Ayubowan!

Ayubowan is a greeting meaning good health or good journey. It is also used as "Welcome." This is the way I greeted my class each day with a bow and my hands pressed together (like a prayer).

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In late October I was invited to visit Sri Lanka for two weeks. Fortunately, the funding for my trip was enough to also allow Jim to come with me. I was invited by Colombo University to assist them in implementing an online education system throughout the country. In an effort to increase the education of the populace, the Sri Lankan government offers a "free" education from 1st grade through the bachelor's degree to all citizens. However, even with the free tuition, still many of the poor people cannot take advantage of higher education. This is because, they cannot afford to leave their homes and travel to one of the six universities in the country, where they would have to pay additional money for lodging and living expenses. Also, they cannot afford to enter a program of a study that precludes them from working jobs during the daytime. One of the options to help this situation is to offer online learning.

In addition to adding a curriculum for undergraduates, another growing need for distance education resources is the ongoing education of post-graduate professionals, particularly in the medical fields. These individuals are often employed in rural areas that are not near a university. Because of their practice, they are unable to take off extended period of times to study yet they need to keep up to date on new information and techniques. The online education system would work well for them too.

Though Sri Lanka is a very poor country, they have been receiving a good amount of international funding for a variety of social needs. Recently, Japan provided a great deal of funding to assist the country in building a technological infrastructure for distance education. At the University of Colombo they have implemented several new networked computer systems, one of which connects outlying universities and rural learning centers to eventually allow for distribution of learning materials. Japan has also provided funding for the University to purchase an online course management system called WebCT. It is with recent funding for faculty development, and these new initiatives for distance learning in Sri Lanka, that I was able to come and work with the faculty and administrators in Sri Lanka.

I taught five all day workshops that reached approximately 100 univesity faculty throughout the country. Many faculty traveled several hours to attend the workshops. They were all very enthusiastic, eager learners. Several left feeling ready to implement this new technology in their curriculum. I also briefly met with a variety of administrators. Below is a picture of my last class of workshop students. This group is of the "seniors" meaning the senior professors at the university.

 

 

In between the workshops and meetings, Jim and I were able to do some sightseeing. We concentrated on visiting historical sites, as Sri Lanka's history of civilization is much older and more developed than the U.S. Rather than make one long page, I've grouped the pictures and comments into categories according to the history timeline. Any mistakes are solely my own, most caused from not making notes, mis-remembering something we saw , or not remembering at all. I hope to return in 2003, so I may have more to add at that time.

General background on Sri Lanka's history, cultural and religious development, and current statistics.

Note: The dates stated above are estimates based on brief research. Several times during each kingdom's time, they were invaded, ruled from afar (e.g., India), the capital remained at that location but the King lived and ruled from elsewhere, etc. It is hard to track down the exact dates, so if you notice an error and can back it up let me know. I'll be happy to make changes to reflect better accuracy.

General Pictures of Other Parts of our Trip, including a trip to Galle to see a dutch fortress, and Hikkaduwa for snorkeling on coral reefs.

 

Maggie McVay Lynch
Last Updated: December 24, 2002