As you know I am involved in several community and regional efforts to get better broadband for our region.

I’ll be  be honest with a disclaimer- I definitely want and need better broadband service for myself, my family, Lynne for her remote work for NZTA, and  my business efforts . But I am also aware that hundreds of others in our communities feel pretty much the same way.

I’ve been attending meetings for the Tasman district Digital Enablement Plan (DEP) to make sure we in Mapua Ruby Bay and Moutere have a voice  in this region wide effort and to network with the other small and large communities in Tasman (by the way, the TDC committee I’m on  is 100% behind continuing efforts to improve broadband access and speeds across the region regardless of the actual outcome of our funding application, and there are some very highly skilled and motivated members from all of the local regions in Tasman).

I’ve been asked to make a statement about e-learning developments opportunities – ie education.

here’s my working draft – unfortunately what appears in the DEP has to be limited to 1/3 of this !

The short version of the Digital Enablement Plan contribution:

The demand and the supply of educational and on-line training opportunities on the worldwide web  have developed at explosive rates, and in an historically unprecedented  manner.

The dramatic growth of  MOOCS (Massive Open Online Courses) has democratised university education,  challenging both outdated delivery methods and the high effective costs of time and money required .Those with initiative and decent broadband access anywhere in the globe  can now take their own education into their own hands – in hundreds of specialised fields in the arts and humanities, sciences, engineering, or commerce. Who amongst us could afford to go to Yale for a course in Financial literacy  form a Nobel prize winner, to Stanford for a course in Programming for Artificial Intelligence, to LSE for a course in Constitutional Law, etc   Of course these developments in free, open access online education do not provide full certification – yet – but they definitely offer unprecedented possibilities for lifetime learning.

Development in these more academic online university offerings are more than matched by a proliferation of high quality , online practical skill training (e.g. Linkedin’s Lynda.com) . Do you or your family members or employees want to learn how to become skilful at Microsoft’s office suite (Excel, Word, Powerpoint ), Adobe’s art and design or video programs,  Website construction and development , Photography,  3D animation,  Moodle for education, Cloud computing? Google for business , Php and MySQL programming, etc? Now you can, at very low cost, on your own time, from home.

So, education (not certification -yet) is being democratised and most access and participation costs dramatically decreased. Most, but not all, fat least or the residents of Tasman. The barrier of inadequate broadband service throughout the region still exists, and it is stifling our access to these new opportunities for making our businesses, our employees, and our families smarter, better trained, and better educated.   Better broadband speeds in the smaller, dispersed communities (minimally VDSL) as well as in the higher density towns (preferably fibre based broadband using existing infrastructure for local schools) is an absolute necessity for the realisation of this creative potential.

The long version of the Digital Enablement Plan contribution:

Both the demand and the supply of educational and on-line training opportunities on the worldwide web  have developed at explosive rates, and in an historically unprecedented  manner. A decade ago  a few top universities like MIT and Stanford started putting their written course material online as open access courseware. Today, most of the very best university academic communities are effectively open access. Barriers of distance and affordability  have been broken down – but the barrier of high speed internet access remains for many. Tasman especially.

The dramatic growth of  MOOCS (Massive Open Online Courses) has democratised university education,  challenging both outdated delivery methods and the high effective costs of time and money required .These platforms now offer the  full monty: well edited lecture videos, interactive and collaborative forums, regular assessment and real-time feedback from sophisticated  personalized systems that are integrated with lectures,  Google hangouts or Webex conference style  collaboration ,  and blended learning opportunities where instructional staff and students consult in real time. Those with initiative and decent broadband access anywhere in the globe  can now take their own education into their own hands – in hundreds of specialised fields in the arts and humanities, sciences, engineering, or commerce. Who amongst us could afford to go to Yale for a course in Financial literacy  form a Nobel prize winner, to Stanford for a course in Programming for Artificial Intelligence, to LSE for a course in Constitutional Law, to Edinburgh for a course in Pharmacology, from Duke for a philosophy course on Critical Thinking, to  Washington for a course on public speaking skills and communication…and on and on.  Of course these developments in open access online education do not (yet) provide full certification, but they definitely offer unprecedented possibilities for lifetime learning.

Combine these changes in expanded high quality online university offerings with the proliferation of high quality , online more practical skill training (e.g. Linkedin’s Lynda.com) and global online distribution channels for intelligent discussion of dramatic and new changes in science, engineering, art, history  and design (think Ted Talks ) , and one can see that opportunities for learning anything and everything by anyone has exploded. Do you or your family members want to learn how to become skilful at Microsoft’s office suite (Excel, Word, Powerpoint ), Adobe’s art and design or video programs,  Website construction and development , Photography,  3D animation,  Moodle for education, Cloud computing? Google for business , Php and MySQL programming, etc? Now you can, at very low cost, on your own time, from home. Education (not certification -yet) is being democratised.

The important takeaway idea here is that

• universities as a “marketplace of ideas” ,
• instruction and training in practical, applied areas to enable employees and businesses work and produce smarter  and
• platforms to provide interesting interactive content that enhances the  literacy and numeracy of general citizens

have all just taken a dramatic leap forward. But access to each of these developments requires higher speed broadband. Without it, the people of Tasman will fall behind the rest of the world, and the rest of the country. With it they will be able to tap the creative potential that undoubtedly exists  in the Tasman region, from the many retirees (18% over 65 vs 14% national average) who want to update skills and re-enter the workforce on a flexible basic to  the many remote workers and small businesses who want to live in the region for its lifestyle yet compete for jobs and business in the domestic and international marketplace.  But better broadband speeds in the smaller, dispersed communities (minimally VDSL) as well as in the higher density towns (preferably fibre based broadband using existing infrastructure for local schools) is an absolute necessity for the realisation of this creative potential.