Heitor Gurgulino: innovation, training and quality are the challenges of education in the XXI century

Professor Heitor Gurgulino, President of Virtual Educa Brazil and Secretary General of the International Association of Universities, believes that innovation, teacher training and quality assurance are the three major challenges that the worldwide personalized distance education sector must overcome. During the opening of Virtual Educa Caribe (VEC) 2011, he stated that
overcoming these three issues is a contribution to sustainable development in the countries.

During his keynote address "Current perspectives and trends in distance education: innovation, training and quality," Gurgulino explained that innovation means to invest in scientific research and in technology; teacher training means to permanently keep teachers current on the latest teaching tools; and quality assurance involves improving teachers’
salaries.

Professor Gurgulino said that distance education tends to continue growing and, therefore, smartphones, learning games, electronic books, virtual reality, movement-based computing, Web 2.0, 4G cellular phones, and Facebook, also become more important.

The welcoming remarks were offered by Ligia Amada Melo, Minister of Education, Science and
Technology (MESCyT) and President of Virtual Educa Caribe; José María Antón, General Secretary of Virtual Educa; Josefina Pimentel, Minister of Education; and Yamile Eusebio, Director of the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) and the meeting general coordinator.

Minister Ligia Amada Melo was the first speaker. She said that the sixth edition of VEC is the ideal place to discuss current affairs and education experiences
in Latin America. She added that the main objective of this meeting is to learn and to transfer the newly acquired knowledge to the national education community.

Then, Specialist José María Antón also highlighted the importance of the event and said that it offers opportunities for future growth. He pointed out that the biggest challenge of the global education sector is to "educate twenty-first century children with teachers of
the twentieth century."

The third speaker was Minister Josefina Pimentel, who thinks that it is essential to continue the coordination process between representatives of the public and the private sectors, both at the national and international levels, to share experiences in the field of education and to strengthen the overall strategic vision of the new technologies and communications. In her view, the challenge is to make the most of the new technological
tools and to reduce the digital divide.

Yamile Eusebio, FUNGLODE representative, introduced the speakers, highlighted the work of the VEC organizers and said that 19 institutions had joined together to ensure the successful development of the meeting. The event was attended by President Leonel Fernandez, First Lady Margarita Cedeño, several Ministers, and students.