RETS - Rede Internacional de Educação de Técnicos em Saúde

The launch of this issue of the magazine concludes our work for 2010, and we begin to prepare for next year. We have no doubt whatsoever that we have strived hard, over the past 12 months, to offer our readers quality information relevant to the worlds of education and performance of health technicians and the international technical cooperation, addressing issues such as interculturality, cooperation in crisis situations and now Distance Education. On the other hand, we are confident that much needs to be done to make the magazine, the newsletter and website of the RETS more appropriate to the purposes of the Network and the interests of all.

Distance learning (DL) is the central topic of this edition of the magazine. Far from feeding a distorted and unreal vision of this type of education, which some still see as a miraculous panacea for all social ills while others condemn it without trial, our goal was to encourage reflection and critical behavior before an educational proposal that is increasingly growing by the day with greater strength and power in our reality.

The cover story includes an interview with Brazilian sociologist and educator Maria Luisa Belloni, a researcher at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) and one the leading experts in Distance Education in the country, in which she discusses important aspects of the issue and indicates the opportunities and challenges that DL brings into the realm of Education.

Also within this topic, the “On the watch” section presents some free short courses mainly directed to health workers, to which interested parties can freely access through the Internet.

Finally, the issue continues the presentation of the issues addressed in the online Forum on Health Technicians – ‘Mid-level Health Workers’ -  conducted by the Global Health Workforce Alliance in May this year and, under the “Network News” section, welcomes the two newest members of the RETS: the Portuguese Red Cross Health School (ESSCVP) and the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (IHMT), also from Portugal.

Happy reading!

RETS Executive Secretariat