20th World Conference on Open Learning and Distance Education The Future of Learning - Learning for the Future: Shaping the Transition Duesseldorf, Germany, r April 2001 Reidar Roll ICDE Secretary General and CEO Opening Address in the Opening Ceremony on 01 April 2001

ICDE is the global membership organisation of distance and virtual learning providers Established in 1938… ICDE is the world NGO for Communication Cooperation Development in distance and virtual learning 140 countries are represented in ICDE ICDE is a World Bank and UNESCO Partner Organisation

In the association field of distance and virtual learning, ICDE is the organisation that expresses a global perspective bringing together the regional, national and local associations and communities

ICDE works with all kinds of stake holders, governments, universities, schools, companies, trade unions, at all levels of education and training

The membership of ICDE is composed of: educational and training institutions national and regional associations of distance and virtual learning providers corporations educational authorities and agencies professionals in the field of open and distance learning

ICDE’s New World Centre for Online Operations In Barcelona, Spain.. will serve as a global centre for capacity building in virtual learning… and offer services and cooperation to ICDE members, as well as to governments, multinational organisations and companies around the world

The World Economy is at present in a transformation to the economy of the Information Age. The 21 st century will be a century of the knowledge and information based economy. In this economy, governments and companies are likely to regard education and knowledge as the single most important factor for the development of their future economy.

Many Governments at national, regional and local level have identified the need to establish initiatives that focus on delivery by virtual media.

Corporate development is now addressing a number of critical factors, forced by changes in corporate culture and business cycles, skill shortages and the development of IT capability. E- learning is increasingly used as a strategy for learning in companies

- Political and business leaders at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in January 2001, discussed ways to bridge the digital divide separating those with access to computers and the Internet from those excluded from the information society.

They agreed that basic education, especially literacy, is the single-most important factor in bridging the divide. The onus, therefore, is on governments and multilateral organisations to create the legal, economic and especially social infrastructure necessary to enable the urban as well as the rural poor to become active beneficiaries of the global economy rather than passive participants, they suggested.

John T. Chambers, President and Chief Executive Officer, Cisco Systems, USA, said that in the new economy, jobs go to the nation with the best-educated workforce, best infrastructure and most supportive government.

The typical Internet user worldwide is male, under 35 years old, with a university education and high income, urban based and English speaking-a member of a very elite minority, English is used in almost 80 per cent of websites. Yet fewer than one in 10 people worldwide speaks the language.

World population growth.. Ninety-six percent of world population increase now occurs in the developing regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America, and this percentage will rise over the course of the next quarter century.

There is no reason to think.. that the "invisible hands" of globalisation will solve the very special needs of local situations. On the contrary, one should be confronted with the fact that an unregulated globalisation does aggravate the "Global Divide". Source: UNDP: Human Development Report

Education to all? The cost is prohibitive to most people The world population passed 6 billion in 1999 it will be over 9 billion in 2050…

Quite simply, a divided world does no one any good In the long run the only sustainable option for all of us is to build durable and high quality digital bridges in education, to close the divides and in doing so, to create relevant, culturally appropriate and high quality learning opportunities for the benefit of everyone in society

The question is - how? The challenge to bridge the Digital Education Divide is predominantly a financial question. If the financial resources are found, we can build the bridges. The techological capacity to build the digital bridges, to provide education anywhere, anytime, any way, will soon be in place. All the necessary human and technical expertice to build the virtual learning systems exist already within the international membership of the ICDE.

In the Knowledge Society, the education systems of our nations must be able to handle with speed, efficiency and quality the transfer of new knowledge to children, youths and adults alike, if the nation is to succeed in the strong competition in the new global economy

Soon, we will live in an interconnected global society with instant access to information and learning, for those who can afford it… It is the responsibility of organisations like ICDE to make sure that quality education, and relevant as well as culturally appropriate content is made available for consumers around the world in the e-learning era we are entering. This ICDE World Conference is part of that effort. It will demonstrate the distance and virtual learning capacities of the world at this point in time, and it will help us develop further the new generation of distance learning. Welcome to the 20 th ICDE World Conference!

ICDE 20th World Conference, Dusseldorf, 1 April 2001 Opening Address by Reidar Roll Secretary General and CEO of ICDE THE END