The Background
1. The Principle and Reason
Following the action of the Commission on Higher Education to initiate the Inter-University Network: UniNet project, the project features a high-speed network connection among local universities/institutes and foreign institutes, in the attempt to promote the knowledge exchange between Thailand and other countries around the world. This project features the mutual sharing of academic resources with universities/institutes in Thailand , while fostering the hosting of distance learning-based activities and researches that are related to the field of information technology, and also promoting the exchange of academic information and research among participating members.
Presently, the information technology for the academic development has increased the media bandwidth for connecting to the global internet network, along with the allocation of such bandwidth to service the universities/institutes under Commission on Higher Education, in the attempt to utilize the high-speed internet to better promote the distant teaching and learning activities and the academic research with greater e f ficiency. For this reason, the Office of Information Technology Administration for Education Development has collaborated with King Mongkut's Institute of Technology , Ladkrabang (KMITL) to organize the distan ce training project via the video conferencing system that connects to the Internet2 and TEIN2 networks since the year 2005 and has been ongoing in present year 2007 . This features the training between KMITL and u niversities in foreign countries that represents a simultaneous( two-way) distance learning between Tokai University , Japan , Ball State University , the United States of America, Muroran Institute of Technology , Hokkaido , Japan , and Technische Universit?t Bergakademie Freiberg, the Federal Republic of Germany. The global distance learning project via the teleconferencing system has given rise to the development of global distance learning, where the teacher and students are apart in different countries, and also helped to promote the good understanding among countries that connect to the joint academic and research networks that features an academic linkage between America , Europe and Asia.