ALL THE WORLD'S A CLASSROOM - The Australian National University (ANU)
is promoting a distance learning program in which offshore students can participate in
lectures at Australian universities via satellite-based videoconferencing. The initiative is
part of the World Bank's Virtual Colombo Plan to provide e-Learning to developing
nations. ANU is one of about 30 distance learning centers comprised of rooms and
Web-linked PCs for videoconferencing. Educational lectures delivered by satellite will
be complemented by online tutoring; overseas alumni from ANU's Asia Pacific School
of Economics and Management will add their expertise to this end of the program.
e-Learning by videoconferencing can reduce estrangement between students and
instructors, notes ANU Outreach manager Maree Tait. "They have face-to-face dialogs
with their teachers." ANU is courting other institutions to supply content for the service.
Australia has earmarked $200 million for the Virtual Colombo Plan, and a total of 150
distance learning centers may eventually be set up. (Australian IT, 20 Feb 02 - Edupage
22 Feb 02)

BILL EARMARKS $880M FOR HIGHER ED SECURITY WORK - The House of
Representatives recently approved a bill that would strengthen academic programs in
information security, provide fellowships and grants and fund research. The legislation,
sponsored by House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, (R-N.Y.), would
provide $880 million over five years. The Senate must also approve the measure. The bill
calls for the National Science Foundation to create cybersecurity research centers and
provide grants and fellowships to colleges. Also, the National Institute of Standards and
Technology would develop grant programs that team industry and universities on
security projects and encourage researchers in other fields to work on cybersecurity.
(Syllabus News, Resources, Trends, 12 Feb 02)

CALL FOR AN EDUCATIONAL THEORY OF TECHNOLOGY - Concerned that
"[n]ew partnerships' of designers and developers committed to technology for its own
sake now create products for the 'education marketplace,' with little or no experience of,
or interest in, underlying educational goals, " Suzanne de Castell, Mary Bryson, and
Jennifer Jenson ("Object Lessons: Towards an Educational Theory of Technology,"
FIRST MONDAY, vol. 7, no. 1, January 2002), make a case for an educational theory
of technology, as opposed to a theory of educational technology. "The difference between
these is that whereas theories of educational technology take for granted, whether as good
or as harmful, the integration of education and technology; an educational theory of
technology, by contrast, would investigate technology from the standpoint of educational
values and purposes, and with reference to what can be discerned from a study of
technology as a socially-situated artifact. . . In order to learn from our tools, we
have also to take seriously the study of them, in the multiple and variable contexts of their
intended and actual use." The article is available online at
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue71/castell/index.html (CIT INFOBITS 21 Jan 02)