Lemmens The Virtual Challenge to International Cooperation in Higher Education Bernd Wächter (ed.) Aca papers on International Cooperation in Education The V irtual Challenge to International Cooperation in Higher Education

European initiatives
As already mentioned, the “information society” policy initiative was launched
at the G-7 summit in Naples in 1994. It was followed up by a ministerial con-
ference on the same theme in Brussels in February 1995. This conference
included discussions on the following three issues: regulatory and competi-
tive frameworks; the development of the infrastructure and access to it; and
essential applications as well as social, societal, and cultural aspects. The
timing was fortunate, as 1994 was also the year of the first international
WWW conference at CERN, the birthplace of the web and of the Internet as
we know it today. Since 1994, the technological developments, market de-
velopments and policy developments have run rather in parallel.
The EU is one of the key promoters of the information society (IS) vision. It
has created IS focal points in most community action programmes, and spe-
cific programmes and initiatives such as the information society technology
part of the 5th Framework Programme for Research and Development, or
the “Information Society Promotion Office” (ISPO). After seven years of exist-
ence, the IS initiative has been succeeded by the so-called “e-Europe initia-
tive” launched at the 2000 European Summit in Lisbon. The objective of this
initiative is to promote the up-take of technology through a cheaper, faster,
and more secure Internet, through investing in people and skills and through
the stimulation of the use of the Internet through e-commerce, e-content, and
public online services, including e-learning. The “e-Europe” plan is also a
benchmarking exercise, which is being underpinned by national plans.
The “e-learning initiative”, which constitutes an integrated part of “e-Europe”,
has the objective to improve bandwidth and create Internet access for all, to
improve equipment levels for schools, and to encourage the creation a trans-
European high-speed network for communication between research insti-
tutes, universities, scientific libraries, schools, learning centres, museums
and other entities. The plan also focuses on skills development and training
at all levels, notably in use of the Internet and multimedia resources for
improving qualifications relevant for the labour market. A recent call for propo-
sals following up the “e-learning action plan” focuses on innovative practice
and concepts for virtual universities, virtual campuses and virtual mobility.
In many ways the “information society” and “e-Europe” initiatives pursue the
same political priorities – to encourage competitiveness, innovation and
structural change – and are based on the simple assumption that those who
dominate the information society and e-economy will also dominate the
world economy, just as those who in earlier days dominated the seas also
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dominated world trade. One could argue that the “e-Europe initiative” is the
same as the “IS initiative”, and thus old wine on new bottles. But old wine is
supposed to be good wine (at least expensive), so let us hope there will be
additional value springing from “e-Europe” and the “e-learning initiative”. In
any case, we must acknowledge that today we are closer to the information
society than we were in 1994, as the result of tremendous technological
developments and the emergence of new services and business models.
These changes have come about predominantly in the private-market sector
of society, for example the corporate training field, which operates partly on
both national and international markets, and less in regulated areas such as
in basic and higher education and the public service in general.
But the “e-Europe” initiative can easily become too instrumental, with too
much focus on infrastructure and connectivity, and with rather limited effects,
as the take-up exercise extends far beyond technology and IT applications.
Educational provision can become a commodity subject to transactions by
means of IT technology and new media, but learning in itself will newer
become a commodity. Individual and collaborative learning processes –
knowledge production, skills development and cognitive change as the final
results of learning – will always be the result of hard work, either conducted
at home, in a classroom on campus or on the net within a digital learning
environment. Unless technology provides solutions for human demands and
caters for social and cultural needs which benefit citizens in their day-to-day
life and working environment, e-learning will never take off. Therefore
pedagogical, conceptual, organisational, social, cultural and transactional
issues deriving from the educational sector itself will be of tremendous
importance, and educators themselves have to play a more active role.