1

Innovative partnerships to promote ICT in education: experience fromMexico

Restoring Global Balance Together.Fifth Annual World Bank Group’s Staff Exchange Program

and Knowledge Sharing Program Conference

June 28, 2004Washington, D.C.

Carlos Casasús

I Next Generation Internet Initiatives in the U. S. and in the developed world

The Clinton Administration considered that the leadership of the US in networking technologies was critical for defense purposes as well as for the continuing growth of the US economy.

With the leadership of Vice President Gore the US Federal Government sponsors the Next Generation Internet Initiative.

Significant resources were channeled, mainly through the National Science Foundation to support connectivity among National Laboratories and large research universities

The IT technology spiral...

As part of the Next Generation Internet Initiative, 34 major research universities formed a non-profit corporation to run a high capacity network...

Today, UCAID is a non profit consortium of more than 200 universities working with government and industry in the development of tomorrows Internet technologies and applications. Its main objectives are:

To deploy and operate an advanced technology network for the research and higher education community

To develop advanced applications To promote the transfer of new services

and applications to commercial Internet

In other countries…

Most developed countries have formed non profit organizations for the operation of advanced education and research networks

NationalResearch andEducationNetworks

NREN´s have the following common characteristics:

They operate high capacity networks based on Internet protocol

Run as cooperative, non profit institutions To facilitate cooperation with telecommunications

providers they are operated as private networks. They do not commercialize services to the general public

Networks are open to the scientific and higher education community of the country

To facilitate international connectivity, only one network per country is recognized as the NREN

Américas Europa y Oriente medioCANARIE (Canadá) ARNES (Slovenia)CEDIA (Ecuador) BELNET (Bélgica)CNTI (Venezuela) CARNET (Croacia)CR2Net (Costa Rica) CESnet (República ChecaAbilene (EUA) DANTE (Europa)REUNA (Chile) DFN-Verein (Alemania)RETINA (Argentina) GIP-RENATER (Francia)RNP [FAPESP / ANSP] (Brasil) GRNET (Grecia)SENACYT (Panamá) HEAnet (Irlanda)

HUNGARNET (Hungria)Asia-Pacific GARR (Italia)

AAIREP (Australia) Israel-IUCC (Israel)APAN (Asia-Pacifico) NORDUnet (Países Nórdicos)APAN-KR (Corea) POL-34 (Polonia)APRU (Asia-Pacifico) RCTS (Portugal)CERNET, CSTNET, NSFCNET (China) RedIris (España)JAIRC (Japón) RESTENA (Luxemburgo)JUCC (Hong Kong) RIPN (Rusia)SingAREN (Singapure) SANET (Slovakia)NECTEC / UNINET (Tailandia) Stichting SURF (Holanda)Tanet2 (Taiwán) SWITCH (Suiza)

TERENA (Europa)J ISC, UKERNA (Reino Unido)

The world´s NREN community is comprises some 45 countries and close to 4,000 universities…

II Forces promoting the use of ICT’s and high capacity networks in the Mexican Higher Education System

4 Factors…

Demography Globalization New models for research New pedagogical models in higher

education

1) Demography

The Mexican Higher Education System has a capacity to serve only 2.3 million of a total population of 14 million in university age (18 to 24 years of age). 16%

M A L E

6 65 54 43 32 21 10 0

FE M A L EMEX ICO: 2000

100+95 - 9990 - 9485 - 8980 - 8475 - 7970 - 7465 - 6960 - 6455 - 5950 - 5445 - 4940 - 4435 - 3930 - 3425 - 2920 - 2415 - 1910 - 14

5 - 90 - 4

Po pulatio n (in m illio ns)

Fuente: U .S C ensus B ur eau, Internat ional D ata B ase

University age population will keep increasing until 2025 when it will reach 18 million people

Young Mexicans see a University education as the key to access higher standards of living.

Practically all universities are rejecting 2 or 3 applicants for each one they accept

Traditionally universities served the following functions…

A physical place to study A physical repository of books and learning materials A physical concentration of laboratories A physical place for scholars to exchange knowledge An institution that certifies the acquisition of

knowledge

With traditional teaching methods the main cost components of increasing capacity are

buildings, teachers, laboratories, Books

These costs increase in a linear proportion to capacity. The more students, the more buildings, teachers, libraries and labs needed

capacity

cost

ICT’s can change the direct relationship between capacity and cost imposed by traditional teaching methods

Library Digital library

A physical place to study Remote and on line teaching and learning

Laboratories Virtual and remote laboratories

A physical place for scholars to exchange knowledge

Chats, virtual forums,videoconferencing

Certification of knowledge

Remote and lifelong certification

IT can change the cost function allowing universities (all schools) to increase capacity and quality of education and research with less cost and financial resources

capacity

cost

2) Globalization

The Mexican economy is changing as it integrates into a global economy. The economy demands more information workers and less industrial and agricultural workers.

50% of students in the Mexican higher education system are enrolled in accounting and law majors

Globalization…

Mexican universities now have to teach diciplines that are going to be critical for Mexico´s competitiveness…

These disciplines are enabled/transformed by high speed networking

•Nanotechnology

•Bioinformatics

•Genetics

•Advanced materials

•TIC’s

•Robotics

•Health Science

•Earth Science

•Tourism

•Agro industry

• International business

3) New ways to do research: expensive tools, data intensive, collaborative…

Sloan Digital Sky Survey

LHC

ALMA

Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory

Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation

BioInformatics Research Network

High capacity networks open the doors to higher education institutions to use advanced tools and participate in leading edge science projects

4) New pedagogic models

The new economy demands graduates that have skills that are enabled by TIC´s

• Learning on their own

• Capacity to investigate

• Collaborative work

• Scenario analysis

• Human Networking

• Electronic communications

Leading Mexican universities are adopting the pedagogic objectives like the following…

No student should graduate without a thorough knowledge of personal computing tools. This will allow fast integration into productive work

All students should be thought how ITC’s are transforming the diciplines they are studing

All students, as part of their learning experience should participate in virtual learning communities

III Internet 2 in Mexico

The strategy for the development of the network was based upon the willingness of seven leading Universities to bear the cost of the installation and maintenance of a high speed backbone, on a pro-rata basis

On April 8th, 1999 a non-profit private corporation was formed to implement and fund the network

Corporación Universitaria para el Desarrollo de Internet, A.C.

Cudi objectives

Establish an advanced technology telecommunications network, based on Internet 2 technology, among Mexican Universities to:• Support education and research

• Implement next generation Internet applications

IV A partnership with the telecommunications industry

Cudi has three membership categories:

Academic Associates: Educational institutions that have financial responsibility in keeping the network running (17 associates)

Institutional Associates: Government and private sector sponsors (5 associates)

Affiliates: Educational institutions that are connected to the network without a financial responsibility to keep the network running (31 affiliates)

Telmex decides to support the project…

Telmex donates 4,000 kilometers of high speed backbone, covering the 3 largest cities and tow links into the United States

México

Guadalajara

Monterrey

Tijuana

To USATo USA

Backbone provided by Telmex

155

Mb/s

Cd Juárez

Reasons for Telmex support

No marginal costs. CUDI can not sell services to third parties nor

provide commodity Internet services CUDI has created a market for last mile

connections. Internet 2 links are lock-in products for the sale of

other telecommunications products (commodity Internet, long distance, WiFi, personal computers, home Internet, etc.)

Cudi universities are training very large numbers of technicians in advanced networking technology, that will demand and operate advanced networks

Reasons for Telmex support

The CUDI network has become a test bed for new network features and protocols like IPv6, MPLS, high speed virtual private networks, VOIP, H323 videoconferencing, etc.

The CUDI network has become a demonstration platform for new technologies.

Telmex obtains significant publicity in academic events and scientific media as an enterprise that supports higher education and advanced technology.

Avantel (MCI-Banamex) decides to participate…

To hold its share of the university market Avantel, the largest competitor to Telmex, decided to make a similar donation to CUDI.

Other telecommunications firms like Cisco have made important donations to CUDI for similar reasons

Cancún

Tijuana

A SDSC

Cd. Juárez

Reynosa

A HOUSTON vBNS

The CUDI network has 8,000 kilometers of backbone…

A UTEP

México

Guadalajara

Monterrey

155Mbs

The CUDI network…

Connects 76 higher learning institutions that have 2/3 of Mexico’s higher education enrollment and most of the research activities in the system

Interconnection agreements in place allow Mexican universities to undertake collaborative projects with some 4,000 universities throughout the world

Advanced education and research applications

Distance education Digital libraries and remote data bases Telecommunications development Telemedicine and health Life Sciences Earth Sciences Astronomy Visualization Art Grid computing Remote laboratories

IV Policy recommendations

Internet 2 is about expanding the digital divide, not narrowing it

The ones who need it should get it Let educators, researchers, businesses,

hospitals and governments get it In a second instance increased education

and higher income will drive penetration

Lets not all end in the wrong end of the digital divide

Have´sHave not´s

% ofPopulation

Governments should promote NREN’s because they are important…

1. Build human capacity. Networks enable students to be educated in radically different ways.

2. Supports research and education in all areas of science

3. Allows scientists in developing countries to participate in leading-edge research independent of their location

4. Enables integration with the global scientific and technology community,

5. Speeds the use of leading-edge scientific knowledge to solve local problems by providing access to global, state-of-art knowledge resources

6. Stimulates innovation in the private sector

Governements should set aggressive goals for NREN’s

Providing connectivity to every university and research center of at least 100Mpbs capacity to the global set of research and education networks by the end of 2006

NREN’s optimally should have the financial support of governments

Because they are a public good Because Latin American governments

finance most higher education and research in their respective countries

But NREN´s can happen without government financing: the case of Mexico

Six leading universities decided to implement a high capacity network, bearing the cost on a prorated basis.

They opened the use of the network to all Mexican higher education institution

Other universities joined the project so as not to be left behind. This increased the association’s purchasing (and negotiating) power.

The telecommunications industry supported the project because:

• It promotes present and future demand for telecommunications services

• Develops human resources

• Research and development

• Public relations

Thank you!

ccasasus@cudi.edu.mx