高等教育与远程教育的新动向

New Dynamics of Higher Education and Distance Education

联合国教科文组织(UNESCO)在2009年举行的高等教育世界大会上绘制了21世纪第二个十年世界高等教育的发展蓝图。大会定义了当前高等教育实践的新趋势,指出显著增长的高等教育需求促使高等教育呈现出大众参与、教育提供者的多样化、新学习方法的应用、聚焦质量保证等特征。尽管世界各地高等教育的入学率与质量存在较大差异,但是会议相信通过整合上述新特征,发展中国家同发达国家高等教育之间的差异将会缩小。文章还重点介绍了远程教育的最新发展动向。开放与远程学习以及各种ICT技术为高等教育提供了至关重要的发展契机。除了在高等教育中的应用与发展势态良好之外,开放与远程学习目前也在中等教育和非正式学习中获得广泛应用。日益增加的开放教育资源不仅能够提升教育质量,而且能够降低开放与远程学习材料的成本,因为这些材料可以在世界各地分享与应用。此外,移动技术将成为非正式学习中一个非常重要的工具,低成本计算设备的面世也将加速消除数字鸿沟。

UNESCO ＇ s 2009 World Conference on Higher Education charted a course for higher education in the second decade of the 21 st century. The conference identified important and emerging trends, notably rising demand that has created the phenomenon of mass participation, diversification of providers, the use of new learning methods, and a sharper focus on quality assurance. However, higher education is marked by large differences in participation rates and quality in different parts of the world. It is by resolutely embracing the new dynamics that developing countries will bridge these gaps. Open and distance learning （ODL） and ICTs offer particularly important opportunities. The second part of the paper focuses on the new dynamics of distance education. Now well-established in higher education ; ODL will now expand at secondary level and in non-formal learning. The growing pool of Open Educational Resources will both raise the quality and lower the cost of ODL materials as they are shared and adapted around the world. Mobile technology will become an important tool in non-formal learning and the advent of very low cost computing devices will hasten the end of the digital divide.