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Posted: August 19
(Rome) Saturday morning usually suffers from the worst traffic of the week since that is the day Romans go shopping. In August it is different though, especially after "ferragusto" – the mid-month holiday that marks the start of really serious holiday season. The first week or so of August sees a fair number of people heading out to beach or mountain homes, but after August 15 the city just empties. You might say it is so dead that one could just "roll up the sidewalks" (as the saying used to go for small-town America), except that sidewalks in Rome are made from 8-inch thick paving stones whose solidity defeats the humor of the metaphor.
On this Saturday I went out on my bicycle and found less traffic than one encounters on the normal Sunday morning, which is when I usually head out. I did a short in-city trip of about 30 kilometers and was able to cruise freely. Tomorrow I can paint and get ready to fly to Zambia on Monday for a trip to research the locations for a project that wants to establish digital learning centers connected by satellite to a consortium of partners that can contribute content in education, health, small business, agriculture and other areas that will help development. I have been involved in the project for about three years and it is wonderful seeing it come closer to reality. A few weeks ago I went out to the offices of the European Space Agency and met with engineers who are helping to refine the technical specifications of the project. Now I know more than it seemed possible to know about C-band and KU-band satellites and how to calculate bandwidth and the advantages and disadvantages of various methods of connecting them. Zambia is only the pilot project for a much more ambitious enterprise, but I will be happy enough if we even can get one set of centers going. Father General reiterated the Society's commitment to Africa when he met with the group of editors of Jesuit publications here in Rome earlier in the summer. So I feel good about trying to do something concrete to change the situation of Africa being so cut off from the benefits of information flow that is reshaping the world.
Many groups around the world are investigating ways of forming partnerships to share resources. Some are talking about a "virtual" Jesuit university that people could attend anywhere in the world. Others are focusing on refugees who have been forced out of their homes and away from education opportunities for their children. Now that you do not have to be physically located in the same place to work together or to study, an entire new realm of possibilities opens up. We are going to have a major conference in Denver this coming November to bring together people from Jesuit universities worldwide to investigate new ways of reaching students who are outside of the conventional classroom, for a variety of reasons in different settings. We have already learned a lot about adult learning and distance education. The future is getting very interesting.
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