Global Learn Day Voyage XI

Global Learn Day Voyage XI

October 7, 2007


	Global Learn Day Voyage XI October 7, 2007 Global Learn Day XI Regions Opening Ceremony South Pacific East Asia Southern Asia Gulf/Middle East/Western Asia Africa Europe Latin America Canada and the United States Central Pacific Closing Ceremony About Global Learn Day Mission Sponsors Benjamin Franklin Institute Franklin Institute Home Page Contact John Hibbs

			Welcome to Global Learn Day Voyage XI in 2007 Announcement Re: Global Learn Day -Voyage Number Eleven 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. The bad news first 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. Now the good news 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 on her way through Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. (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. While some of the most innovative were 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. When Skype came along, those who wanted to listen or talk on the phone, could do so for free. And anyone, anywhere, with access to a dial-up modem and a browser could listen over the net, 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 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.”} In one way or another, all of them were tasked with addressing the toughest question of all: How do you provide quality education at costs that are affordable in your part of the world?* To that end, what other event do you know about that put together peace makers in Thailand with ministers from Florida and professors in Argentina about how to bring good classrooms to the millions who are unlikely to never get past the third grade? Who else teamed Google’s 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 everywhere on the globe with individuals doing heroic work in education and technology — all gathered from every continent — and very nearly every country — on the planet? Don’t tell me my crew can’t boast about 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”. 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 Best, from Yap, says it all! Listen to Bruce as he engages with English language teachers in Paris and Abu Dhabi, Buenos Aires and New Delhi, Kuwait and Kansas, Capetown and Calgary. In all ten of our “voyages of discovery”, what Bruce has to say — and how we delivered it — might be the brightest gem of them all. There’s more. But once you listen to Bruce, you will agree our accomplishments were exceptional. What else is there to be proud of? 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 people should have a chance to win an award with as much prestige as a Nobel with applause as big 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, or portions of it, we could accelerate access to affordable education — and that’s a very good thing. So much for the bragging. Now a few words of regret. 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. The hard, cold reality 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 professionals employed full time. That we can incorporate into their work four or five events that follow the same format — Peace Day? ESL Day? Geek Day? Earth Day? Surely there are corporations who can see the value of reaching some of the most sophisticated people on the planet! 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. I dare not list their names because I will almost certainly miss someone. If you have read this far, you know who you are. And you know how much appreciation I have for the work you do. John Hibbs

Questions or Comments? click here to email John Hibbs, Global Learn Day Director