Showing posts with label Virtual Colombo Plan. Show all posts

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Senate Inquiry into UN Sustainable Development Goals

The Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee has invited submissions to an Inquiry into the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (closing 29 March 2018). Here are some thoughts on how the Australian education system can help our region.

Australia can use digital networks to engage, educate and influence sustainable development in the region. This can help with SDG Goal 17: "Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing ...".

Apart from the original Colombo Plan, where Australia funded students from developing nations to study in Australia, there has been the Virtual Colombo Plan (2001) to provide $230M to support of distance education programs in developing countries. The most notable scheme funded under the virtual plan was the African Virtual University . More recently, in 2015, the Australian Academic Research Network (AARnet) proposed a fibre-optic link to the region's educational institutions to Australia in a Digital Colombo Plan. However such plans have been ah-hoc and lacking in a clear benefit to Australia.

Some areas for Australia:

Teaching Computing: The National Australian Digital Technologies Curriculum for all Australian schools was endorsed 18 September 2015. The University of Adelaide pioneered a Free Digital Curriculum Course for Teachers. This could be packaged and offered at low cost to the region.
Address real world issues: Australia can provide project based work addressing issues such as climate change.
Innovation and hacking competitions can help make make STEM look exciting for students.
Soft skills can be addressed on-line. Soft skills figure prominently in the ANU's "TechLauncher

Australian university academics currently lack the skills needed to produce quality on-line courses. This will require academics to obtain formal teaching qualifications .

Sunday, September 17, 2017

MOOCs the New Millennium Propaganda Tool?

Cinema Van of the Gold Coast Mass Educiton Team

Tom Rice describes the use of 1950s mobile cinema as the "British Empire’s forgotten propaganda tool for ‘primitive peoples’" (Rice, 2016). However, at the time film was a way to provide distance education in remote areas, with advice being provided by bodies UNESCO on its use (1949). The film van of the 1950s could be thought of in much the same way as digital multimedia via the Internet is used for education now (Worthington, 2014). Today's MOOCs could be seen as a continuation of a form of soft-power projection, with governments using on-line education to shape views in developing nations and to ope up trade.

In the 1940s equipment for Australian militarily mobile cinemas was manufactured by Raycophone in Sydney. This equipment was used in PNG for training (da Cruz, 2015). In the 1950s Australia decided to fund six cinema vans and educational films for Indonesian vocational training, as part of the Colombo Plan (Oakman, p. 85, 2010). Vans were also requested for India (Crocker, 1953).

As a digital update to the Colombo Plan, in 2001 the Australian Government announced a five year $230M "Virtual Colombo Plan", to support of Distance Education programs based in developing countries. However, Rooksby (2004) asked if this was, at least in part, intended to open developing countries’ markets to international competition.

The "free" massive open on-line courses (MOOCs) could be seen as a continuation of this use of education by some countries to promote their values and open up trade in developing nations.

Reference

Letter from Crocker to Casey, Notes on Colombo Plan Aid in India,Efficacy of Colombo Plan aid

New Delhi, 25 April 1953
[NAA: A10299, C15] Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. URL http://dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/historical-documents/Pages/volume-24/251-Letter-from-Crocker-to-Casey.aspx

da Cruz, Marghanita (2015). 1930s Annandale : a short walk. Ramin Communications. [Annandale, New South Wales] URL http://www.ramin.com.au/annandale/story5.shtml#raycophone

Film Centre, London. & Unesco. (1949). The use of mobile cinema and radio vans in fundamental education. Paris : UNESCO

Oakman, D. (2010). Facing Asia: a history of the Colombo Plan. ANU E Press. URL http://press.anu.edu.au/publications/facing-asia

Rice, T. (2016). ‘Are you proud to be British?’: Mobile film shows, local voices and the demise of the British Empire in Africa. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 36(3), 331-351. URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2015.1049863

Rice, T. (2017, 24 August). British Empire’s forgotten propaganda tool for ‘primitive peoples’: mobile cinema. The Conversation. URL https://theconversation.com/british-empires-forgotten-propaganda-tool-for-primitive-peoples-mobile-cinema-64275

Rooksby, E. (2004). The virtual colombo plan: Implications for developing countries. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, 2(3), 169-178. URL http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/14779960480000251

Worthington, T. (2014, August). Chinese and Australian students learning to work together online proposal to expand the New Colombo Plan to the online environment. In Computer Science & Education (ICCSE), 2014 9th International Conference on (pp. 164-168). IEEE. URL https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCSE.2014.6926448

Monday, August 21, 2017

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 ...".'

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

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

Scheme Stages

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

Process is similar to the Innovation ACT completion.

First stage: three minute videos

Some of the entries:

More detailed proposal due 28 August.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

ANU Education

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

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

Pictograph of an e-book by Carlos Sarmento from the Noun Project (CC BY 3.0 US)

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).

Responsive Web Design

Green course home page in landscape mode on a mobile device

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.

Pictograph of issues 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/

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

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.