e-Harvard and the future shape of education

MIT has its pioneering Open Courseware program.  Former Stanford professor Thrune and his colleagues have Udacity, an ambitious new effort in online education.  Because of these efforts and others I was most interested to read the suggestions of Eli M. Noam and Nadine Strossen in Harvard Magazine about how that university should harness the new, powerful means of electronic communication.   It not only makes for interesting reading but should also be helpful to anyone concerned with the future of education in the information age.

The challenge for Korea to enter the global e-learning market

South Korea's world-class ICT sector and its strong education sector are receiving well deserved recognition these days all around the world.  Given the strength in both of these sectors, it should come as no surprise that the nation is a leader in e-learning.  However, to date much of Korea's e-learning activity has taken place domestically and in the Korean language, thereby limiting possibilities for export.
The Korea IT Times has published an interesting article that suggests this situation may be changing.  Entitled "Creating e-learning standards in collaboration with global e-learning leaders," it quotes Dr. Hwang Dae Joon, secretary general of the Koean Council for University Education on a key point. He noted that “The development of Korea’s e-learning services revolved around a government-backed education program, designed for the career development of both the employed and unemployed, thereby separating the domestic e-learning market from the international e-learning market. Such a two-fold approach makes it difficult for Korea to meet international standards of e-learning services."

The challenge of luring top universities to Jeju's Global Education City

As readers of this blog will know, there is a major effort underway in the island province of Jeju, to build a new "global education city."  A big art of the challenge will be to convince top-notch foreign universities to establish a branch campus there.  This was the subject of a recent forum held in the city of Seogwipo on Jeju island.
As reported by The Jeju Weekly,the purpose of the Jeju Global Education City (JGEC) is to internationalize Jeju,while also trying to prevent Korean students from leaving the country to study at international schools abroad. The JGEC is a massive project. On 3.7 million square meters at the cost of 1.78 trillion won (US$1.5 billion), it hopes to attract roughly 10 elementary, middle, and high school, as well as 10 university departments for the education city’s University Zone.
The Jeju Weekly article notes some of the challenges to be faced by the project, which are considerable.  As with another major project in Korea, the New Songdo development in Incheon, it deserves close attention.