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Co-Organizers:



English (United Kingdom)Português (Brasil)

Distance Education, in these last few years, has promoted a revolution that has spread to every domain and level of the Brazilian Educational system. In 2007 there were 972.867 students in 257 credited institutions. This represents a 24,9% growth when compared to the previous year and a 213% growth in the last four years. This meteoric growth was possible thanks to the government’s endeavor, because it believes that DE is a fundamental tool to accomplish its goal of including 30% of Brazilians ages 18 to 24 in the higher education system, and to the Universities and Entities that have answered its call and have embraced this cause, facing the challenges it presents.


Such an expansion, in such a short time, implied in significant investments. In a country where there is no DE culture, it was necessary to create an infrastructure both physical and of personnel, in record time. This was possible because Brazil can count on a good communication system and on other countries’ experiences and knowledge, put together by years of investment in this modality of teaching.
 
Canada is an important actor in this scenario. For more than 40 years it has invested in DE, that today covers all of its educational system, from K-12, passing through undergraduate and graduate courses, to professional training and corporate education projects.

DE in Canada has shown it is possible to integrate in the system people that would otherwise be excluded by distance or by lack of time. Even though it has obtained great success, Canada continues to innovate and ameliorate the several aspects of DE, with new technologies, paradigms and teaching methodologies.This event is an opportunity to know this reality through people that are actively participating in this process both in Canada and in Brazil.

Goals:

1.      Promote discussions between Canadian and Brazilian professionals from the Distance Education domain to foster collaboration

2.      Map DE strategies

3.      Identify emerging technologies for DE

4.      Identify potential actions to promote/increase DE programs

5.      Identify opportunities for future collaboration between participating members

Target audience: teachers, researchers, public administrators, organizations, leaders of teaching institutions, people interested in the subject, etc.