An Overview to Virtual Academy - Methods and Techniques
by Henrik Haggrén and Esben Munk Sørensen
Key words: Virtual academy, distance learning.
Abstract
1. Introduction
Virtual academy is an academy which works within an
information network. It consists of a common understanding among its
members to provide their knowledge, expertise and research products to
each other and for co-operative use. The modern information technology
is most suitable for this purpose as the academy may function
internationally and at any distance. A profound option of a network is
that the information only is transferred and not necessarily the
people.
The infrastructure of a virtual academy consists of
three essential elements of information technology, namely the
network, the content and the graphics. The network is the realization
of current telecommunication technology whereas the content will be
mainly the data produced by the academy. The graphics includes the
physical perception of the information to work with.
Referring to a commercial press release by the
company AT&T on October 16, 1998: "Virtual academy is an
online centralized resource that provides teachers and educators with
access to web based professional development opportunities and
courses. It underscores AT&T's commitment to support lifelong
learning for teachers into the next century by helping them meet their
expanding credential requirements – anytime, anywhere." The
virtual academy of AT&T's is a collaboration with Penn State
University and a publishing company called T.H.E. Journal.
This division of the information technology to its
three elements is rather ambiguous. However, it is vital for an
academic discipline to distinguish these and develop its own future
accordingly. Although the driven force in developing the
infrastructure is no doubt the telecommunication society the value of
the academy depends entirely on its capacity to accumulate the
information, i.e. to collect data, to derive new knowledge, and to use
it when educating new engineers or scientists.
As it regards our professional discipline within
geoinformation sciences, we primarily produce the information content
but we also provide parts of the graphics. Thus the combination of the
information technology, the geoinformation science and the education
of surveyors would provide a most prosperous basis for creating a
virtual academy.
2. Virtual university and distance learning
The virtual university is the concept which was
recently adopted by e.g. Aalborg University, Denmark. The word
"virtual" in combination with university might at first
glance mislead, but is in fact nothing else than effective use of
modern information and communication technology. In Aalborg this
covers not only education and research but also administration
activities. Sørensen describes the virtual university being an
"integration within the university as a whole of the
technological tools which can prepare, develop and make more efficient
the university's services, especially education and research,
including those services which support education and research".
The guiding principles in Aalborg have been
described as strict demands upon quality, competency and openness. The
information technology should not be used for the sake of technology
itself but whenever any qualitative boost is expected. The competency
of a graduate can be qualified by the level of education, by the level
of both professional expertise and cross disciplinary awareness, as
well as by individual skills for communication, for creative work, or
for socio-economic judgment. The openness is argumented in order to
promote both internal and external accessibility to education,
knowledge and information.
The strategy within Aalborg virtual university is
emphasizing not only the global aspects but also the local ones. The
global aspects are essential on the university level in order to
complement the local faculties and their expertise. The local aspects
are essential on the research level. The university will maintain and
enforce its leading role in research fields which are ranked
internationally high in the university's strategy plan. The continuity
is crucial in attracting capable researchers and in recruiting them to
the university in the future.
In Canada, the TeleCampus of New Brunswick is a
good example of organized distance learning. It provides to the
residents of New Brunswick and other regions cost-effective, equitable
access to a range of training, information and educational services.
Special priority is given to residents of the more geographically and
socially isolated communities of the province. The province not only
profits from the educational content accessed by residents, but also
by their exposure to and active use of modern media. Among the values
upon which the network is based we may find the cooperation and
resource sharing, the partnership approach to development and
educational innovation, and the openness, creativity and innovation.
Access to distance learning is made possible
locally via a network of Community Learning Centres and globally via
TeleCampus, which is an online teaching and learning environment. It
collects courses from various universities and the access to these
courses is managed by a search able database. TeleEducation New
Brunswick provides assistance in the development and delivery of
distance education programmes.
3. Plans for FIG
The FIG Working group 2.2 on "Virtual academy
- distance learning" is specifically projected for information
dissemination concerning the virtual academy issues relevant to FIG,
by collecting hyper links to web sites relevant for distance learning
in surveying education, and by creating an educational database on
Internet as it regards respective tools and experiences. We are also
establishing contacts with the Internet and multimedia experts outside
FIG. Results will be reported to the XXII FIG Congress in Washington
in 2002.
The WG aims to organize an FIG Workshop on
"Virtual academy - distance learning" where current
activities within the topic will be presented. The workshop will be
held in Finland, Espoo in June 2001. According to the main theme of
the workshop, we try to accomplish it by organizing at least one
special session for online "distance learning" together with
some remotely locating group. As it regards the content of this
special session and the selection of co-organizing counterparts we
will be happy to have any response.
In order to prepare the program for the workshop we
will meet during the FIG Working Week in Prague.
Prof. Dr. Henrik Haggrén
Helsinki University of Technology
Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
Otakaari 1
FIN-02150 Espoo
Finland
E-mail: henrik.haggren@hut.fi
Prof. Ph.D. Esben Munk Sørensen
Aalborg University
Department of Development and Planning
Fibigerstræde 11
DK-9220 Aalborg
Denmark
E- mail: ems@i4.auc.dk
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