As in Africa, most initiatives in Central and South America address not science capacity or access to distance education in the sciences, but basic health, education, and welfare needs. Peru’s Rural Education Project (2003) is not specifically science oriented, but in the first component addresses foundational issues of education equity and quality, followed by improved accessibility through distance delivery of secondary education. Teaching quality in rural areas comprises the second component, followed by a third component focusing on reform of education management and policy, “motivating linkages towards educational standards, by supporting school development, within the national assessment system, through strategic analysis and policy research” (Rural Education Project, 2003, para. 3). Mid-term review found mixed results, with rural initiatives showing lesser progress (Status of Projects in Execution FY06, 2006).

Similarly, Brazil’s Ceara Basic Education Quality Improvement Project (2000) demonstrated mixed results by 2006, with indication that there had been recent, rather than consistent, improvements (Status of Projects in Execution FY06, 2006). The Ceara project consists of four components, initially focusing on educator development and early childhood preparation, then moving into televised access and accelerated programs for adult learners, with substantial investment in both educator in-service and development of teaching tools and processes. The revised priorities reported are not detailed, but the report’s omission of accelerated program development may be telling.

Yet, Chile’s Life-long Learning and Training Project (2002) is successfully providing young adults with basic and secondary education opportunities, with certification options, as well as “...vertical articulation of technical secondary, with tertiary technical-professional education, through the establishment of technological curricular disciplines. As well, the horizontal articulation of technical secondary, and tertiary education with the labor market, will be constituted through regional networks of educational institutions at the technical, secondary, and tertiary levels” (Life-long Learning and Training Project, 2002, para. 4). Mid-term review documented that these programs are, in fact, realized (Status of Projects in Execution FY06, 2006).

Other components of the initiative included enhanced teacher training, “a national system of competency framework, and professional-vocational pathways on selected sectors of the economy” (Life-long Learning and Training Project, 2002, para. 5) and funding for infrastructure. Again, each was documented as functioning well at the mid-term review, with full cooperative of Chile’s Ministry of Education (Status of Projects in Execution FY06, 2006).

Global Implications for Online Science Education

It is clear that a global cyber-infrastructure does not exist and that developing nations are in many cases far from capitalizing on the connectivity to online distributed scientific knowledge and education resources that could spur innovation, thus improving economies and the quality of life. In some cases, as evidenced by the reports provided and many others not included, social and geopolitical forces impede such development, yet an increasing number of initiatives ranging from foundational to implementation stage are found around the world. In part, disparity in infrastructure is what prevents full implementation of the innovations explored in the remaining chapters of this book. Such useful learning objects as animations, 2-D and 3-D visualizations and streaming audio and video are the principal alternatives to traditional experiential learning and practical work that make distance science education possible at levels beyond the conceptual. Simple, blended, and Web-facilitated courses are possible with basic Internet access, which would also support elementary, email- based collaboratories. The lack of flexibility inherent to simple ICT infrastructures is invisible—indeed, empowering—to those whose pedagogical options are limited, but such inflexibility restricts them from emerging best practices.

In addition to the absence of technological infrastructures, much of the world is restricted from emerging best practices simply because of a lack of collaboration between educators and ICT developers, which is typically unintentional. As we found in our own institution, ICT developers often know what is possible, but lack an application, while educators know what students need, but are unaware of the extent to which ICT can meet those needs. Furthermore, neither has fully explored the pedagogical foundations, including assessment issues, of hybrid and fully online courses, although isolated attempts are underway (Holliman & Scanlon, 2004). These disconnects might very well change as a result of emerging inquiry into collaboratory design of learning interfaces.

By no means is the developed countries’ lack of pedagogical and technical integration meant to minimize the challenges faced by developing countries. On the contrary, the comparatively slow pace of implementation bodes well for those countries currently securing infrastructure, as it enables them to enter the field of distance learning on a par with much of the world, having learned from the mistakes of others and with a clear path to bootstrap the way to practices that are pedagogically and financially sound. Many of the innovations explored in later chapters fall short of the sophisticated multimedia currently considered state of the art, but sparsely employed.