Open learning must support global ethics and development
A “tricky world with pervasive war and tragedy” is nevertheless one that “could see the golden age of open learning”. This was the prophetic view of Barney Pityana, a keynote speaker at the Presidents’ Summit of the International Council for Open and Distance Education, or ICDE, held in South Africa last week.
He and fellow keynote speaker, Switzerland’s Christoph Stückelberger, viewed current political and financial world crises as opportunities for open, distance and e-learning, both to support human development and spread a global ethical culture.
They were addressing the Presidents’ Summit for open, distance and e-learning institution leaders at the 26th ICDE World Conference held at the mega-resort Sun City, north of Johannesburg, from 14-16 October.
The conference is hosted by the University of South Africa, or UNISA, under the theme “Growing Capacities for Sustainable Distance e-Learning Provision”. The Presidents’ Summit ran for the first time in parallel with the ICDE World Conference, and focused on themes of leadership and governance.
A world in crisis
Pityana, former vice-chancellor of UNISA and current president of the convocation at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, sketched a backdrop of a world in “its worse situation since World War Two”.
He cited events in Syria, the Middle East and Ukraine, the rise of militaristic Islamic fundamentalist groups and “a Europe that, hot on the heels of the Greek financial crisis, finds itself dealing with a huge humanitarian problem”.
“Europe is not alone. In Africa we have the rise of Boko Haram and al-Shabaab,” said Pityana, adding that the current state of world affairs reinforces the social purpose of education. “Distance education comes into its own in times of crisis as human ingenuity seeks alternative means for survival.”
Pityana hailed the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, bent on “ensuring qualitative education and lifelong education for all”.
“Education becomes a necessary goal for humanity to thrive and prosper,” he said, but cautioned that “tertiary education must be viewed as something more than preparation for work and employment”.
New role for distance learning
“Distance and e-learning face the persistent problem of poverty. Economists have said that full employment is a pipe dream in our world of rising populations and increasing technological innovation.
“Educational attainment is not a ticket out of poverty,” said Pityana.
“There is a shift to lifelong learning involving creativity and intellectual output, not employment. We must look at sustainable human living that affirms human possibility rather than exploitation and is not dictated to by employment.
“This point of crisis and difficulties could lead to a golden age of distance and e-learning. The idea of a certificate no longer being a guarantee of sustainable employment is a major shift and a tremendous opportunity for distance and e-learning.”
According to Pityana, such a shift would require more critical thinking concerning the moral implications of thoughts and actions outside formal academics. Tertiary education institutions could not stand back in a mode of “uncritical discourse” with regard to world events.
“What do they have to say on Iraq, Russia in Ukraine and Syria?” he asked. “Education must sustain the values of human freedom.”
A global ethical culture
This view was reinforced by another keynote speaker, Geneva-based Christoph Stückelberger, executive director and founder ofGlobethics.net, who spoke on the role higher education can play in developing a global ethical culture in a world also traumatised by financial and corporate scandals where both reputation and capital were intimately connected.
Stückelberger cited the manipulation of diesel engine emissions by Volkswagen, “which took €25 billion (US$29 billion) off the company’s market value. “There are still the penalties to come… there is a question as to whether VW can survive this crisis.”
On Stückelberger’s Geneva doorstep was Sepp Blatter, the president of international football body FIFA, suspended for suspected illegal money transfers. “This after years of corruption scandals.
“There is a decline of credibility on a global level,” said Stückelberger. “Many professionals with higher education are excellent specialists but moral crooks. After the banking crisis people asked: how could people of such high culture manipulate the markets almost to the point of collapse?
“Fingers were pointed at business schools. They were called on to revise their educational system to avoid producing managers who have been seen as causers of the crisis.”
Stückelberger said there must be more emphasis on values, moral education and character development in higher education. “How can distance learning be combined with ethical education for support in early years of employment as well?
“We get people coming back to us saying ‘please support me; I have my values but cannot live them in an environment of corruption’.”
Clearly the institution teaching such values has to embody them, said Stückelberger. Education institutions are not immune from corruption and manipulation, whether the pressures come from parents determined their children have a degree or politicians applying pressure on admission policies.
Stückelberger said there was a need for changes in the distance and open learning curricula in order to make students “value literate, value conscious and value driven. Not just exam and job driven.
“They must realise ‘value is my reputation and my reputation is my capital’.”
Value driven institutions
But the inculcation of such attitudes requires value driven institutions.
Stückelberger said the ICDE “could play a key role in maintaining ethics and standards” and he called for ethical ratings to be applied to tertiary education institutions plus actions such as community service to be added to a greater extent to curricula.
Such measures could both feed into and feed off a global ethical culture based on shared human values such as dignity, freedom, justice, equity, peace, security, participation, forgiveness and reconciliation; and shared human virtues such as honesty, compassion, care, transparency, accountability, reliability and respect.
Such values transcend national and religious identities. “These values are both universal and specific, either in itself is not enough.”
GLOBAL
Break down learning barriers to sustainable development
GLOBAL
Blending higher education into an uncertain future
UNITED STATES
Education expansion can balance access with equality
GLOBAL
Awards for excellence in open, distance and e-learning
GLOBAL
Improving MOOC retention by a multiple of five
A “tricky world with pervasive war and tragedy” is nevertheless one that “could see the golden age of open learning”. This was the prophetic view of Barney Pityana, a keynote speaker at the Presidents’ Summit of the International Council for Open and Distance Education, or ICDE, held in South Africa last week.
He and fellow keynote speaker, Switzerland’s Christoph Stückelberger, viewed current political and financial world crises as opportunities for open, distance and e-learning, both to support human development and spread a global ethical culture.
They were addressing the Presidents’ Summit for open, distance and e-learning institution leaders at the 26th ICDE World Conference held at the mega-resort Sun City, north of Johannesburg, from 14-16 October.
The conference is hosted by the University of South Africa, or UNISA, under the theme “Growing Capacities for Sustainable Distance e-Learning Provision”. The Presidents’ Summit ran for the first time in parallel with the ICDE World Conference, and focused on themes of leadership and governance.
A world in crisis
Pityana, former vice-chancellor of UNISA and current president of the convocation at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, sketched a backdrop of a world in “its worse situation since World War Two”.
He cited events in Syria, the Middle East and Ukraine, the rise of militaristic Islamic fundamentalist groups and “a Europe that, hot on the heels of the Greek financial crisis, finds itself dealing with a huge humanitarian problem”.
“Europe is not alone. In Africa we have the rise of Boko Haram and al-Shabaab,” said Pityana, adding that the current state of world affairs reinforces the social purpose of education. “Distance education comes into its own in times of crisis as human ingenuity seeks alternative means for survival.”
Pityana hailed the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, bent on “ensuring qualitative education and lifelong education for all”.
“Education becomes a necessary goal for humanity to thrive and prosper,” he said, but cautioned that “tertiary education must be viewed as something more than preparation for work and employment”.
New role for distance learning
“Distance and e-learning face the persistent problem of poverty. Economists have said that full employment is a pipe dream in our world of rising populations and increasing technological innovation.
“Educational attainment is not a ticket out of poverty,” said Pityana.
“There is a shift to lifelong learning involving creativity and intellectual output, not employment. We must look at sustainable human living that affirms human possibility rather than exploitation and is not dictated to by employment.
“This point of crisis and difficulties could lead to a golden age of distance and e-learning. The idea of a certificate no longer being a guarantee of sustainable employment is a major shift and a tremendous opportunity for distance and e-learning.”
According to Pityana, such a shift would require more critical thinking concerning the moral implications of thoughts and actions outside formal academics. Tertiary education institutions could not stand back in a mode of “uncritical discourse” with regard to world events.
“What do they have to say on Iraq, Russia in Ukraine and Syria?” he asked. “Education must sustain the values of human freedom.”
A global ethical culture
This view was reinforced by another keynote speaker, Geneva-based Christoph Stückelberger, executive director and founder ofGlobethics.net, who spoke on the role higher education can play in developing a global ethical culture in a world also traumatised by financial and corporate scandals where both reputation and capital were intimately connected.
Stückelberger cited the manipulation of diesel engine emissions by Volkswagen, “which took €25 billion (US$29 billion) off the company’s market value. “There are still the penalties to come… there is a question as to whether VW can survive this crisis.”
On Stückelberger’s Geneva doorstep was Sepp Blatter, the president of international football body FIFA, suspended for suspected illegal money transfers. “This after years of corruption scandals.
“There is a decline of credibility on a global level,” said Stückelberger. “Many professionals with higher education are excellent specialists but moral crooks. After the banking crisis people asked: how could people of such high culture manipulate the markets almost to the point of collapse?
“Fingers were pointed at business schools. They were called on to revise their educational system to avoid producing managers who have been seen as causers of the crisis.”
Stückelberger said there must be more emphasis on values, moral education and character development in higher education. “How can distance learning be combined with ethical education for support in early years of employment as well?
“We get people coming back to us saying ‘please support me; I have my values but cannot live them in an environment of corruption’.”
Clearly the institution teaching such values has to embody them, said Stückelberger. Education institutions are not immune from corruption and manipulation, whether the pressures come from parents determined their children have a degree or politicians applying pressure on admission policies.
Stückelberger said there was a need for changes in the distance and open learning curricula in order to make students “value literate, value conscious and value driven. Not just exam and job driven.
“They must realise ‘value is my reputation and my reputation is my capital’.”
Value driven institutions
But the inculcation of such attitudes requires value driven institutions.
Stückelberger said the ICDE “could play a key role in maintaining ethics and standards” and he called for ethical ratings to be applied to tertiary education institutions plus actions such as community service to be added to a greater extent to curricula.
Such measures could both feed into and feed off a global ethical culture based on shared human values such as dignity, freedom, justice, equity, peace, security, participation, forgiveness and reconciliation; and shared human virtues such as honesty, compassion, care, transparency, accountability, reliability and respect.
Such values transcend national and religious identities. “These values are both universal and specific, either in itself is not enough.”
GLOBAL
Break down learning barriers to sustainable development
GLOBAL
Blending higher education into an uncertain future
UNITED STATES
Education expansion can balance access with equality
GLOBAL
Awards for excellence in open, distance and e-learning
GLOBAL
Improving MOOC retention by a multiple of five
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