International Organizations: Roadmap for Collaboration

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INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS: ROADMAP FOR COLLABORATION

Richard Cornell

Cheng Chang Pan, Robert Doyle, Marina McIsaac, Chih-Hsiung Tu, Goutama Bachtiar

Abstract

A remarkable collaboration has evolved over the past half century of international organizations dedicated to the wise use of technology in education. The road toward collaborative efforts has not always been easy, especially given the changing political, economic, social, and educational challenges.

This presentation examines selected organizations and their ongoing role in bringing together diverse international entities toward a common goal, education on a global scale. The result has been a series of conferences, publications, seminars, and personnel exchanges over the years, transcending cultural differences, languages, and locations, extolling unique benefits that have accrued for all participants.

What follows is the story of one man’s journey across seven continents, multiple languages, diverse arrays of transport, housing, cuisine, beverages, and customs, acclimating to all where possible, adjusting to multiple stimulae. The tale then concludes by sharing recent experiences and a unique set of attributes involving three differing cultures requiring finesse, diplomacy, and fortitude to accommodate each in their own way.

The session will conclude with a panel discussion by Professors Pan, McIsaac, Doyle, Tu and Goutama. Both Professors Cornell and McIsaac will be communicating via Skype from Florida and Arizona respectively.

Research Questions

What was the role of the Department of Audiovisual Instruction (NEA) in addressing international issues as related to technology in education?

What was the initial role and core mission of the International Council for Educational Media (ICEM).

What were the major issues and trends of the International Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT)?

How did the core mission of ICEM and AECT evolve from what it was to what it is now?

What were the benefits to both organizations over the years and what is the profile of their members?

What was and is the role of UNESCO to the two organizations, if any?

What have been membership numbers over the years of AECT and ICEM?

What have been the benefits to individual members of both organizations over time?

How has the presenter and organizational members of other geographic areas arrived at positions of mutual assistance and exchange? Are there other similar situations elsewhere?

Methods and Results

The methods related to the questions posited all relate to collaboration between and among individuals and organizations, each of which have similar goals and desired outcomes. They are unique, in most instances, to the cultures in which the activities occur.

The results of the presentation are manifested through more recent conferences held in Louisville, Kentucky, Nicosia, Cyprus, Taichung, Taiwan, Wuhan, China and now, Singapore.

Key Words

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D.A.V.I. AECT, ICEM, UNESCO,CNIE, SICET, IPTPI, KSET, TAECT, CAET, HKAECT, TASET

Introduction

Welcome diplomats, you have just signed on to become road cartographers between Singapore and the rest of the world. Many years ago, Franklin P. Jones defined a diplomat as being one who can put his oar in the water without rocking the boat (Baughman, 1958). Another famed scholar whom shall remain anonymous said that a diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell and have you looking forward to the trip!

As the new diplomats representing both AECT and ICEM, you’ll receive no glory, little or no funds, but untold satisfaction as you carry the word far and near that we have many gifts for both our teachers and students. What are these gifts? You! Sometimes the roadmap will be easy to follow, other times it may confuse. Often it takes two oars to remain afloat, especially in rough seas.

Most of you at this conference also belong to an association of one kind or another. You have been so kind as to have invited some of those association members to join you here in Singapore! That was your first gift to your colleague, the invitation. Please accept our profound gratitude.

Soon, once you have left the idyllic tropical environment in which you find yourselves, someone is going to ask you, “You went where?” Aha, now it’s your turn to give your first gift, telling the person where you went, why you did so, and hopefully, a little bit of what you learned! Maybe even now, as you sit participating in this session, you are recording it for your students or colleague to see, this being the era of Cell-phone or I-Pad video recording capability. That’s gift number 2!

Once you arrive home and you head to your own regional or national; conference, the door opens far and wide for you to keep on giving, one person after another, And then, once you are in your office or classroom again, wow! Think of all the gifts of you that are possible! Many raods, innumerable maps, some of which require updating.

My beginning gift to each of you is allowing me to share four of my distinguished colleagues, Drs. Cheng-Change “Sam” Pan, Robert Doyle, Goutama Bachtiar and Chih-Hsiung Tu, each of whom is either sitting in front of you (but not blocking the screen, of course), and from the arid-and-finally cooling Tempe, Arizona, our dearly beloved colleague, Dr. Marina Stock McIsaac, who will be coming to you on first-chair Skype, and finally me, Dr. Dick Cornell, un-allowed to travel to Singapore by my medical team, who will also share his presentation via Skype with the aid of maestro-chair, Sampan, playing the laptop as we progress.

My five dear colleagues, Pan, Doyle, Tu, Goutama and McIsaac have kindly agreed to serve as judges for this contest and will be acting in the role of Diplomatic Reaction Team. It will be their task to give you diplomatic and cogent reactions to what will follow. Dr. Doyle, having shared his own research on the international locations of Magnum Bars will wear the hat now of Reaction Team Host.

An Historical Perspective

AECT and its International Division

This year AECT turned 90. We were originally born as the Division of Visual Instruction in 1923 as part of the National Education Association. The latter still exists. The former (DIVI) has morphed over the years from what it was then aimed at; school administrators and teachers who had become enamored with the use of the “newer” media of that time, lantern slides and motion pictures, both of which had extremely low ignition points. As was described at the time, that Division’s membership numbered in the hundreds, consisting mainly of school people “eager to liberate instruction from the bonds of verbalism”(Molenda, M, AECT, 2001) .

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Leaping forward 48 years came the beginnings of the DAVI International Division. As memory serves (Cornell),in 1963, Dr. J.J. McPherson, originally from Toronto, served as the first Division President. In those days, DAVI had few members from abroad. Those who were members came from backgrounds as consultants to UNESCO, and other international non-profits. Indeed, it was not until the election of Dr. Clement Chow as International Division President that more and more members from abroad began to attend the conference. (Cornell, 2013, Distant Memory).

In the period between 1971 and the next almost-decade, the International Division was known for its Sunday night International Film viewings under the caring eyes of Dr. Laverne K. Miller who organized these film fetes. Not only did these film evenings attract many international attendees, they also drew in many from the United States. These were the Golden Years of Educational Film and producers such as Julian Bryan, McGraw Hill, Coronet, Walt Disney, the National Film Boards of Canada Norway, and the national film boards of many other nations also began to have their films screened. As the number of producers increased so too, did the number of people attending the Sunday night film showings! Indeed cross-cultural collaboration arrived with a bang.

Internationalizing AECT-An ICEM Case Study

Over time the “face” of DAVI changed with both a name change, to AECT (Association for Educational Communications and Technology) and evolved from mostly “American” to greatly-increased “International.” What has driven this change? From where are the international delegates? Why has AECT developed such an internationalized focus? Do international affiliated organizations have a place within AECT? We will trace the past, present, and speculate what these questions mean for AECT’s future.

Twenty-four years ago, the lead author attended a conference in The Hague, the 30th annual Congress of the International Council for Educational Media (H.J. L. Jongbloed, 1988). AECT was a major contributor to that meeting as they had been since 1958. In October, 2013, AECT will again have major representation at the 55th Annual ICEM Congress in Singapore.

As the years progressed the numbers of international attendees who had traveled from their countries to the convention began to increase. Concurrently, increased numbers of AECT members became involved with ICEM beginning in 1988.

ICEM Collaborations

The International Council for Educational Media, born in 1954, is similar in age as AECT. Originally its members were film makers, producers, distributors, and many were housed in various Ministries of Education or Sport and Culture. There being no “Ministry of Education” in the United States, the ICEM Board invited the Executive Director of DAVI, Dr. Anna Hyer, to represent the United States.

Each nation was assessed annual dues based upon their annual GNP (Gross National Product) thus the United States was among a small group of nations who paid the highest annual fees. Because the ICEM dues were being paid by DAVI/AECT, there was ongoing concern by some that the assessment to the USA was excessive as, unlike the other nations being represented by their various Ministries, the U.S. State Department handed off responsibility to DAVI to pay the dues for the United States.

This perceived inequity was largely because the United States had pulled out of UNESCO, the overall government body to which ICEM was affiliated. (It was not until 2005 that the annual ICEM dues of approximately 2500 Swiss francs were reduced to about 10% of that amount. This dues reduction took

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extreme delicacy before receiving approval by the ICEM Executive as it meant a considerable drop in annual income with the United States pay so much less.

Great finesse was required to finally convince that Board that ICEM – USA was being supported by an American-based professional organization (AECT) rather than by the United States Government, thus the battle was finally won to get the dues reduction.

ICEM held its first United States-based Congress in Orlando, Florida in the fall of 1992, and many AECT presenters attended. The result was an increase in participants from abroad. A decade later some new internationally-oriented organizations met with AECT, eventually to become international affiliated organizations; CAERDA, followed by SICET the following year. In both of these organizations there were a number of Asian professors and students who began to see AECT as the major professional technology-related organization closest to their interests, with AERA following as a close second. By this time the numbers of international attendees had grown noticeably and the International Division instituted its annual dinner and auction in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Jenny K. Johnson became the International Division “Mother” and remained so until her passing in 2011.

In 1998 your lead presenter assumed the ICEM presidency, the first American (albeit, Canadian-born), to hold that office. Due to some internal strife he served five years rather than the customary two, and it was during his tenure that things began to change within ICEM. Initially the organization had flourished under the “iron hand” of its Director General, Monsieur Robert LeFranc, and the imposed protocols at the annual ICEM Congresses were laden with ritual, rigorous attention to a formalized agenda during the annual General Assemblies, and such “Congresses” typically lasted two and a half days. The Congress was in the autumn and the venue moved from one member nation to the next each year, just as it had from the onset of its birth..ICEM was a recipient of numerous UNESCO program development contracts and projects spanning much of Europe and into Africa.

The years between 1998 to 2003 saw the earlier formality of ICEM governance begin to lessen and the main object of their professional interest had radically changed as well. The ICEM Media Week, a mainstay for decades, saw fewer submissions each year.

The relationship of ICEM to UNESCO began to lessen, in part because of the ICEM’s announced intention to hold their annual conference in Taipei. The issue was brought to the attention of the Secretary General of UNESCO by the UNESCO Ambassador from China Mainland.

Sir John Daniel, then the Deputy Secretary General, was called upon to negotiate the issue including requesting the current ICEM Board to come in person to Paris and provide information as to the underlying basis of their decision. Your speaker, then current ICEM President, went to Paris to discuss further the situation but upon the vote of his Board (to which he recused himself) , held to the position that the ICEM Conference would be held in Taipei as planned. This situation clearly took ICEM on an off-road trip and the lines on that map dimmed considerably vis-à-vis the relationship with UNESCO. It is my fervent hope that bridges teetering may be strengthened in the future.

The collaboration between ICEM and the European Community has grown exponentially, due in large part to the work of our dear friend Pambos Vrasidas and his Cyprus organization that has enabled ICEM to co-share training and development projects. My hope is that ICEM will continue to expand its involvement in educational projects and that there will be increased collaboration between UNESCO and the EU..

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Today we have traced AECT’s international involvement from past to present using both the roles of the International Division, ICEM, and as well, looking at more recent international outreach efforts manifested in the growth of International Affiliated Organizations, ICEM being the most recent..

INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATE MEMBERSHIPS

(Doesn’t include retired or life) June 2013

Affiliate Rates Web access Registration Print Pubs

CNIE – Canadian Network for Innovation in Education

Student $75 Regular $125 Comprehensive $170***

Full access to AECT.org*

Member rates for conference registration

Print copies of Tech Trends

SICET – Society of International Chinese in Educational Technology

Student $25** Regular $48**


Member rates for conference registration

IPTPI – Indonesian Professional Association of Educational Technology

Electronic Membership $15.00**


International member rates for conference registration

KSET –Korean Society for Educational Technology

Student $15** Faculty $30**



TAECT –Taiwan Association of Educational Communications and Technology




CAET-China Association for Educational Technology

Electronic Membership $15.00** Electronic access to Tech Trends & ETR&D $35 per year



HKAECT – Hong Kong Association for Educational Communications andTechnology




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Affiliate Rates Web access Registration Print Pubs

TASET – Turkey The Association of Science, Education & Technology




* electronic books, publications and journals, discounts of AECT publications

** membership offered through affiliates i.e. affiliate collects dues and forwards names to AECT

*** all comprehensive memberships receive ETR&D

INDIVIDUAL MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES -‐ Domestic

(doesn’t include retired or life) June 3, 2011

Student Regular Comprehensive Retired

$75.00 $125.00 $170.00 $62.50

Registered fulltime graduate student

Anyone Anyone Anyone

Full access to aect.org* Full access to aect.org* Full access to aect.org* Full access to aect.org*

Reduced Member rates for conference registration

Reduced Member rates for conference registration

Reduces Member rates for conference registration

Reduced Member rates for conference Registration

Tech Trends ** Tech Trends ** Tech Trends **

ETR&D **

Tech Trends **

* electronic books, publications and journals, discounts on AECT publications

** print copies mailed to member

*** Life membership is available for $900.00

Let me now close with a brief discussion of my own new role as the AECT International Envoy in 2013 to our Affiliated Organizations.

Real-world Collaboration – Visits to Asian Affiliates

Following appointment as the AECT International Envoy by AECT President Marcus Childress in March of 2013 and knowing I would be going to Beijing in May, I quickly sent letters to the Presidents of our AECT Affiliated Organizations in Asia. In the letters I outlined a proposed agenda for each affiliate providing information I would like to obtain and other information I would be providing. The international affiliates, in the order in which I would visit them were:

KAECT: Korean Association for Educational Communications and Technology, June Lee, P.hD, President

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IPTPI: Indonesian Professional Association of Educational Technology, Professor Dr. Aytekin Isman, President

HKAECT: Hong Kong Association for Educational Technology, Alan Yuen, Ph. D, President

SICET: Society of International Chinese in Educational Technology, Wu Junqi, Ph.D, President

TAECT: Taiwan Association of Educational Communications and Technology, Professor George Sheau-Ting Chang, Honorary President

CAECT: China Association for Educational Technology, Professor Liu Yonqian, Secretary General

In developing a collaborative agenda that would bring all of the international affiliated organizations into the AECT family, each organization was asked to consider completing six different tasks with a completion date of October 30, 2013 where appropriate. The tasks were:

1. Access the link between your organization and AECT so that all members may access your website. It was proposed (and subsequently agreed, that the first few pages of the website be in English with the rest being in the choice of languages of the organization.

2. Develop a mutually-acceptable timeline during which member dues can be remitted to AECT, preferably via a bank draft or international money order. It was suggested that such remissions could be sent twice each year if needed.

3. Provide AECT with information about the affiliate’s national conferences to which members of AECT and the other affiliated organizations might be invited.

4. Taking advantage of the reduced registration fees, send delegates to the national AECT convention. Each Affiliate President receives complimentary conference registration and the affiliate is provided one hour during conference in which they may make presentations.

5. AECT will provide a welcome reception for each organization during one of the general sessions and will each have the opportunity to greet the AECT President, AECT Executive Director, and the AECT Webmaster.

6. AECT will, upon request, provide official letters of invitation to attend the annual AECT conference to be used when applying for a visitor’s visa at the nearest Embassy or Consulate of the United States.

Results

The easy part of meeting with each of the above-mentioned affiliates was obtaining agreement to meet with the newly-appointed AECT International Envoy. Never having been an Envoy before, I was somewhat apprehensive as to what might be expected of me. (I had read of what had happened in ancient China when the Envoy, bringing the news to the Emperor, lost his head, presumably following the axiom that bad news travels fast!)

Without exception, each of the affiliates responded with words of warm welcome so a travel plan was made that would, within the confines of sixty days or less, include face-to-face meetings with each of the affiliate boards. I had already paid for my air ticket to and from Beijing given that I was also teaching a class for the University of Texas at Brownsville, eLearning International Issues, so the live Blackboard class sessions held twice each week had to be woven into the fabric of the trip timeline. As it happened, I did meet with my students when in Beijing, Hong Kong, Wuhan, and Taipei.

I must pause here and express my thanks to AECT for providing me $1,000 to help defray the travel expenses involved with meeting each of our affiliate boards. My guess is that, in the future, especially if AECT wishes to continue sending out its Envoys, that a separate budget item be

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established to help with such travel. The current 2013 Strategic Plan calls for the appointment of AECT “Ambassadors” in the coming years. (The change in title may well protect those who might enter into a given area where formerly Envoys lost their lives!)

Never having been to either Korea or Indonesia, I was looking forward to meeting my friends in each of the locales and I was not disappointed. At these two venues as well as at the others, I was fortunate enough to have met with colleagues who had been previously known to me.

I cannot say enough about how welcoming each of our International Affiliates was! It was through these collaborations that each affiliate shared their own goals and ambitions and it was a true affirmation that out there beyond our American shores, we have some incredible people who are devoting their entire lives to those concepts in which we collectively believe.

In truth, I did not really know what to expect as I made my way from one venue to the next. Upon arriving in Beijing, I was surrounded by group of dear friends who went above and beyond to assist me during those two months of travel in and out of the city. I will admit it now, having returned to my Florida home, that when I arrived in Asia I was ecstatic, to finally be away from the continued negativity that seemed to surround me at every turn in America.

I can say, without reservation, that for two entire months, I had not one negative thought, not one incident that disturbed me while I was in Asia! For that, I thank my caring collaborators who helped me along the many roads to mission success. Now the work that lies ahead is being accomplished, in both small and large steps and when each of these international affiliates gathers together in one room just an hour before the opening of the First General Session, we will be cheering loudly as each affiliate shares with the others, the progress they have made!

You there in Singapore! Come join us in Anaheim, come as one of our newest AECT International Affiliates!

Conclusions

A summation of activities covering the past fifty years will conclude by visually depicting the successes gained in extending collaborative hands around the world.

References:

Baughman, M.D.(1988). Teacher’s treasury of stories for every occasion. Prentice –Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

Molenda, M. (2005). Association for Educational Communications and Technology in the 20th Century: A brief history.

Author Affiliation and Address

Dr. Richard A. Cornell

Emeritus Professor, Instructional Technology

University of Central Florida

610 Forest Drive

Casselberry, FL 32707 USA

Email: [email protected]

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Dr. Robert Doyle

Associate Dean

Harvard University 26 Church Street

Cambridge, MA 02138 USA


Dr. Marina S. McIsaac

Emeritus Professor

Arizona State University

2625 E. Southern Ave. # C-94

Tempe, AZ 85282 USA


Dr. Cheng-Chang Pan

Associate Professor

Educational Technology

80 Fort Brown, EDBC 1.306

Brownsville, TX 78520 USA


Dr. Chih-Hsiung Tu

Professor

Northern Arizona State University

School of Education

Flagstaff, AZ 86001


Goutama Bachtiar

VP – Head of Information Technology

Roligio Group

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DKI Jakarta, 11440, Jakarta, Indonesia

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