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Unicamp Newspaper - May 2000

page 7

EDUCATION
We arrive at global education
Unicamp participates in project to bring science content
to schools around the world

LUIZ SUGIMOTO

The New York Times published - and Estadão reproduced - an article about a project aimed at disseminating didactic content to schools around the world, allowing, within three years, a high school student from the United States to study the chemistry class prepared by a teacher from Rio de Janeiro. The project, which will make use of the Internet and other technologies, involves the University of Florida, the Monterey Technological Institute (Mexico) and three Brazilian institutions: Funda�� "Get�lio Vargas" from S�o Paulo, PUC from Rio and Unicamp.

Although the publication by the Times gives the subject a novelty, the Partnership in Global Learning was presented to Unicamp more than two years ago. "There was a long period of negotiations until the institutions agreed. In March 1999, we took the discussion to Lucent Technologies, which resulted in the current version of the project , approved in July", informs professor Helio Waldman, from the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering (FEEC). Lucent will contribute US$3 million over three years, 50% of which will be budget and the other half will be equipment (see box on this page).

Initially, the objective is to install a technological infrastructure to support the generation and transmission of content. Next, we intend to take advantage of the resources and competence of universities to train 2nd degree teachers in the development of the best possible content in sciences (biology, chemistry and physics), in addition to themes of a community nature. Other segments of interest are those at university level, continuing education, professional and executive training. The success of the project will determine the pace at which it will be extended to other Latin American countries, the Middle East, Asia and Europe, until it becomes global.

"Financing on the American side has already started, but in Brazil there is a lack of institutional arrangements – such as a business plan that makes the network self-sustainable – and the implementation of the equipment itself", says Waldman. "Later this year we hope to make a first call to the teaching community, with the aim of creating a portfolio of content generation and teacher training projects."

Responsible for the operationalization phase, the FEEC researcher adds that the PGL will be open to participation by all units and must be linked to the University's policy in the area of ​​Education. o Distance. "This is an international and interinstitutional project in distance education, but it is just one among countless ongoing at Unicamp. We will need the collaboration of all professionals working in this area, as the work It will be quite big."

There's plenty of time for Education
One of the obstacles to be overcome in global education is language, since the contents will be disseminated by countries that adopt English, Spanish and Portuguese. One solution is to translate the content, as is already done today with books, films, etc.

Another obstacle, a possible difference in the level of teaching, does not exist, according to Helio Waldman: "Apart from the language problem, I believe that the physics we want to teach here is the same as what they teach elsewhere. There. They could say that in history there would be a difference, but even in this matter the project would have its value, because it is important to expose the history of Brazil to Americans and show the history of the United States here inside".

The professor warns of the need for a broad discussion of the institutional changes that will be brought about by the use of these distance vehicles. For him, so-called global teaching is an almost inevitable trend. "Today people have a large amount of free time, both in developed societies and in industrialized Brazil. There is plenty of time, partly due to the aging of the population and also due to the replacement of men by machines, notably from 90 onwards, when half of the industrial jobs in the country ceased to exist. And this time will be spent especially with education".

As it will be impossible to bring so many people to campus, globalized education gains the purpose of being everywhere, at all times of life. "But one cannot think that the simple existence of the Internet will satisfy this demand", warns Waldman. He explains that there will be no fully automated program with sufficient quality to meet the student's needs with just recordings or canned texts.

The figure of the teacher, in Waldman's view, will maintain its importance, as will educational programs, because only then will the student be able to develop their learning in the middle of the ocean of information. At first, new technologies will only permeate face-to-face education, but the researcher admits: "The traditional teacher may be displaced in the process. Most of the time, the teacher's guidance will be on -line, by email, voicemail and other student support tools. Hence the need for training."

Big bet
By investing US$3 million in the first three years of the Partnership in Global Learning alone, Lucent Tecnologies pursues a strategy of developing global markets for the technologies it produces, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the IT Law in Brazil. A giant in the production of telecommunications equipment, the company also has its philanthropic arm, the Lucent Foundation, having found in this project an opportunity to help meet the needs of an area vital for society, education, and at the same time seek applications for the technologies it manufactures.

Among Lucent's most advanced products are the new optical communication networks. These are networks that travel in terabits per second. Professor Helio Waldman explains, didactically, that 1 terabit is equivalent to 1.000 gigabits; 1 gigabit is equivalent to 1.000 megabits; and 1 megabit is equivalent to 1.000 kilobits. He cites as an example the telephone voice signal, which can be transmitted at a mere 64 kilobits per second: to occupy 64 gigabits per second; 1 million voice signals would be needed at the same time; and 64 terabits would contain 1 billion signals.

"It is clear that networks of hundreds of thousands of terabits are completely unnecessary for traditional communication services. Even with everyone on the planet speaking at once, we would not be able to occupy this space. capacity".

For such an advanced product to be used in its entirety, it is necessary to encourage new communication services, such as offering videos and environments that people regularly seek out. "Companies like Lucent are looking for what are called 'killer applications' ('killer' applications, in technological jargon). And one of their bets is on education", concludes Waldman.