Return to Transcripts main page

GLOBAL CHALLENGES

World's Universities Open Doors to One and All

Aired September 12, 2004 - 16:00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MONITA RAJPAL, HOST: On this edition of GLOBAL CHALLENGES, just browsing. One of the world's universities opens its doors and its minds to one and all. Sight for sore eyes; adjust to a new way of life by focusing on your goal. Self-help has never been so easy. And going with the flow. With the Soviet support base gone, these forgotten people look to a new source of inspiration.
Finally, I've made it into Oxford University. My parents would be so proud.

Now, if you're super smart, you have an outside chance of getting an education in a place like this. Trouble is, for every student that's given the privilege, there are countless others who are left in the dark. But that's not the case at another one of the world's top universities. The location, dare I say it around here, is Cambridge. Cambridge, USA.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAJPAL (voice-over): MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Here they have science down to a fine art. Our understanding of the world around us is better for the work done within these walls.

That's why the private and public sector lineup to finance research at MIT to the tune of around $1.5 billion a year. It's understandable, then, that the institute attracts some of science's great minds. It boasts 57 Nobel Prize winners in its history, 10 of whom are currently on staff.

For students, just getting in the door is an achievement. To talk these halls, they need to be academically brilliant and financially fortified, if not mortified. Tuition costs nearly $30,000 a year. Add bed, board and books, and you're looking at $40,000. That's not uncommon these days, though it's hard to stomach for those who feel education should be more accessible.

Much like the Internet. That also was originally created to open channels of communication, to freely exchange ideas and information. But during the Internet boom, courses in just about any subject sprung up on the Web, offered for a fee by established educators and upstarts alike.

MIT's management saw the potential of the Internet, but didn't want to just jump on the bandwagon, so it formed a committee to look at the options. After extensive research and a good deal of hand writing, committee chairman Dick Wu (ph) had a eureka moment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife insists that she can remember the night that I sort of had this, aha, let's just do it moment.

The question was, what could we do that really could help us sort of exert our leadership as a university and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) was why don't we just give it away?

RAJPAL: Give it away by putting the courses that are taught at MIT on the Internet for anyone anywhere to follow as if they were sitting in the lecture hall, a revolutionary idea in these cynical times, almost idealistic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's idealistic, but in some ways it's no more idealistic than the concept of a university and higher education, because if you think of a university, the ideals of a university is an open environment, and what has happened since the beginning of time is it was open to anyone who could come, feasibly come, and what the Web does is allow that to be open in some aspects -- not all aspects, but in some aspects, to a broader part of the world.

RAJPAL: The end result was a program called Open Courseware, OCW for short. All an individual has to do is go to MIT's OCW Web site and click on the course of choice. Once there, the curriculum, papers and select lectures can be accessed.

Some of the most advanced and previously exclusive courses are at your fingertips.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to release this object, and I hope I will be able to do it at zero speed. Three, two, one, zero.

Physics works and I'm still alive. See you Wednesday.

RAJPAL: Now, this couldn't have been achieved without the cooperation of MIT's faculty. While participation is voluntary, there has been no shortage of takers among MIT's professors and teachers. There are now some 900 MIT courses available on Open Courseware.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have to give a lot of credit to the MIT faculty. I think, first of all, for thinking very big, because they could have just thought about how to cash in on their intellectual property, but instead they thought about how they could together use their materials to help education all over the world.

RAJPAL: While self-learners make up the biggest group of OCW users, educators are encouraged to use it as well. Universities and other places of higher learning are free to use OCW. In essence MIT's material becomes part of their curriculum.

This was the case when five MIT students went to a university in Western China. Peter and Michelle were part of that group. They used materials posted on OCW to teach a computer science course to the Chinese.

MICHELLE, MIT STUDENT: What we did was we went on the 6.001 Web site on OCW and we used the lecture notes, the problems, the readings, the recitations off of OCW.

PETER, MIT STUDENT: As a tool for teaching, it was invaluable, because I wouldn't have been able to teach at (UNINTELLIGIBLE) without it.

We actually didn't know very much what our students would be like, how many we would have, but we were able to go there with very little preparation, and in a few days we were teaching away.

RAJPAL: For individual users, the courses on OCW differ in places to those taught in the MIT classrooms. Restrictions to intellectual property rights occasionally get in the way and of course the Web site users don't have personal access to the faculty or their facilities, and at the end of the day there is no MIT degree. But getting hung up on those things would be missing the point, says OCW's architect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People ask what is the ultimate vision of MIT doing Open Courseware. My personal dream is that many of the institutions will also do something like Open Courseware. Other leading universities that have expertise in a variety of areas in public health, in literature, in law, in the arts. Internationally, my vision is that Open Courseware wouldn't be an MIT thing in years to come but that it would be something that many institutions would join together to do. And when that day happens, now we're really talking about something profound and influential.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJPAL: We're back here at Oxford now, and I'm with physics professor Joshua Silver (ph), who is applying his rather brilliant mind to a problem that's right in front of our eyes, literally.

We'll have that story for you right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJPAL: New College Oxford, founded in 1379 and steeped in history. It is one of the universities most striking buildings. Over the years, it has attracted students of all kinds, and I mean all kinds, including those of witchcraft and wizardry. Yes, Harry Potter and his friends have just been here to film scenes for the next big screen adventure.

But these glasses, as trendy as they are, are not a prop from the film. They are, though, pretty magical.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The choice for some of us is unlimited. Designer eyewear of all shapes and sizes. But to see clearly is a choice many don't have. A billion people need glasses according to the World Health Organization.

In developing countries many rely on charities or visiting eyecare clinics, like this one.

Others spend much of their lives unnecessarily handicapped by blurred vision.

Relief comes in the unlikely guise of a retired Oxford physics professor, Joshua Silver (ph). He's come up with a ground-breaking concept.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we have shown is that you can in fact make high quality prescription spectacles which give good vision correction, and you can do that yourself, and that, I believe, is somewhat revolutionary.

CURNOW: A revolutionary do-it-yourself eye test which can be done in Professor Silver's (ph) English country garden or an African village. In minutes, you can have a personalized pair of prescription glasses. Focus is found by filling the lens with varying amounts of fluid, which is released slowly as you twist the syringe knobs that are temporarily attached to the frames.

In this case, seeing is believing.

From the garden to the kitchen table, anybody can be their own optometrist.

(on camera): It's very blurry, that's for sure, so I'm not really seeing much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just slowly change it.

CURNOW: OK. So now it's coming slowly into focus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, and just change it until it's about right, and when it looks sharp, just stop.

CURNOW: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now just repeat the process with the other eye.

CURNOW: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And cover that one up.

CURNOW: Cover this one up. And that's just as blurry on the left eye.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now just use both eyes.

CURNOW: OK. It's amazingly clear, yes. It's very sharp.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it about as clear as your own spectacles. I would guess they would be about the same.

CURNOW: I don't -- yes.

(voice-over): The home eye test turns out to be as accurate as a trip to the optician. I get the same prescription as my spectacles and contact lenses.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have found your prescription. You have found it to the accuracy that it would have been measured by an optician.

CURNOW: Simple and accurate, but with one slight problem.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are functional. They -- some people like the look, and of course you're not going to wear them like that.

CURNOW: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So the next step is you basically take them -- if I pop these on -- these will not be set to your vision, but you will end up -- they should probably be.

CURNOW: So you'd slip off -- once you've.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You seal up the lenses and you chop these off and then you end up with a pair spectacles that looks like that. They look rather nice, I think.

CURNOW: Do you think I could appear on television like this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.

CURNOW (voice-over): OK. So some of us might be spectacle snobs, but Professor Silver (ph) promises the frames will get lighter and smaller.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're a fashion statement.

CURNOW: They're a statement. I don't know whether they're a fashion statement.

(voice-over): For now, though, his prototype is ready for bulk delivery to global markets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we're done is to take this new technology and take it into mass production in China, where we have a production line capable of making some thousands a day.

There is significant interest and requests to supply from India, from South Africa, from Argentina and from East Africa, as well as West Africa, where we're already actually, today as we speak, a production batch is being sent from China to Ghana.

CURNOW: The Ghanaians buying 46,000 pairs of glasses from Adaptive Eyecare, a company setup by Professor Silver (ph) to distribute his invention.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first production batch of Adaptive spectacles are going to the Ghana Ministry of Education, to the national functional literacy program, which is an enormous nationwide adult literacy program where approximately 50 percent of the people who are learning to become literate need spectacles just to be able to read the text book, to see the blackboard.

CURNOW: Daily tasks made possible with DIY spectacles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our field studies show that about 80 percent of a population, if they were to use our spectacles, would be able to pass a driving vision test. Similar percentage would be able to correct themselves well enough to read.

CURNOW: With statistics like that coming out of four years of field study, the potential impact of Professor Silver's glasses on lives of millions of people in developing countries is staggering. Taking the burden off the medical profession to provide eyecare for those in remote or poor areas.

If enough bulk orders come in, Adaptive Eyecare plans to see clear vision for as little as the average weekly rage in a developing country. An amount that will be calculated on a case by case basis. Technology, that's looking to change the way millions see the world.

Robyn Curnow for GLOBAL CHALLENGES in Oxford, England.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJPAL: One more break and then a story from beyond, where no mountain is high enough and no river is fast enough to keep new technology from changing the way these people see the world.

Stay with us for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJPAL: Welcome back.

We're now going to take you to a place that is so remote, the technologies featured in our two previous stories would be most welcomed.

The region is Central Asia, specifically the area where the countries end in -stan. Our focus is the mountain communities of Tajikistan, where survival has been an uphill battle ever since the Soviet flag stopped flying.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SYLVIA SMITH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There are few areas of comparable size on earth that are so unfamiliar. The -stans of Central Asia are an enigma. Concealed under the Communist umbrella, these inaccessible shadowy countries were dependent on Moscow for every facet of life.

On the ground, societies went into free fall with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The disappearance of the dominant power created an economic vacuum. Many people came perilously close to starvation as food became scarce and unemployment soared.

Without support from Moscow, these countries were forced to adapt to a free market economy. The long and difficult transition from collective land ownership to food security left some hankering after the old Communist way.

This rural family had to sell all their furniture to buy food.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It was a terrible time for all of us in the village. We are nearly all farmers and always worked together. No one owned any of the land. Suddenly, all the rules were gone. We were completely on our own and there was no outside help.

SMITH: In Soviet times, all arable land was collectively owned. The first step under the new system: divide up the fields into manageable plots. Then things improved.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We were no longer told what to grow, but we needed money, so we learned quickly how to get our small plot of land to produce well. We had to get it right. Now life is better because we can see progress. If we work hard, we earn more.

SMITH: Everyone became a farmer, including civil servants and teachers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): When the Soviet Union collapsed, suddenly my teacher's salary was less than $10 a month, so I turned to the land. My little farm means everything to me. It is my main source of income. Without it, my family and I would not have survived.

SMITH: Now around 70 percent of the food needed by these people in the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) province in Tajikistan are met through local production. Up from 15 percent in 1993.

The amount of wheat and potatoes has doubled. Families can subsist on what they grow. The circumstance teaching people the basics of the market economy. Selling their goods at the market was a novel idea. Now private farm flourish. They produce more than 2-1/2 times that of state farms. Profits are being made.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a province in the city (UNINTELLIGIBLE) market is the mirror of the city, and when you look at the history of this market, eight years ago there was a huge difference compared to present day of this market (UNINTELLIGIBLE) two, three small shops and now there are 25 shops and more.

SMITH: The farmers are also taking advantage of another new concept: micro credit. Small loans help pay for transport and a stall at the market. Tajikistan, the least stable country in Central Asia, is now in tune with the Western world's notion of a market economy.

But it's taken all the resources that these people can muster to pull themselves out of a deep social and economic rut.

Miraculously, nature has provided at least one important resource: plentiful flowing water gives life, and harvesting fast flowing rivers provides the basic power to move the region into the 21st century.

Hydroelectric plants generate crucial light and heat for the entire region. Neighboring Afghanistan is now bidding to buy some of the surplus.

The small plants also power computers, which have quickly become a fact of everyday life, even in some of the smallest villages.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Even though I had been highly rated as a teacher before, the changes to education were so fundamental that I had been obliged to start from the beginning again. I couldn't believe how new ideas come so quickly into the classrooms, altering everything from subjects to the way we taught.

SMITH: Even schools waiting for computers to arrive are transformed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The old methods were all read and translate, read and translate, read and translate, but the new method is very (UNINTELLIGIBLE). You can make (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we can speak with each other. The old days were so don't move, don't speak, only listen please, please only listen.

SMITH: Schools have undergone a quiet revolution. The days of rote learning about the Soviet empire have been swept aside, replaced by information technology and a huge demand for the English language. Another new skill that students must learn is self-sufficiency. The state will no longer hand them a job when their education is over. They must now find work that will generate income, a new way of thinking not just about their country but about their region.

Sylvia Smith in Tajikistan, Central Asia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJPAL: And that is it for us from beautiful Oxford. Thank you so much for being with us. We'll see you next time.

END

TO ORDER VIDEOTAPES AND TRANSCRIPTS OF CNN INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMING, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE THE SECURE ONLINE ORDER FROM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com