Distance education opportunities for mature women in
Greece and Cyprus: comparative perspectives and
implications
- Marios Vryonides & Michalinos Zembylas
| X |
| Author: |
Marios Vryonides & Michalinos Zembylas |
|
Download this article I
Write a comment
|
|
Abstract
The introduction of distance and e-learning education programs in the Greek and Cypriot higher education systems
in the past few years has often been accompanied by parallel rhetoric. This rhetoric evolves and focuses primarily
around the need for the state to offer flexible educational provisions to groups of mature students who would otherwise
be at the risk of social marginalization or even exclusion. Marginalization is the result of social processes that
require new and a constantly updated body of knowledge and skills to adapt in a social environment that is changing
day by day and transforms the fundamental conditions of our social existence (Grummell, 2007). Often, perhaps not
surprisingly, the rhetoric of equality of opportunity and social inclusion may inadvertently contribute to further
marginalization of some social groups. Good intentions are rarely ‘good’ enough.
Our goal in this paper is to focus on the complex ways in which the rhetoric of opportunity and social inclusion is
materialized in two innovative educational programs—one at the University of the Aegean in Greece and the other at
the Open University of Cyprus.
|
|
Keywords
e-learning, Greece, mature women students, equality of opportunity, social inclusion
|
Paths of participation in a knowledge-based era: disseminating e-learning opportunities in Central Asia - Carlos Machado, Elvira Lussana
| X |
| Author: |
Carlos Machado, Elvira Lussana |
|
Download this article I
Write a comment
|
|
Abstract
In education, as in many other aspects of modern life, the question of how to implement Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) is an important challenge for anyone with a stake in training and learning, as educational technologies are spreading rapidly in a globalised world. According to the Task Force of the International Council of Distance Education there have been more than 20 changes to teaching and learning behaviour which have caused a shift on the educational paradigm. All these changes have brought about new reformed curricula in many areas. This paper concentrates on the implications of reforming curricula, extending the Bologna Declaration and introducing learning technologies in a number of higher education institutions (HEIs) within developing countries of Central Asia. With the objective of innovating in education, while administrators (i.e. what it can be understood as rectors and vice-rectors) are busy in following national action plans and strategies for education, the pressure for change and the pace of education change have increased considerably over the last years, partly due what has been defined as a world wide education reform movement (Hargreaves, 1996). As a result, educational systems – and not only in Central Asian countries - are experiencing new directions in the areas of teaching practice, curricula, teacher education and the involvement of educationally significant stakeholders. Our experience and conclusions from years of participation in developing programs to improve the quality of education is put forward hereunder.
|
|
Keywords
e-learning, open sources, developing countries, e-readiness
|
