NEWS: High-speed learning

Interacting in real time with experts from various countries simultaneously – without them being physically present – used to be a dream, but such technology is available today in various universities worldwide, including Malaysia.

At the Malaysian Research and Education Network (Myren) seminar themed “Harnessing Technology for Global Collaboration” recently, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) representative and speaker Dr Masami Nakata said that Myren was the answer to Unesco’s focus and overarching objective to achieve knowledge mobility in the areas of science and policies for sustainable development.

Currently based in Jakarta, Dr Masami said, “Myren is a very powerful tool.

Dr Masami says a lot can be achieved if the network was fully utilised.

“With high-speed intranet dedicated to education and research, we can achieve a lot if people know about its existence and make full use of it.”

The RM30mil network, which launched its second phase recently, sees an improved version of up to 14 times in speed and bandwidth capacity.

It offers direct linkages to other global research and education networks including Tien3, a network covering the Asia Pacific region, and Geant, which covers the European region.

The network also boasts high-speed bandwidth connections, covering 28 participating public and private universities in Malaysia, which will be joined by another 40 polytechnics and community colleges by the end of the year.

Dr Masami said, “Unesco has been using the Internet to spread information since 2006, but the Internet speed in South-East Asia is slow and very expensive. Because of that, we cannot really use it for video conferencing of live lectures, unlike Myren.”

She added that it was important to have an intranet connection that is able to link to other networks around the world, as global research and education networks (NRENS) have the ability to bring together all the best people in a particular field, without having to do it the old-fashioned way of being physically present.

“Asia already has a lot of expertise to share, so what we want is to add to the knowledge that is already there. This is easy with NRENS.”

Using agriculture as an example, Dr Masami said, “Because the climate and culture here are very different from those in the West, you cannot simply import expertise from the US because they may not fully understand the variables.

“However, NRENS are useful when you need help from other experts to share knowledge.”

Dr Masami, who coordinates the Engineering Science and Technology programmes, said that Unesco offers free courses in energy and sustainabality for anyone interested, particularly for students and lecturers.

Those who sign up would be immediately connected to the assigned lecturers in real-time from any institution with the Myren connection.

“Of course, the courses are also available online, but they are not interactive,” she said.

At the end of the day, Dr Masami said that the system is already available, so it is up to the individual institutions to make use what they have.

“A network needs users to sustain it. I would encourage academics to make full use of it,” she added.