Mediterranean Project: Research and Training for Developing Countries
by Maria Claudia Buzzi and Paola Venerosi
The Italian National Research Council (CNR) is promoting an initiative
aimed at supporting the transfer of technologies and cooperation between
Mediterranean Countries, and encouraging socio-economic and cultural development
in the Mediterranean area. This activity, known as the 'Progetto Mediterraneo:
Ricerca e Formazione per i Paesi Terzi' (Mediterranean Project: Research
and Training for Developing Countries), now covers 68 specific topics in
different areas of Science and Technology.
The network of the Mediterranean Project is coordinated by two CNR institutes
in Pisa: CNUCE and IEI. It was activated in September 1996 with two main
purposes:
- to develop and experiment the use of a digital library dedicated to
the diffusion of information on scientific and techno-logical themes of
particular interest for countries in the Mediterranean region
- to support and experiment tools for Network-Based Training applications.
The first of these objectives has been pursued using the system of NCSTRL
(Networked Computer Science Technical Reports Library), in order to create
a repository containing the technical reports produced by the transnational
networks belonging to the Project. NCSTRL employs two distinct technologies:
Dienst, a Cornell University protocol and a server for Digital Library
distributed over the Web, and WATERS, a system that connects distributed
technical report databases via FTP. This has provided a vehicle for a rapid
exchange of research results between partners and the adoption of a research
product based on up-to-date and robust technology.
The second objective is being currently carried out through the analysis
of tools supporting the development of distance learning applications on
Internet/WWW and with the development of an experimental application. International
competition forces organizations and companies to have highly skilled personnel
at all levels of qualification, and training represents a particular challenge
for the Mediterranean Countries. With the current rapid development of
Internet technologies and their applications, Distance Education is becoming
a promising way to promote collaboration between European Research Centres
and Universities, in order to produce courseware fitting specific educational
needs; to transfer advanced research results directly throughout high quality
courseware; to access distributed material available on the Web and to
involve Mediterranean users in an international educational network.
The goal of the IEI/CNUCE team in the Mediterranean Project is to create
an integrated environment where training technologies and information transfer
aspects can be considered in conjunction. The emerging field of media processing
is bringing together communication technology and media technology, providing
opportunities to explore new applications and ensure remote collaboration.
Our target, with respect to both approaches, is also to explore, evaluate,
integrate and exploit up-to-date techniques and tools to make them available
to Mediterranean Countries. An integrated environment for Web-Based Training
has thus been designed supporting on-line courseware access for geographically
distributed user groups with different educational backgrounds.
The features required for the target application are: self instruction;
interactive training; download capabilities; creation and use of distributed
repositories for courseware and other didactic material such software and
multimedia data.
Basic Web-Based Training resources considered are:
- the infrastructure for the use of Internet technologies such as network
connections, student access to equipment and technical support personnel
- a development environment containing conversion tools, Java programming
tools, scripting tools, HTML editors
- link validation tools and support tools
- a set of repositories linked to a Digital Library network containing
the course material, the Network-Based Training archives, and the relative
management software.
The working process is represented by the interoperability of five modules
which can be combined in a common interface integrating the various features
transparently. The modules consist of:
- archives of didactic material
- archives of Network-Based Training procedures and courses
- communication and cooperation unit
- administrative unit
- client set-up procedure.
The communication and cooperation unit is the most critical in that
it manages the interaction between teachers and students. Interaction can
be provided by asynchronous tools (e-mail, newsgroups, etc.), requiring
low bandwidth, and/or by more sophisticated synchronous systems such as
Computer Mediated Communi-cation (CMC) technology for electronic conferencing.
In the case of interactive training using high-cost technology, which enables
more advanced features, the required functionality of the units becomes
more complex (for example, the practical part of the unit that manages
the archives of the didactic material would need interactive exercises
or video conferencing to permit the teachers to evaluate the students).
Some of the issues studied in the setting up of the Digital Library
of the Mediterranean Project will be treated in more depth in the context
of a recent agreement for collaboration between GMD-CNR. An INCO-DC project
proposal on the topic of technological development of Web-Based Training
has also been submitted on the basis of the experience we have acquired
in this project.
Please contact:
Paola Venerosi - IEI-CNR
Tel: +39 50 493427
E-mail: venerosi@iei.pi.cnr.it
