Asynchronous Learning Networks:
New Possibilities?
Frank Mayadas
Sloan Foundation
Monday, October 5th, 1998, 1:00pm-2:00pm
Library/CATT Building, Room LC102, Brooklyn Campus
This will be a discussion of the
Sloan Foundation's program in Learning Outside the Classroom, which is known under the
term Asynchronous Learning Networks. The talk will cover: how the program started, what
the strategy has been and remains, how the strategy has been carried out, what has been
learned, and where future opportunities lie. Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN's), as a
concept, is built on some old ideas about asynchronous (anytime, anyplace) learning such
as correspondence,and some new ideas such as asynchronous communication made possible to a
mass market through the internet. As such the ALN concept is not a single new idea but a
collection of rules and concepts around which the Foundation has constructed its program.
ALN is having a profound effect on availability of education to those who might otherwise
not have the opportunity to access it. The effect is expected to be large and profound
over the coming years.}
SPEAKER'S BIOGRAPHY: Prior to coming to the Sloan Foundation, Frank Mayadas spent 27 years
at the IBM Corporation. He was Vice President, Research Division, Technical Plans and
Controls, from 1991 to 1992; Vice President, Technology and Solutions Development,
Application Solutions Line of Business, from 1989 to 1991; General Manager, University and
College Systems, IBM Personal Systems Line of Business, from 1988 to 1989; Secretary of
IBM's corporate Management Board and the IBM Management Committee, from 1987 to 1988; and
IBM Research Division Vice President and Director, Almaden Research Center, San Jose,
California, from 1983 to 1987; and an IBM Research Division Director, Technical Planning
and Controls, from 1981 to 1983.
He received a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Cornell in 1965; and a B.S. from the Colorado
School of Mines in 1961. He has over 35 published papers in Systems, Devices, and Solid
State Physics, and holds several patents, and awards from IBM. He is a Fellow of the IEEE,
a member of the American Physical Society, and a past Director of the Society of
Engineering Science. He is also a member of the National Advisory Board for Georgia Tech,
and the Advisory Board of the College of Engineering, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.
Refreshments will be served at
12:45pm outside the seminar room.
For more information please contact Ifay Chang
( ifay@pride-i2.poly.edu)
