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Introducing the meeting, Frits Pannekoek, ICDE President, noted that the goal would be to help define the future of the massification of learning in the context of the financial crisis; “How we manage the challenges today will dictate the future of open and distance education”.
The keynote presentation was given by Dr. Xavier Sala-i-Martín, Professor of Economics at Columbia University, New York and Senior Economic Advisor to the World Economic Forum, Davos.
He underlined that only through competitiveness and productivity can solutions both to the current crisis and future financial crises be found. Innovation must be the driving force, innovation which can be realized quickly, such as that to be found in the industries of Silicon Valley.
Dr. Sala-i-Martín noted that innovative products tend to come about for one of two reasons; either a new demand is created, or a new solution is found to a need that the consumer does not yet know they have. But in the history of great business ideas, only a very small proportion of innovations have come through formal research and design. It is estimated that over 70% of profitable innovations come from the workers themselves.
Critical thinking and the critical spirit are what lead to the creation of ideas. Dr. Sala-i-Martín called upon university presidents at the meeting to recognize that this is a world where children can obtain instant alternative truths from the Internet. He called for educational systems to move away from the teacher monopoly on ultimate truth, to a situation where learners are encouraged to think differently.
Working groups
Four key areas were discussed by working groups during the meeting.
Speaking on the topic of New entrepreneurship, Dr. Josep Lladós provided an analysis of the role of entrepreneurship in the world economy. He noted that entrepreneurship depends upon a complex network of relationships, and that universities need to be better prepared to foster this culture, to improve synergies between research and business, and to meet the training requirements of the entrepreneurs of the future.
In her introduction to the Quality upgrading working group, Dr. María José Lemaitre spoke on the challenges posed by the issue of quality assurance. Informed by the perspective of her work helping institutions around the world improve their quality of service to the student, her presentation was of relevance to participants from each of the five continents represented at this year’s SCOP meeting.
Dr. Hazel Simmons-McDonald presented an overview of research to date in the field in her introduction to the Employability and lifelong learning session. She noted that the relationship between the workplace and institutions of learning is one which requires innovative approaches, in order to guarantee a meaningful and relevant learning experience.
Dr. Sarah Guri-Rosenblit spoke on the theme of Leading innovative approaches to the financial crisis, providing a clear presentation of the historical context of distance education, the challenges which require us to be increasingly innovative today, and those problems we must begin to tackle now in order adequately to be prepared for the future.
The SCOP 2009 declaration drawing together the conclusions and recommendations of five hours of discussions within each working group will be presented shortly.
21 November 2009
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