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Benefits and Challenges of Distance
Learning Debated at Regional Workshop
For more than 25 years,
PAHO has supported disaster preparedness and mitigation training
initiatives throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. This
support has taken many forms—from complete or partial
sponsorship of selected events, to providing trainers or content
experts, to technical and training material. As the Region
has become increasingly self-reliant in meeting their own
training needs, the Organization is exploring new ways to
reach a larger audience with the just-in-time information
it needs to enhance performance.
What disaster managers
need and how to provide this was the subject of a five-day
technical workshop/course last November in Lima, Peru that
brought together university professors with a hand in traditional
disaster education courses; individuals and organizations
with expertise in Internet-based training and international
and regional agencies active in disaster training.
The first two days were
spent learning about five different models and methodologies
of distance education, as presented by the University of Wisconsin
(U.S.), the Open University of Cataluña (Spain), the
Virtual Campuses of the Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey
(Mexico) and the Instituto TECSUP of Lima (Peru), and the
experience gained by the World Bank’s Global Distance
Learning Network.
The following three days
were devoted to a basic course to train trainers and content
experts in the competencies they will need and the issues
they must consider when developing interactive distance learning
courses. It is easy to become overwhelmed with the time and
cost required to set up and launch an e-learning initiative,
making it a prospect that could never quite becomes a reality.
However, PAHO is committed to taking the first steps. With
support from the enthusiastic professionals who attended this
workshop, and from many others who were not able to participate
in the first encounter, the framework for the first interactive
distance learning module will ready by the end of 2004.
View documentation related
to the workshop at www.disaster-info.net/elearning
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