IMS Global: You recently returned from a month-long trip to Europe where you attended five different meetings and conferences. What are some of the significant trends you've observed taking place in higher education outside the United States?

NA: I have to be careful how I frame my conclusions because I attended several very different meetings. One was the Standing Committee of Presidents of the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE). This year's meeting was devoted to the discussion of open educational resources (OER). Open content has become a hot topic in Europe and in some Asian countries right now. A good example of this model would be at the Open University in the United Kingdom. They are building open educational content so that you can go online as a faculty member or as a student and, if there is a course or module that fits your needs, you can take it and use it without charge, or you can modify it and give it back to them if you want. ICDE is pursuing a major study on the OER in cooperation with UNESCO. This topic was discussed at last year's meeting as well, and at the time, I was skeptical of the OER movement, especially concerning funding and sustainability. This year, I left with the feeling that we have come a long way. Different funding models are emerging, and the OER movement is beginning to grow legs around the world. I don't know where it is going to lead, but it's something institutions in North America need to watch.

In Brussels, I attended a much different meeting of the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD). They have been building an international accreditation system for business schools and programs. It's starting to grow and institutions outside of Europe are increasingly applying to achieve international accreditation through them. This conference was attended by deans and rectors of some of the more traditional business schools. My impression from those with whom I talked, and from the tone of some of the presentations, was that this group has not yet embraced the technology revolution taking place in education, and certainly not Web 2.0. Interestingly, there were some high profile business speakers at the meeting. It seemed to me they were kind of chiding the attendees by telling them: "You need to take a closer look at open content and open source, and use this openness as an engine of creativity and innovation."

At the other end of the spectrum, was the annual European Distance Education Network (EDEN) meeting in Naples. This conference was devoted entirely to discussion of Web 2.0. I came away feeling we were really peering into the future. Something is happening out on the Web related to learning. The jargon is changing: social networking, Web 3D, Virtual Reality 2.0, pod casting, mobile learning, RSS feeds, and Wiki this and Wiki that to name a few. Faculty and institutions abroad are starting to use these technologies.

This emerging Web 2.0 culture, where openness is a hallmark and the user is in charge of his or her learning, is so foreign to the culture of traditional higher education. The new culture is built on constructivist learning; relies on the intelligence of the Web, swarm intelligence, social networking. It's dynamic and continuously changing. Where this is going to take us and how it will be integrated with traditional approaches, I don't know. But we must not lag behind, as we did in the U.S. with the mobile telecommunications industry a few years ago. Other countries in Europe and Asia were years ahead of us in integrating mobile technology with their culture and business systems-I think the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies is something IMS might be interested to follow closely.