Adelaide
  • Ms Suzette Corr, General Manager, Human Resources, Australia, ANZ; Group General Manager, Talent and Culture, ANZ
  • Mr Trevor Goddard, Manager, Monash Abroad, Monash University (Victoria)
  • Hon Phil Honeywood, Executive Director, International Education Association of Australia (IEAA)
  • Mr Rob Malicki, Director, Australian Institute for Mobility Overseas (AIM Overseas)
  • Mr Bill Scales AO, Chancellor, Swinburne University; President, Business-Higher Education Round Table (B-HERT)
  • Professor Krishna Sen, Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Western Australia; President and Chair, Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (DASSH)
  • Hon Warwick Smith AM, Chairman, Asia Society AustralAsia Centre; Chair, Australia-China Council
  • Ms Vicki Thomson, Executive Director, Australian Technology Network of Universities
  • Professor Paul Wellings CBE, Vice-Chancellor, University of Wollongong
  • Mr Tom Williams, National President (Australia), Australia-China Youth Association (ACYA); Student, University of Western Australia
• Secretariat:
  • Dr Don Markwell, Executive Director, Menzies Research Centre
  • Ms Rachael Thompson, Deputy Director, Menzies Research Centre

The previous Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard,  announced a similar grants program, in April 2013, explicitly comparing it to the the Colombo plan: "What we do today dwarfs in size and scale the work that was done under the Colombo plan.". Presumably this is still part of the ALP's policy platform.

Like the Coalition, the PM misrepresented the Colombo Plan, which was an international program for aid and did not just bring overseas students to Australia. Also like the Coalition, the Prime Minister incorrectly implied the Colombo Plan had ended.

The "AsiaBound Grants Program 2014" was to open on 8 April 2013, with grants made through Australian universities and vocational education institutions who partner with an overseas institution. Amounts of up to $2,000 per vocational student and $5,000 per university student were to be offered. It is not clear if this scheme would proceed under a Coalition government.

The Asia-Bound Study Grants might have the unintended effect of subsidizing the outsourcing of Australian university education to lower cost Asian countries. Australian universities would be paid extra to have their students studying at partner universities in Asia, for up to two semesters. So Australian universities could use a lower cost Asian partner to provide up to one third of a university degree for Australian students. The Australian students might do the rest of their degree on-line and never set foot on a campus in Australia. Such an education need be in no way inferior to an education on an Australian campus, but not what was intended.