DEOSNEWS Vol. 2  No. 24.  ISSN 1062-9416.
Copyright 1992 DEOS - The Distance Education Online Symposium
   
DEOS was established with a grant from the Annenberg/CPB Project
and it is supported by NKI in Norway.
   
Editor: Morten Flate Paulsen, MORTEN@NKI.NO
NKI, Box 111, 1341 Bekkestua, Norway
   
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EDITORIAL
   
The 16th ICDE World Conference on Distance Education was held on November
8-13, 1992 at the Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University in Bangkok, Thai-
land. I asked some people I met there to write a short piece about their
impressions of the conference. In this issue of DEOSNEWS, you can read the
contributions from these participants:
   
Bruce Scriven - Program Chair
Lani Gunawardena - University of New Mexico, U.S.A.
Torstein Rekkedal - NKI, Norway
Phyllis Olmstead - Women's International Network (WIN)
Elske Heeren - University of Twente, The Netherlands
Tony Bates - Open Learning Agency, Canada
David Murphy - Deakin University, Australia
   
   
THE NEW EXECUTIVE
   
     During the Bangkok Conference, the new ICDE Executive Committee was
introduced. The Committee will serve until the next ICDE World Conference
planned to be held June 26-30, 1995 in Birmingham. The Executive Committee
consists of:
   
Marian Croft, President of ICDE. She is the Director of Laurentian Uni-
versity's Center for Continuing Education, in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. At
the university level, she has worked in continuing education for over
eighteen years in three different universities. She has been the ICDE Vice-
President for Canada, and she was the Program Chair of the ICDE's 15th
World Conference held in Caracas, Venezuela in 1990.
   
Ian Mugridge, representative of North America, The Open Learning Agency,
Canada
   
Erling Ljosa, representative of Europe, President of the European Distance
Education Network (EDEN), and Director of NKS, Norway
   
Armando Villarroel, representative of South America, and Director of CREAD
(Consorcio-red de educacion a distancia)
   
Terry Evans, representative of the Pacifics, the Institute of Distance
Education, Deakin University, Australia
   
Naran Kala, representative of Africa, and Chief Education Officer with the
Government of Zimbabwe
   
V. C. Kulandai Swamy, representative of Asia, and Vice Chancellor of the
Indira Gandhi National Open University, India
   
David Sewart, the latest President of ICDE, from the Open University of the
United Kingdom
   
Reidar Roll, Secretary General, from the permanent ICDE Secretariat in
Norway
   
   
   
               Reports on the 16th World Conference of ICDE
   
                               Bruce Scriven
                               Program Chair
                                 Australia
   
     From comments made to me at the conference, and subsequent letters and
correspondence received, the 16th ICDE World Conference appears to have
been very successful. It is always difficult to pick out the highlights of
such a conference but certainly among them would be:
   
. the official opening reception held on the Monday evening in conjunction
  with the Loi Krathong festival--which saw all our troubles float away and
  our wishes for the future made
. the closing dinner and entertainment on the Thursday evening
. the high quality of many presentations
. the beautiful weather
. the friendliness of our hosts at STOU and their willingness to try to
  accommodate every request.
   
     Total attendance was about 800 and although this was somewhat disap-
pointing there is no doubt that the world-wide recession affected the
ability of many people to attend. Nevertheless there were delegates from
more than 50 countries in attendance and the many contacts made and
friendships cemented between people from so many countries, both big and
small, can only benefit distance education in the future.
     The accommodation, facilities and staff at STOU were judged to be
excellent by all those I spoke to and the overall hospitality of our hosts
would be difficult to surpass.
     Perhaps the most disappointing feature of the conference from my point
of view was the failure of many chosen presenters to actually register for
the conference and deliver their papers. Although lack of finances was
probably the main cause for this it was nevertheless a great disappointment
to many attendees. About 45 papers from the 346 selected for presentation
were, in fact, not able to be delivered.
     I am currently working on preparing a book of the best papers which I
hope will be published next year. All those (165) who forwarded full papers
for consideration will be contacted over the next 3 or 4 months and advised
of the outcome. Likewise the publication will be advertised when it is
ready.
     My special thanks go to all those who acted as chairpersons or who
contributed to the efficient running of the conference. Despite the traffic
problems (I spent 20 minutes at one red light on one occasion) all sessions
seemed to start and finish on time and buses were able to get participants
to their particular venues on schedule.
   
   
                             Lani Gunawardena
                         University of New Mexico
                                  U.S.A.
                            Lani@unmb (Bitnet)
                      Lani@bootes.unm.edu (Internet)
   
     The Bangkok conference was my first ICDE World Conference. I was
impressed by the magnitude and scale of the conference and overwhelmed by
the number of concurrent sessions I could have selected to attend. There
were 10-14 sessions running at the same time!  It was a good opportunity to
learn about distance education (DE) programs and  initiatives in other
parts of the world.  The papers related to the nine conference themes: 1.
DE and development, 2. DE in the developing world, 3. DE, literacy & basic
education, 4. Research and development, 5. Development of DE materials, 6.
Student needs and support systems, 7. Applications of technology, 8. DE and
open learning, and 9. Planning and the future.
     Several papers focused on techniques for developing higher level
thinking skills and metacognitive skills through DE course materials. The
emphasis was on the implications of cognitive science for DE. Sessions that
I enjoyed were: Problem Solving Activities in Study Guides, Developing
Thinking Skills, The Role of Discourse and  Narratology in Course Design
for the Humanities, and Application of Problem-based Learning to DE.  As a
presenter and a participant I felt somewhat constrained by the time
allotted to each presenter (15-20 minutes).  There was not enough time for
discussion or the discussion took place only after three presenters had
completed  their sessions. I believe that limiting the number of presenters
per session or assigning some papers to roundtables would help. I enjoyed
the crackerbarrel session that I attended on Research in DE. These sessions
really gave us the opportunity to interact with each other and discuss
issues.
     For me, the best part of the conference was being able to meet and
network with colleagues from different parts of the world.  I came back
with plans to collaborate internationally on future projects. One of these
projects will be on research related to learning styles based on a paper
that I presented. I was also able to  participate in a meeting of the ICDE
Women's International Network (WIN) and learn about the role the Network
intends to play in ICDE and its past contribution to the field.
     The wonderful hospitality extended to us by our Thai hosts made our
stay a very memorable one. The social events, tours and performances
organized by them enabled us to sample Thai culture and hospitality. I am
looking forward to the next ICDE conference in Birmingham in  1995, and
encourage others to attend as the Conference is an  excellent forum for
sharing ideas and learning from our colleagues in other parts of the world.
   
   
                             Torstein Rekkedal
               Director Research & Development, NKI, Norway
                         E-Mail: Torstein@nki.no
   
     I attended my first ICDE conference in Brighton in 1975. Since then
ICDE has developed considerably. Until 1982 ICDE was, in my experience,
mainly an organisation which gathered for one conference every 3 to 4
years. Today ICDE has an executive committee, meeting regularly and working
continuously between the conferences, as well as a permanent secretariat.
For some years it also had a research committee that organised a network of
researchers, initiated joint international research projects, and granted
research funds.
     In my view, the major benefits of the conference came from meeting
with new and old friends and exchanging experiences on an informal basis.
The quality of both keynote and parallel presentations varied considerably.
Further, one easily gets the impression that the field of distance educa-
tion moves rather slowly forward. Thus, if one seek new knowledge one might
be a little disappointed. This is not necessarily the case for all partici-
pants, because the Bangkok conference attracted many delegates who were
quite new to distance education. I had the opportunity speaking to some who
meant that the conference really had been an interesting and educating
experience.
     The most positive aspect of the Bangkok Conference was its excellent
orchestration. The practical organisation of the conference, both before
and during the week in Bangkok, was outstanding. The book of abstracts was
well organised and provided a good basis for individual scheduling of
attendance.
     Unfortunately, there were too many announced speakers who did not show
up. This problem should be taken seriously by the programme committee. At
the Oslo conference, the programme was updated weekly and was not set to
print until three days prior to the conference. This eliminated many of the
scheduling problems. In my opinion similar measures must be taken in the
future.
     Many delegates felt that there should be a stricter selection process
of presentations. I am wary of this prospect, because many participants
must present a paper in order to secure travel funds. Further, I trust each
delegate's ability to decide which presentations to attend from available
information on presenters, titles, and paper abstracts.
   
   
                             Phyllis Olmstead
                       Women's International Network
                                  U.S.A.
   
    Women's International Network (WIN) reached its tenth anniversary
during the 16th World Conference of ICDE. WIN was formed to provided a
means for female members of ICDE to network and support each other in their
research and academic endeavors in distance education. At this years
conference, WIN met and selected six representatives to compile the
opinions of the group to present to the ICDE Executive Board. The WIN ICDE
Liaison Committee included: Sue Warn, Australia; Gisela Pravda, Germany;
Thandi Ngengebule, South Africa; Phyllis Olmstead, U.S.A.; Kusum Nangia,
India; and Judy Ekins, England.
    WIN members appreciated the efforts of the program committee, chaired
by Bruce Scriven, to include women in the programming schedule and in paper
presentations. Specifically, WIN acknowledges that two of the four sched-
uled keynote speakers were women of substantial position in the education.
Several session were chaired by women and many of the papers included in
the conference abstract were authored or co-authored by women.
     WIN members suggest the inclusion of the names and pictures of all
authors of papers in the abstract so that ICDE members will recognize the
authors at the conference and so that all authors will be properly cre-
dited. Senior authors are often listed as the first author; senior posi-
tions in the field of education are held predominantly by men. Listing only
the first author in the schedule and including only the first author's
photograph in the abstract substantially reduces the exposure of quality
female scholars in the conference session listings. As participants are
leafing through the schedule of sessions selecting presentations to attend
the presence of all author's names in the program provides a clearer set of
choices.
    WIN is very concerned with the use the of language in papers, presenta-
tions, and speeches. Most participants speak English as a secondary
language and many are women. The wording of papers and the presentations
should include consideration of these factors. Presentations should be
given in simple distinct English. Many non-English participants commented
that English speakers (primary language) spoke rapidly and often incoher-
ently. Secondary English audience members are entitled to the same quality
presentations as those whose native tongue is English. Presentations and
papers should also reflect gender neutral wordage. He, she, his, and her
should only be used when discussing people of the particular gender
mentioned. The use of plural pronouns, he/she, or his/her are more accept-
able than using he or she to refer to a nonspecific person.
    WIN feels that ICDE should continue to show parity when scheduling
males and females as keynote speakers, session chairs, and presenters. ICDE
should continue to encourage female scholars to contribute their research
for international publication. ICDE should show the same gender fairness in
the selection of Executive Board members and programming committee members
as it exhibits with geographic/cultural fairness when selecting these
boards.
   
   
                               Elske Heeren
                           University of Twente
               Faculty of Educational Science and Technology
                              The Netherlands
   
     My impressions of the Bangkok conference atmosphere can be summarized
through three phrases: dedicated preparations, stomach troubles, and
metropolitan contrasts. But let me spend some more words on the conference
content. I will shortly address two trends in distance education that
appear to me as important: the students into the center of interest, and
the students out of the social isolation.
     We should focus on learning not teaching when we design and organize
distance education. This trend was elaborated on by David Sewart in his
keynote address. This may sound trivial at first sight: optimal learning
has always been the main goal of distance education. However, this goal has
been neglected, and it is time for a "reorientation". Sewart stressed the
importance of student support systems, but I think the reorientation will
carry over to all aspects of educational design.
     In my own area, the use of new technologies in distance learning,
interesting presentations were held. There were many promising examples of
applications of computer-mediated communication, audio-conferencing, and
video-conferencing. Technologies such as these enable the distance students
to leave their socially isolated positions, and to have more frequent
contact with their tutors and fellow students. Even collaborative learning
at a distance becomes a possibility. A less socially isolated feeling is
expected to have a positive influence on motivation, and a decreasing
effect on drop-out rates. I was glad to see that some presenters not only
spoke about their experiences, but also approached their applications of
new technology in a way that supports the building of scientific knowledge
on the design of these technologies.
     As a final remark I would like to mention the six world-wide computer-
-conferences that have been called the "Bangkok project". I have followed
some of these conferences through the DEOS conference list, and would like
to conclude that the "Bangkok project" has been more than a great alterna-
tive for those who had to stay at home: I have enjoyed both the real
conference and the computer conferences.
   
   
  (Editor's note: Elske Heeren's final remark is a suitable transition to
  Tony Bates' report as moderator of one of the six conferences in the
  online pre conference called "the Bangkok Project". The project showed
  that it is possible to organize "electronic world conferences" and that
  they can be viable supplements to future distance education conferences.
  The TeleTeaching 93 Program Committee, for example, now considers to
  include an electronic post conference next fall.)
   
   
                                Tony Bates
                           Open Learning Agency
                                  Canada
   
     I did an analysis of the responses to the Strategic Planning Confer-
ence; I think 41 responses were recorded. These I have broken down as
follows: Procedural 5, introductory/topic definition 7, moderator (me) 8,
participants 18, and other 3. Perhaps of more interest was that in the
first week, there were 8 moderator comments and 4 from participants. In the
second week there were 0 moderator comments and 14 participant comments. In
other words, the conference 'ran itself' for the second week. In addition
to the 41 posted responses, I received about 10 'content' contributions via
direct e-mail.
     The reason why the second week went unmoderated was because I was
blown out of thew water by some kind of error over the weekend between the
first and second week, which resulted in over 800 messages getting dumped
into my mail box. This crashed my system, and our IS people were unable to
sort it out until the conference was almost over. So the conference was by
no means free of technical glitches. I am indebted though to Lani Guna-
wardena, who was my 'host', who provided a summary of comments at the end
of both the first and second week.
     In terms of content, there were several very interesting and thought-
provoking contributions. There were several 'diad' and 'triad' discussions,
but while in the time available we got an 'opening-up' discussion, there
was no structure or continuous or in-depth discussion of particular topics.
The bulletin board format was a strong limitation, compared with a confer-
ence. Even in this format, a month would have been desirable. I'd rather it
was clear completely of the face-to-face conference, as this 'interrupted'
the computer conference, and there was no opportunity provided at the
face-to-face conference to discuss the computer conference; two separate
worlds!
     In response to my request for lurkers to identify themselves, I had
80 responses, as follows: USA 44, Canada 16, Australia 14, UK 2. Mexico 1,
Norway 1, Ireland 1, and Holland  4. USA covered many different states,
from all over. Most 'lurkers' were complimentary about the conference, and
many followed all six conferences.
     Generally, it was an interesting and useful project, and I am really
grateful to Terry (Anderson, the project manager,) and the porters for all
their efforts, and I feel privileged to have been asked to moderate the
Strategic Planning Conference.
   
   
                               David Murphy
                             Deakin University
                                 Australia
   
     I must declare at the outset that I love going to conferences,
especially the opportunities they provide for meeting old friends and
making new ones. This conference did not disappoint.
     First, I attended the pre-conference workshop for course developers,
which allowed me to hear and discuss the ideas and experiences of a variety
of people involved in similar work to myself. It also allowed me to settle
in to life at the STOU in readiness for the conference proper, and to
locate the delightful swimming pool. The workshop sessions included small
group discussions, some of which were rather more rushed than one would
have wished, but they were all lively and informative.
     An interesting feature of the pre-conference workshop was that
participants had been asked to supply ideas and information to the organi-
sers in preparation for the event. Happily, most people had responded, and
their input was used and valued. For example, each of us had reflected on
which metaphor for course designers was most influential on our practice.
The responses were varied and at times fascinating, with the two most
popular probably being Noel Jackling's 'joint venturer' and Diana Carl's
'amicable guerrilla'. Our reflections on theories that inform our practice
were also revealing. Other sessions of note included Fred Lockwood's 'hands
on' role play, which enabled each of us to take part in a course team
discussion of some real draft materials. Hopefully a detailed report of the
workshop and its outcomes will be forthcoming which will supply all those
interested with more detail.
     The main conference challenged each of us with the usual 'Russian
Roulette' choices of sessions--we examine the program, make a decision and
live with the consequences. Sometimes we are disappointed, sometimes
pleasantly surprised and occasionally fulfilled. At one stage I attempted
to get to three papers in different locations during the one session, but
the timing went awry. I'm sure that others will have had similar experi-
ences.
  Concerning (the editor's) request for recommendations for the Birmingham
committee, I'm not too sure what to say. I believe that the committee
members are well aware of the limitations of the format used for Bangkok,
with the competing pressures of quality presentation and the opportunity
for all to share their ideas (acceptance can mean make or break as far as
attendance is concerned for many people). I heard a few good ideas being
suggested by others, especially by Tony Bates, who was talking about the
use of 'Poster Sessions' and the possibility of competitive bidding for the
main slots in the program. As long as no one suggests the use of microfiche
for the papers (were you at Melbourne) we should be OK!
     For my own presentation, I was lucky. Not only was I slotted in early
in the program (it's only natural for attendance to wane over a few days),
but the people helping me performed superbly, making it fun (and hopefully
stimulating) for those who attended.
     Our Thai hosts were charming and warm, and to take part in the Loi
Krathong festival (lighting the incense and candles in the small banana
leaf boats and floating them in the water) was enchanting.
     Does it all sound a bit too good to be true? Well, of course there
were problems and disappointments (hours in buses in the Bangkok traffic,
one night of misery with stomach troubles, missing good sessions and
fidgeting in bad ones), but such things should be anticipated at any event.
Overall, I have to ask myself whether I came away changed in any way by my
experiences, and the answer is yes. And will I try to get to Birmingham for
the next festival? Again, yes.
   
--------------------- End of DEOSNEWS Vol. 2  No. 24 -------------------
   

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