A coverage about the Virtual Learning Tools (VLT) is in the latest issue of the Circle, which is a magazine produced by the WWF Global Arctic Programme. An interview is in the issue with Philip Burgess from the International Centre of Reindeer Husbandry (ICR). Philip is one of the instructor and organizer of the Masters program that is taught at the VLT, "Adaptation to Globalization in the Arctic: The Case of Reindeer Husbandry".
In the article, he mentions the pros of participating in an online course such as the one taught at the VLT environment "The flexibility of the online environment allows students to follow the course according to their own schedules (and time zones!) through a weekly live lecture which is also archived for later viewing".
The rapid technology is creating a smaller world, as Philip states in the article: "On a recent occasion, I was sitting I Toronto, Canada while a professor was delivering a lecture in Tromsø, Norway. Students were participating from Russia, Norway, Finland, Sweden, the UK, the US and Canada. But we were all together in a shared digital room (although perhaps it should be called a digital lavvu, or chum)".
The Circle is published four times a year. Each issue focuses on one specific Arctic-related subject, the topic in the newest edition being ocean acidification. The latest issue has a focus on reindeer herding and caribou, entitled Reindeer and Caribou: Herds and Livelihood in Transition. This edition focuses on a number of themes that are current in the world of reindeer and caribou. Articles cover global warming, wild reindeer in Siberia, oil and gas impacts on Nenets reindeer husbandry and the impact of wind power development on reindeer herding districts in Sweden.
Latest Issue of the Circle - Reindeer and Caribou: Herds and Livelihood in Transition