Abdul Waheed Khan UNESCO University of Wisconsin, Madison 18 September 2007

1. Changing contours of knowledgeacquisition and sharing Abdul Waheed KhanUNESCOUniversity of Wisconsin, Madison 18 September 2007 1

2. “If knowledge is the engine of development, then learning is its fuel.” Hirotaka Takeushi

3. “The world has moved to a revolution which is built on knowledge, on technology and on information. Knowledge, if it is properly transferred, if it is made available to all, gives the greatest opportunity for people to advance themselves and to fight against poverty.” James Wolfensohn

4. Global trends : Divides Knowledge Prosperity Globalization Inclusion Lack of Knowledge Poverty Marginalization Exclusion Knowledge Divide or Digital Divide

5. Knowledge and development

6. Machines to multiply muscle power Industrial Society Knowledge to multiplybrain power Knowledge Societies Social Transformation “Half a hectare of land and one year of labour were required to feed one person in 1900; whereas that same half-hectare now feeds 10 persons on the basis of just one and a half days of labour”. UNESCO Science Report Agricultural Society

7. Building knowledge societies • Freedom of expression • Inclusiveness • Diversity • Empowerment

8. Education and knowledge societies Leaening/Education as a prerequisite for creating knowledge societies Knowledge societies cannot exist without highly educated citizens and well-trained workforce More educated societies translate into higher rates of innovation, higher overall productivity and faster introduction of technology

9. Future of knowledge acquisition and sharing (I) «Kronberg Declaration» Knowledge acquisition and sharing will be increasingly technology mediated Traditional educational processes will be revolutionized and new knowledge communities will be formed Need for long-term strategies to efficiently harness ICTs to develop new approaches Multi-stakeholder partnerships to provide sustained, long-term concrete solutions

10. Future of knowledge acquisition and sharing (II) «Kronberg Declaration» (continued) Need for open access content, open standards, open data structures, and standardized info-structures Creative business models to support the sustained creation and dissemination of high quality digital content Need for long-term availability of digital content and interoperability of e-learning systems at the global level

11. Paradigm shifts Open and distance learning Cross border Higher Education Private providers and the public good Open educational resources The new learner - The new teacher

12. Open and distance learning Learner-centred/User-friendly Cost-effective Flexible/Education anytime anywhere Holistic

13. Open and distant learning - Holistic model

14. Cross-border higher education – Features Collaborative arrangements Access to technology Students with different cultures and languages learn same material Employment-related qualifications Distance learning and face to face Mobility in a global economy

15. Cross-border higher education – Hosts and sources

16. Cross-border higher education - Directions North to South (vast majority) North to North (e.g. Charles Sturt University in Ontario, Canada) South to South (e.g.OUM/IGNOU in the Middle East; UNISA in Africa)

17. Cross-border higher education - Trends Many providers of low quality Developing countries with strong systems of Higher Education are becoming providers for diasporic populations (e.g.Malaysia, India and South Africa) Growing south-south collaboration Increase in distance education and eLearning provision Difficult to document and track distance education and eLearning provision within countries Countries with high Human Development Index attract foreign providers most

18. Private providers and the public good States not any more sole source of funding for higher education Development of higher education with private sector participation Breaking state monopolies on higher education by encouraging private investment Tensions between welfare-inspired system and profit driven approaches Each country has to find the model that best suits its political, economic and cultural context

19. Private providers and the public good – Examples India: 764 private engineering and technology colleges out of 977. 1349 private medical and health science institutions out of 1028 Open University of Malaysia: Private, Consortium of 11 public sector HEIs Promotes collaboration among public private institutions thereby pooling academic talents Achieves economies of scale, critical to the cost-effectiveness of a DE operation Win-win situation as academics are business partners in a joint enterprise

20. Private providers and the public good - Equity ? Mixed-loan systems comprising private funding with government guarantees Income-contingent loan systems in which loan repayments are a fixed portion of a borrower's income Levies on industrial sector

21. Open education resources Open course content Open source software Course development & delivery tools

22. Open education resources – Principles From elitism to mass ownership No centre, no hierarchy Inherent capability to self-organise Amateurs too can be producers of content Collaboration for the common good

23. Open education resources – Milestones MIT: Open CoursewareSharing information UKOU: Open Content InitiativeSharing learning VUSSC: Collaborative contentSharing teaching and learning

24. The ‘new’ learner Half the world’s population of 6.5 billion is under 20 2 billion teenagers in developing world Digital ‘natives’ Digital ‘migrants’ From ‘constructivism’ to ‘connectivism’?

25. The ‘new’ learner – Main characteristics Seeks immediate gratification rather than delayed responses Prefers fun rather than suffering Wants education that is relevant to real life Rather has social relations and interactivity than isolation

26. The ‘new’ teacher ‘Unlearn’ Collaboration in the time of competition Caters to individual learning habits and strategies Helps learners construct knowledge for themselves Encourages multiple perspectives Uses multiple ICT tools rather than only printed text Promotes creative/innovative thinking over memorization

27. Change…… “It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin

28. www.unesco.org/webworld Sources: UNESCO Commonwealth of Learning (John Daniel; Asha Kanwar)