University News
Aloha WIU!
February 2, 2001
While most of us welcomed the new year from under a blanket of snow, five faculty from WIUs College of Education and Human Services (COEHS) were en route to warm and scenic Honolulu, HI. Awaiting this team was not a vacation, but a gathering of 29 individuals from 10 Pacific-island entities eager to begin a WIU graduate degree program.
What first sounds like impossibility is in reality an agreement between WIUs COEHS and the Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL PREL serves schools in 10 U.S. affiliates of the Pacific region, whose political status ranges from statehood to free association. The schools are challenged not only by political and economic diversity, but also by cultural and linguistic differences; at least nine different Pacific cultures are prominent in the region. In the past, PREL has called upon WIU to deliver staff development training designed to emphasize distance learning technologies and techniques.
The masters degree is a result of the success of past initiatives, and is a joint effort of PREL and WIU to build the capacity of educators in the Pacific region to competently utilize and appropriately integrate technology into teaching and learning. The agreement between PREL and WIU stipulates that the master's degree program in instructional technology and telecommunications (ITT) be adapted in response to learning needs specific to Pacific populations.
Courses that currently exist as part of WIUs ITT master's program and the educational and interdisciplinary studies (EIS) master's program form the building blocks of the program, with courses adapted to emphasize cultural appropriateness and contextual relevance. The 35 semester-hour program of study will be completed in two years. Because of the geographic distances involved (more than 4.9 million square miles of ocean and hundreds of islands and atolls) the program will be delivered via distance learning technologies and face-to-face instruction.
The first phase of the new degree program occurred in January with a two-week orientation in Honolulu. WIU faculty introduced the program and its first two courses to the 29-member cohort, all of whom had traveled to Honolulu for the initial meeting. The students in the cohort all serve in a variety of educational roles - from teachers to U.S. Department of Education representatives - on their respective islands.
For WIU faculty, the challenge of working with the diversity represented is somewhat different than anything experienced stateside. "School" may mean a modern, well-equipped building or it may mean a wooden platform with a thatched roof and no electricity. "Teacher" may mean anything from a high school graduate to a Ph.D. The role education plays in the entities is different as well. During a discussion of what education is and what it can do, one of the cohort students shared the insight "One of our WIU instructors stated earlier that knowledge is power. That may be true in the states, but on our island knowledge is respect."
The initial launching of the courses will be followed up with an online format. Two PREL staff members have been appointed as adjunct faculty to help coordinate the ITT master's degree program, and receive training and support via online communication tools and videoconferencing technologies
WIU faculty travelling to Honolulu for the orientation were John Jamison, Mike Miller (department chair) and Sarah Stark from the ITT department; and Tom Cody and Rodney Greer of the EIS department. Technical assistance for the project is provided by the Center for the Application of Information Technologies (CAIT), housed in WIUs COEHS. Funding for the program comes from PRELStar, a Star-Schools grant program of the U.S.Department of Education.
Posted By: Darcie Shinberger (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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