The best time of day for East Coast scholars to set up a videoconference with researchers in Singapore is 8 a.m. That’s 8 p.m. in the small but hyper-wired island nation — not unreasonably early or late for participants at either end. Both groups might be a bit groggy — one starting its day and the other winding down.
The Internet has become the global campus quad, a virtual green space between various facilities in our increasingly flat world. Scholars can use this online space to maintain connections when they can’t walk over to the distant lab or classroom in person.
American colleges would not be building as many foreign campuses without the knowledge that they could keep them connected to professors and students back home with audio and video links. And joint research projects could not be sustained without the ability to e-mail draft research papers and beam data across oceans.
But there’s no substitute for getting on a plane and taking an all-night flight — to make that face-to-face campus visit. So The Chronicle is sending me to Asia for a month to file reports on how digital technologies are changing teaching, research, and university life there. I’ve been exploring those themes in the United States in our monthly College 2.0 column. Now our tech coverage is going global, as part of our increasing coverage of international higher education.
I’ll start in Singapore, often considered a gateway to the East, with its diversity and history as a global trading post. Next up: China, to see the Great Wall and see how students and researchers navigate Internet filters dubbed the “great firewall.” Then to South Korea, which by the numbers is one of the most wired and Internet-obsessed nations on earth. And finally I’ll head to India, where high-tech industries thrive as colleges struggle to provide enough quality education for a rapidly growing population.
The themes I’m focusing on are teaching with high-tech tools, improving access to education through online teaching, developing digital libraries and e-textbooks, connecting researchers with collaboration tools, and moving high-tech research from the lab to the marketplace.
Over the last few weeks I’ve loaded my iPad with guidebooks and research papers, Skyped with professors across the planet, and downloaded a world-clock app for my phone to help manage time zones. I’ve packed a Flip video camera, a portable hard drive that could probably hold the contents of an academic library, and adaptors to charge all of that gear in four different countries. Despite all the high-tech preparation, I’m sure I’m not ready. Jet lag, culture shock, and surprises surely await.
Along the way I’d love to hear from you. What projects should I make sure to check out? What blogs should I add to my reading list? Whom should I have coffee with while I’m in Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, Delhi, or Bangalore? What unusual experiences have you had on your own collaborations abroad? Please share your thoughts in the comments, or e-mail me, at jeff.young@chronicle.com, or find me on Twitter, at twitter.com/jryoung.
Starting Monday the best time to reach me will be about 8 a.m., U.S. Eastern time.
14 Responses to What Does College 2.0 Look Like in Singapore? China? South Korea? India?
yorknebraska - August 30, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Hope you can visit the Philippines in the future.
monotremes - August 30, 2010 at 5:01 pm
What a great trip. Can’t wait to read your posts, Jeff. Looks like I’ll be traveling to Beijing in early October to figure out good ways to discuss impacts around climate change and how to improve the situation. China is a real focus area for me since they are the #1 polluter on global warming. The US and China really need to find creative ways to push either other to focus on ways to reduce their pollution from coal.
imhomysay - August 30, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Interesting that you left Hong Kong off the itinerary. With three top ranked world class universities in a very small area, ubiquitous wireless access across the Special Administative Region (SAR) for all university students and staff, and one of the top five countries in the world for broadband etc. it seems that you have not really done your homework if you are indeed looking at technology and education in Asia. One more thing, Hong Kong is remarkably different to Mainland China, in so many ways.
happydean - August 31, 2010 at 8:18 am
Contact Philip Wong at Nanyang Tech University. Wired and wise.Eat often.
miachenyze - August 31, 2010 at 12:58 pm
I’m with Singapore Management University! From my perspective, I wouldn’t think that my university is super connected, but we’ve got a pretty decent infrastructure overall. I wouldn’t mind chatting though, if you haven’t got your schedule all lined up already! (= And I’m gonna email someone from the Centre for Teaching and Learning at my school to see if he might be interested!
22286593 - August 31, 2010 at 2:34 pm
It’s amazing that Japan has been left off the visit. While one can make a big deal out of this, I think it shows that Asia is becoming increasingly multi-polar and that no one trip can capture all the interesting unfolding in the continent.As for Seoul, I would encourage you to visit Songdo International Business District. In addition to being one of the largest planned developments in the world, the district is home to numerous universities (including Yonsei University) that are built on communication technology and globalization of education. The district is committed to becoming a model “education” city where teaching and knowledge production lies at the foundation of urban development. It’s 40 miles of west of Seoul, near the Incheon Airport, and it’s hard not to use hyperbale–East Asia’s tallest building, open space bigger than the Central Park, waterways modeled after Venice, etc.
vahidm - August 31, 2010 at 4:17 pm
each of your post related to the trip will be very interesting to read. I’ll look forward to them.
jdeng - August 31, 2010 at 6:24 pm
While in Shanghai, have a chat with Prof. Ruimin Shen of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, whose group has an ambitious plan of commercial e-learning deployment. These guys recently visited us in New Zealand and gave some interesting presentations.http://www.dlc.sjtu.edu.cn/2007/team.htm
jeffreyyoung - August 31, 2010 at 8:10 pm
Thanks for all these suggestions! Yes, I have set up an agenda, so I can’t get to everything new here (I did leave a bit of space for last-minute appointmenst though)… For those who are in Singapore reading this, I’ll be moderating a panel discussion later today at Singapore Management University (4:30 pm Singapore time) about using Web 2.0 in the classroom. If you want to attend, e-mail me for more details.
ashwinram - August 31, 2010 at 9:23 pm
I’d suggest connecting with Manipal University. See http://chronicle.com/article/A-Private-University-in-India/65907 for what they’re upto.Also see see Rich DeMillo’s insightful post on this subject: http://wwc.demillo.com/2009/10/14/edupunk-its-alien-vs-predator-with-relevance-of-universities-at-stakeHe concludes: “The real disruptors are MIT’s Open Courseware, peer-to-peer tutoring, games, social networking sites like Atlanta’s OpenStudy.com, and online exchanges. These are the worlds that are colliding, and if they do, the next economic bubble to burst will be American higher education.”I’d look for examples of these types of technologies on your trip. A lot of this innovation is occurring outside the traditional classroom. Good luck :)
fnesta - August 31, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Yes, Hong Kong should certainly be on list. I relocated to Hong Kong six years ago and find it is truely in the 21st century in many ways.
educationfrontlines - August 31, 2010 at 9:50 pm
The statement “improving access to education through online teaching” appears pollyanna in the face of the current revelations about U.S. for-profits, which are heavily vested in access-through-online. Some anytime-anywhere education is being exposed as fraud. The countries you visit are far more sensitive to diploma mills and bogus operations than the U.S. and their skepticism about the appropriateness of online coursework is justified. Please note the recent increase in U.S. medical and pharmacy schools that no longer accept “online labs.” The UC system excludes online course credit for performance arts as well. The highly selective U.S. liberal arts colleges are nearly all disregarding the online format for good reasons. You instead should focus on the possibility that, similar to foreign superiority in K-12, Asian universities may eclipse us at the university level because non-selective public institutions who want to compete with the for-profits are de-valuing courses and degrees through the IT methods you are presuming are superior. This summer, university biology teacher trainers at their national forum in China told me that their great firewall is cracking, that much misinformation is now getting through to students. In the US., the health community knows that the antivaccination movement (promoted through the internet) will result in massive deaths when the bird flu similar to 1918 hits. If they cannot filter out such misinformation, that will be their fate as well. John Richard Schrock
11251797 - September 1, 2010 at 7:57 am
You would enjoy visiting with Dr. Doug Matthews, psych prof who left a tenured position at Baylor to teach at Nanyang Technical University in Singapore. He and his family are flourishing despite the challenges. Now starting their second year there. They are part of a small global academic group called, Cooperative Studies, Inc, which facilitates academics teaching in countries other than their own. You might enjoy talking to his delightful wife and daughters about their experience of staying connected with family and friends in the US as well. You can reach him at dmatthews@coopstudies.org.
panderson - September 1, 2010 at 12:36 pm
You might consider checking out the Montessori teacher education programs growing in China. Beijing has a number of them.