Global Learn Day X

Blaine Berger, my genius of a navigator, and Midi Cox, my indefatigable webmaster, have urged me to post this announcement. From people who have served me so well, how could I refuse? Here goes.

There will be no Global Learn Day, Voyage Number Eleven. For the first time in ten years we will not open our event in the South Pacific and close it, 24 hours later, in the Western Pacific.

Our all-volunteer crew will get a good solid rest from the rigors of holding an event which brings together hundreds of exceptional people doing what is arguably the most important work on the planet. Additionally, I get to celebrate my birthday (October 7) without the usual strains of holding an imaginary tiller on an imaginary sailing ship as she makes her way from Tonga, New Zealand and Australia — then west through Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas — and finally — whew! — out to old dear friend Bruce Best in the Western Pacific.

(This year I can wear myself out blowing out 65 candles; but retiring, I’m not!)

I’m not sure if the GLD curtain has come down for the last time; or if a one year absence will revitalize the endeavor? What I am certain about is the pride I can take from ten round-the-world “voyages” that showcased world-class individuals doing world-class work to advance affordable education worldwide.

Blaine thought I should include in this post my regrets. Midi thought I should do some bragging. I will take their advice; but since there is more to boast about than to regret, let me begin with the recall of some good memories.

Who could have guessed that a tiny band of volunteers could launch a “ship” called the Ben Franklin and take it from Tonga to Guam, “the long way around”? Who could have believed, ten years ago, that we could do it every October, for ten consecutive years?

Sure, it was all virtual. But ten years ago, there was no such word as podcasting and the great majority of the world had never visited a web site, much less listened to voices talking to each other from all over the world.

While a relative few were doing some very innovative stuff — experimenting with something called “web-casting” — our crew had mastered how to combine radio, the telephone and the browser. Great speakers came to us because all they had to do was pick up the phone. Large numbers of listeners came to us by way of small community radio stations, easy net listening, the telephone. When Skype came along, those who wanted to listen or talk on the phone, or the Net, could do so for free. And anyone, anywhere, with access to a dial-up modem, could click on relevant web pages and add comments by way of the blog.

As I write this message, how many event organizers can do this even today?

But what good is exceptional technical know-how if the content is not equally worthy?

My answer to this is to be hugely proud that in our ten years of voyaging we’ve featured presidents and prime ministers, chancellors and governors, senators, congressmen and big city mayors. Our guests have included radio station gurus, incredibly talented geeks, and some of the most innovative educators on earth — particularly those in the field of English language training. {“Inside their classrooms are the leaders of tomorrow; and the doorway to the leaders of today.”}

To that end, what other event put together a peace advocate in Thailand with a minister from Florida and professors in Argentina who had “real world” experiences that brought classrooms to thousands who would otherwise have never gotten past the third grade? In every discussion came the same questions - How can this be replicated? How can we improve access to quality education? How can we reduce costs? How can we improve?

What other event teamed Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist (with rightful claim to being “the father of the Internet”) with a Canadian visionary knighted by the Queen for “changing the landscape of education”?

What other event mixed and matched in real time front page leaders from every continent and put them in real time contact with individuals doing heroic work in (very nearly) every country on the planet?

Here was (is?) an all-volunteer effort that brought together voices from scientists in Antarctica, ecologists in outback Brazil, technologists from Nepal mountain tops and cosmonauts from Siberia — using everything but “two tin cans tied to a string” so almost anyone, anywhere could join in the discussion.

It was all great fun — and if you don’t believe that then just listen to Bruce Best speaking from the wee islet of Yap, way, way out in the South Pacific

Bruce says it all!

Listen to Bruce as he engages with English language teachers in Paris, Abu Dhabi, and Kuwait, technocrats in Buenos Aires and New Delhi, students in Kansas, Capetown and Calgary. And a worn-out “skipper” at the University of Oregon, home of the Ducks. Every one of us is utterly spellbound; all of us have tears in our eyes and lumps in our chest. Honest to goodness…Bruce had to take a small sail boat inside a tricky cove, then catch the “right” wave in order to make a broadcast from a beach so remote even Mapquest doesn’t show it. In this one audio recording, Bruce brilliantly captured what Global Learn Day is all about.

Thank you!

Thank you Bruce. And Eric and Terry and Bee and Teresa and Moira and Graciela and Jeff and Vance and Beth and Buth and Alexis and Sir John and Vint and Raf and Arun and TV and Taran and JohnS and Janet and Gabriel and Boris and David and Juan and Jose and Osapo and Kim — and, and, and, — oh how the list goes on and on and on….. You know who you are. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Most of all we are proud of the premise of Global Learn Day. That’s it’s a very good thing to laud those who are doing profoundly notable work in what is arguably the most important element in any society — delivering quality education at an affordable price.

We are proud of our vision that some day these kinds of people should have a chance to win an Award with as much prestige as a Nobel and as much applause as those who walk off with an Oscar.

We remain convinced that Learn Day should be the other side of the Earth Day coin. And just as big. That if we could do this to its fullest potential that it would accelerate access to affordable education — and that’s a very good thing.

Most of all we regret we couldn’t find our own “Queen Isabela”. We regret our inability to convince those with deep pockets that we could make this both self-funding and of very large scale. That the “New World of Education” is as important to the Movers and Shakers of today as the New World was to the kings and queens of the Europe, circa 1492. What we showcased is a landscape sprinkled with enomously talented, enormously busy, hard working people at the front edge of a tidal wave called “distance education.”

The hard reality is that it takes cold hard cash to do all of this “right”. The cold hard reality is that we didn’t think it “fair” to ask our all-volunteer crew to repeat one more Voyage without the backing of a major entity. The only thing that we have yet to prove is our claim that with a modest amount of seed money we can, in time, make GLD “the Earth Day” of learning. That we can sutstain it by marketing professionals employed full time — that our “product” is as appealing to the dot-com world as it is to the dot-edu world.

This too. With a fully funded professional staff we could incorporate into the tasking an ability to organize three, or four or five events that follow the same format as Global Learn Day. 24 hour non-stop events for — Peace Day? ESL Day? Geek Day? Earth Day? Music Day?
Surely there are corporations and foundations who can see the value of reaching some of the most sophisticated people on the planet! Surely there are leaders at the top of large undertakings who agree that good learners make good employees, good citizens, good customers.

The largest regret?

The largest regret I have is my own inability to properly express the depth of my gratitude to those who have sailed with me and made all of this possible. That I have dared to list even a small number of names is probably a mistake; there are hundreds in our archives who should have had far more recognition that our crew has been able to create.

The good news is that if you have read this far, you know who you are. And you know how much appreciation I have for the work you do.
Thank you for bringing so much brightness to a stage that should have more amerage — and more applause.
John Hibbs

Eugene Oregon

This entry was posted on Monday, September 24th, 2007 at 8:31 am and is filed under Global Learn Day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.