From: dubie@tnpubs.enet.dec.com ("I, Dubious: TAY2-2/M7, DTN 227-3709  11-Sep-1992 1254")
Subject: The Bangkok Project--Introduction
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 92 09:59:40 PDT
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Please refer to alt.education.bangkok for further information.

Welcome to the Bangkok Project! 

You are probably reading this message as it appears on your local
conferencing system, on Usenet, FidoNet or as a private mail message, and
wondering just what the Bangkok Project is all about. 

My name is Terry Anderson and I'm the network coordinator for the project and
I'd like to share my vision of the project. I will assume that most of you
are interested in the evolving field of distance education or distance
learning. Some of you come at this field from a technological focus, some
with heavy administrative, teaching or student service concerns and each of
you comes as a learner yourself. It is helpful (and fun) for this community
to gather together every so often to share interests, projects, successes,
gossip and friendship. 

The XVI World Conference of the International Council for Distance Education
provides an excellent opportunity to meet these needs. At the Conference you
generally meet very interesting members of the international distance
education community.  Fortunately (for some) the Conference, this November,
is in Bangkok, Thailand, providing easy access to many of the large distance
education systems in Asia.  Unfortunately (for others), the cost (in a
variety of domains) of travelling to Bangkok is too great.  The Bangkok
Project is a first attempt to strengthen the distance education community -
including that portion of members who cannot travel long distances. The
project aims to provide social and intellectual stimulation and support by
bringing a portion of this international community to your personal computer!

Since the start of planning for this project 18 months ago, it was always
intended that the Bangkok site would have a series of online terminals
available for delegates in Thailand to participate in the project.  Last week
I received notification from the Conference Chairperson that due to
equipment, space and cost problems, they would not be able to offer delegate
access.  I'm still hopeful that some display of the proceedings and limited
access will be available to the delegates. 

Losing the Thailand site is unfortunate, but draws the Bangkok Project to a
"virtual community" which works exclusively within the communication benefits
and restrains of electronic text interaction.

Here's how it works.
Six forums have been set up at the University of Calgary, each for short
period of time (2-6 weeks) surrounding the Conference in Thailand. A First
Speaker and a host will begin a discussion (based on their own informed
outlook) of the issues they feel should be addressed, discussed and debated
by the world-wide distance education community. These messages from the First
Speaker will be delivered to "porters" who will move the messages to one of
35 different discussion lists, conferencing systems, or special interest
communities. 

As you read these messages feel free to respond with a comment or question.
You may REPLY and address your comments at two levels.  You may wish to make
a local comment, relating the relevancy of the discussion to your particular
list or network. Alternately you may wish to respond directly to the First
Speaker and the full forum. The "porter" will be monitoring this list or
conference system and will "port" back comments of general interest destined
for distribution across the full forum.

Will this be as much fun as going to Bangkok?
Probably not, but it may prove an interesting and worthwhile experiment in
international discussion.  This is an exciting test of focused global
interaction.  Given events in the former Yugoslavia these days, we stand in
need of better tools to resolve problems.  Perhaps this project will
contribute in some small way to furthering our ability to talk to other
members of the global community.

Who is the porter? 
In most cases the porter is the person who posted this note! I hope the
porter will introduce themselves shortly.  Feel free to discuss problems,
concerns or suggestions related to this project,  first to the porter and if
necessary to myself. 

The six Bangkok Project topic forums and the dates are as follows:

Date Start      Finish        Topic               First Speaker
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Oct 12          Nov. 30       CMC                 Dr. Robin Mason
Oct 12          Oct. 26       Theory of DE        Dr. Michael Moore
Oct 12          Oct. 26       Strategic Planning  Dr. Tony Bates
Oct 26          Nov. 9        Research in DE      Dr. Eugene Rubin
Oct 26          Nov. 9        DE Databases        Mr. Laury Melton
Nov 16          Nov. 30       Student Support     Dr. David Sewart


-- 
Terry Anderson
Dept. of Educational Psychology                     Ph 403-284-0922
University of Calgary                              Fax 403-289-4471    
Calgary, AB. Canada T2N 1N4              InterNet ANDERSON@ACS.UCALGARY.CA

William Dubie
dubie@tnpubs.enet.dec.com
Digital Equipment Corporation,
Littleton, Mass.

Standard disclaimer: These views don't necessarily
reflect those of Digital Equipment Corporation.
Newsgroups: alt.education.distance