Xref: utzoo comp.society.futures:367 comp.edu:1009 Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!cmcl2!phri!dasys1!patth From: patth@dasys1.UUCP (Patt Haring) Newsgroups: comp.society.futures,comp.edu Subject: Global (electronic) University Proposal Message-ID: <3380@dasys1.UUCP> Date: 14 Mar 88 07:58:58 GMT Organization: The Big Electric Cat Lines: 826 Keywords: Distance Education Proposal for The Establishment of A GLOBAL (electronic) UNIVERSITY CONSORTIUM To be submitted to The 14th World Conference of The International Council for Distance Education Oslo, Norway August 10-17, 1988 Conference Theme "Developing Distance Education" Organizer: Norwegian Association for Distance Education in corporation with: The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Church and Education January 8, 1988 Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D. Chairman and Technical Director Committee on a GLOBAL/PACIFIC UNIVERSITY in Process of Formation A Subdivision of GLOSAS/USA Association (Un-incorporated Association) c/o, Global Information Services, Inc. 43-23 Colden Street Flushing, NY 11355-3998 Phone: 718-939-0928 Telex: 386131 (GIS USA) WU EASYLINK: 62756570 Parker Rossman, Ph.D. Consultant in Global Education Author of "Computers: Bridges to the Future" Former Dean, Ecumenical Continuing Education Center at Yale University P. O. Box 382 Niantic, CT 06357-0382 Phone: 203-739-5195 Dr. Aristide H. Esser, M.D. President The Association for the Study of Man-Environment Relations (ASMER) Inc. "Ecology of Knowledge (EOK)" Group P. O. Box 57 Orangeburg, NY 10962 Phone: 914-634-8221 - 1 - I. INTRODUCTION The need for greater understanding and cooperation between Asian countries and the Americas has never been more urgent. In today's increas- ingly interdependent global economy, the security of Asia and North America are ever more inter-twined, especially the search for common ground and mu- tuality between Japan and the United States. The present senior leaders of the world must now prepare for a smooth transition, including passing on the "torch of hope for world peace" based on a new global order to the next generation. To this end, we propose here as our highest priority to dedi- cate the rest of this century to the establishment of a more adequate glo- bal educational structure for global citizenship in a "global village" on Planet Earth, since education is the basis of 21st Century society. The projects described below may be a promising form of cooperation between in- stitutes of higher education and students in many countries, which may lead to the true global knowledge infrastructure needed for the 21st Century so- ciety. II. GOALS OF GLOBAL (electronic) UNIVERSITY (GU) CONSORTIUM The GLOSAS Project is now forging ahead to establish a GLOBAL/PACIFIC (electronic) UNIVERSITY (GPU) CONSORTIUM to enhance the quality and availa- bility of higher education through the use of computer, telecommunication and information technologies around the Pacific rim countries/regions. It will also involve all kinds of educational, cultural, information, knowle- dge, vocational and community activities, rather than being confined only to traditional educational offerings. This will enable us to interlink various departments of Economics, So- ciology and Political Science in universities around the Pacific Ocean for collaborative global peace gaming (the term, American colleagues say, that Utsumi created in 1971) of the GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation (GLOSAS) Project (originated by Utsumi in 1972) to explore alternatives for a better future and to explore alternatives to war on the scale of Pentagon war games. The GLOSAS Project proposes gaming simulation on a global scale to help decision makers deal with interwoven problems. It seeks to construct a Globally Distributed Decision Support System for a plus sum/win-win, peace game. This system executes cooperatively, autonomously-managed simu- lation submodels at distributed locations, and can provide a "meta-langua- ge" for improved communication among users of the sub-models. It can also organize and exchange information among dispersed, dissimilar computers with asynchronous and parallel executions of various submodels at dispersed locations. We call it a Globally Distributed Computer Simulation System which also deals with coordination of experts of the submodels via the glo- - 2 - bal Value Added Networks (VANs) for global crisis and ecology management (Utsumi, 1972, 1980, 1982, 1986). The ultimate goals of the GPU are four fold; (1) Global scale peace gaming/New world order alternatives, (2) Research and development on global problems, (3) Globalization of higher education opportunities, and (4) Global employment flexibility for global citizenship. This project can make a most significant contribution to the North Americas-Asian (and subsequently, global) relationships and understanding through international education exchange. We believe that overseas stu- dents in either face-to-face or telelearning classes will promote a global perception among young people of the wisdom and experiences of ALL the world's cultures. This is because full human development depends upon an integration of social, economic, political and spiritual insights of East and West, North and South, masculine and feminine. The wisdom of the past and the richness of cultural diversity are essential elements in the de- velopment of individuals who can contribute to a more viable future. III. BACKGROUND 1. Preparatory Work of GLOSAS to Establish a Global Infrastructure It is now possible to extend North American education to other count- ries, to exchange courses electronically via satellite, slow scan TV and interactive computer conferencing, as a result of the work of our GLOSAS Project, during the past dozen years. We have played a major role in mak- ing possible the extension of U.S. data communication networks to various overseas countries, particularly to Japan, thus enabling the market expan- sion of American and Japanese information industries to overseas countries; the deregulation of Japanese telecommunication policies for the use of electronic mail and computer conferencing through the U.S./Japan public packet-switching lines; and also the de-monopolization of Japanese telecom- munication industries, thus enabling various private terrestrial and satel- lite communication service companies to emerge, including the statutory provision allowing the entry of foreign enterprises into Japanese telecom- munication markets. European Economic Community (EEC) countries now start to follow the Japanese precedent. So currently we are working on the content of global telecommunication networks, starting with the extension of American education to Japan and other Asian countries around the Pacific through the use of advanced commu- nication media. - 3 - We are conducting a series of demonstrations of Multipoint-to-Multi- point Multimedia Interactive Teleconferences with participants from the Pacific periphery countries/regions. We are showing how courses from univ- ersities of those countries/regions can be exchanged among many education- al, business, research and governmental organizations around the Pacific periphery via a satellite. The objective of our series of demonstrations is to discover any tech- nical, regulatory, economic and marketing hindrances in the Pacific peri- phery countries/regions to creating a GLOBAL/PACIFIC UNIVERSITY (GPU) CON- SORTIUM. At the same time, we hope to promote awareness of the people in those countries/regions of the possibility of international electronic ex- change of educational services among/between them with the use of inexpen- sive telecommunication media. We hope that our series of demonstrations, a "building-block" approach which we have been conducting, can be useful to interest potential users of this kind of service around the Pacific Ocean. We also hope that our series of demonstrations will establish comradeship among people involved in the creation of the GPU. 2. Global-Scale Peace Gaming (First Demonstration) In July 1986 we paved the way for this by demonstrating "global-scale peace gaming" to explore and develop new alternatives for preventing war and achieving peace, in our highly successful multi-media (voice, video, text and data, graphics, simulation model) teleconferencing sessions at the World Future Society/"Crisis Management and Conflict Resolution" Conference held in New York City. These sessions were attended simultaneously in New York, Honolulu, Tokyo, and at the Vancouver World's Fair in Canada. The "global-scale tools" used in this peace game included computer conferencing for coordinating various people at dispersed locations before, during and after the conference; and the FUGI computer model at Soka Univ- ersity in Japan, a computer-aided global macro-economic model of the inter- dependent world economy, making forecasts for 62 countries/regions. Distinguished economists in Japan, such as Onishi (Soka University) and Shishido (International University), were interconnected electronically to discuss U.S./Japan trade and economic issues for three evenings with such noted American economists as Thurow (M.I.T.), Nordhaus (provost of Yale University); Keith Johnson of Townsend and Greenspan, and UN Economist Fred Campano. They examined ways for U.S.-Japan trade problems to be re- solved by the year 2000 so that both countries could face a new era of co- operation rather than competition, especially with collaborative research and development in high-tech fields. Many high-level people now or previously related to U.S./Japanese go- vernmental agencies have expressed their strong support for similar multi- - 4 - media teleconferencing on a more regular basis, for example to establish an early warning system of both countries' ever-closely interwoven economic and trade relationships. So integrative and multi-disciplinary multi-media teleconferencing between experts from both countries (later with those in other countries also) shows great promise for the future. Such "peace gam- ing" can show, without risk, what might be the results of global scale po- licies or activities, based hopefully on a more accurate picture of the globe. For example: Such multi-media gaming teleconferencing with the FUGI world simula- tion model can provide scholars/students with a quantitative global- scale tool to test logically and rationally, based on facts and figu- res, various alternative policies with their consequential effects on many parts of global sectors and regions. This is because systems analysis for systemic change at the global level is a precondition for any significant resolution to today's global-scale problems, as has been advocated by the GLOSAS Project since it was originated by Utsumi in 1972. Interactive educational programs and courses transmitted via slow-scan TV and computer conferencing were also demonstrated at our 1986 sessions: New York University showed how it offers courses in Puerto Rico; the Con- nected Education of the New School for Social Research in New York City offers courses (via computer conferencing) to students in southeast Asia, Japan, North and South America, Europe, Scandinavia and the Middle East; and audiences in New York, Tokyo, and at the Vancouver World's Fair watched high school students in Hawaii and Tokyo "meet together" electronically for instruction in foreign language as a part of the Global TE,#