The Other Lab: UArctic

By Richard Bond

"From Lapland to the Yukon, students in the frozen north can benefit from a new online university, University of the Arctic... other distance education providers with which UArctic has been likened include the University of the South Pacific which also caters to the higher education needs of students sprinkled across similarly vast regions"

From: The Guardian 26/3/02.

Right Professor Trescothick, I think we're ready to roll.

Thank you, Alan. Could you just remind me which screen I should be looking at?

Not the screens Professor, the camera, the one sitting on top of the third screen from the left, just to the right of the gas heater.

Ah yes, of course. Greetings from Finland! Welcome to our first live videoconference for the level one course in Educational Technology here at the University of the Arctic. Today 's session is entitled 'an introduction to the technical challenges of transcultural distance learning'. Unfortunately our colleagues from Siberia and Lapland are unable to be with us today due to technical problems, but we will be sending them a transcript of our session, provided we can sort out a few local difficulties with the recording equipment.

Hello? Hello? Have we started yet?

Ah, I see our colleagues in Canada are having some sound difficulties.

Hello? Hello. Can you hear me Finland?

Yes we can, but it seems you can't here us.

Hello, come in Finland!

Oops now they seem to have disappeared completely.

I'll look into it Professor.

Thank you Alan. Anyway, back to today's topic. Ah, now it looks as though our colleagues in Alaska are flickering rather badly. Greenland's looking a bit peaky as well.

Professor, I'm just getting a message to say that the entire system has frozen. None of them are hearing a word you're saying.

Oh well it looks as though we'll have to postpone our introduction to the technical challenges of transcultural distance learning. Strange, they didn't seem to have these problems when we visited the University of the South Pacific.

Perhaps we should make another visit Professor?

Indeed Alan, I think we probably should. Now, can I put my woolly hat back on?