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APRUNet Newsletter of 22 October 2005
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Dr Zita Wenzel and Dr Boris Reznik
discussing the DLI2005 results on 6 October 2005 |
Dear APRU Colleagues:
Greetings from the APRUNet Coordinator.
I would like to express my thanks to APRU member universities which had sent
faculty, staff, and students to participate in the recent Association of
Pacific Rim Universities (APRU)/APRUNet "Distance Learning and the Internet"
conference hosted by Far Eastern National University from 4-7 October 2005.
In addition, I would like to offer my sincere thanks to President Kurilov,
and Far Eastern National University, for graciously hosting this conference.
Sixth in the series, the 2005 conference was very successful in drawing
faculty, staff, and students from various parts of the world to exchange and
share information on content development in distance and blended learning,
infrastructure, technology trends and challenges, cultural exchanges through
distance learning, and student issues in distance learning and the Internet.
We had 108 registered participants, 88 of them physical and 20 remote
(videoconferences and web presentations). A total of 43 universities from
11 countries were represented including 11 APRU member universities. There
was good discussion throughout the three-day symposium and I was indeed
heartened by the positive feedback I received after the conference,
especially in terms of new partnerships and collaborations. Especially
compelling was the in-person degree granting of six students who had
completed their bachelor degrees via distance learning programs between Far
Eastern National University and University of Maryland and hearing the students' reactions.
At a press conference before the event, Far Eastern National University's
President Kurilov strongly encouraged APRU universities to respond to the
call to use distance learning and advanced technology to address human
resource, and economic, development challenges. He strongly emphasized the
importance of APRU and in participating actively in related APRU activities.
He emphasized how advanced technologies are opening for all Pacific Rim
students and faculties the opportunities of joint educational, research, and
cultural activities, that have not existed before and that we should use in
a much larger scale than we do now. These opportunities give us a new
quality to higher education, and it is a proper task for an association of
leading universities like APRU to promote these activities.
Moving forward, I would like to bring your attention to the two upcoming
APRU/APRUNet "Distance Learning and the Internet" conferences. University
of Tokyo will co-host the seventh "Distance Learning and the Internet"
conference 8-10 November 2006. Chulalonghorn University is currently making
arrangements to organize the eighth conference in 2007.
All APRU universities are encouraged to participate in the upcoming
conferences in 2006 and 2007. Please feel free to to review past and
present conference information and presentations on the APRUNet web site at:
http://www.apru.org/activities/aprunet/.
We look forward to your university's participation in the APRU/APRUNet
"Distance Learning and the Internet" conferences. Thank you.
Sincerely
Zita Wenzel
APRUNet Coordinator
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