The International Council for Open and Distance Education -ICDE and The Brazilian Association for Distance Education - ABED present the 22nd ICDE World Conference on Distance Education to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 3-6 September 2006. Held biennially, the Conference is already established as one of the leading educational events worldwide. A successful format combines visionary presentations from keynote speakers with hundreds of leading-edge technical presentations on every aspect of distance, flexible and ICT-based education.