EUROCONFERENCE 98: new technologies for Higher Education: proceedings of TMR Euroconference

Abstract

FOREWORD: The 1998 Euroconference on New Technologies for Higher Education, the first of a series of two events which took place at Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal, from 16th to 19th September, addressed the recent developments in the area of new educational media, both from the technological and educational points of view. Distance learning and the use of multimedia are already having a significant impact on the way university teaching is done, and with the rapid pace at which the underlying supporting technologies are evolving and the communications and computing infrastuctures are developing, their impact is certain to grow in the near future. This trend will also change the organizational framework in which university education will be carried out. For this changes to fully materialize however a very significant effort is necessary. This has been recognized quite early by the European Union which in 1988 started the DELTA programme and more recently, within the European Fourth Framework Program, with TELEMATICS for Education and Training and the creation of the Educational Multimedia Task Force, as well as by a number of countries that financed their own national R&D programs. Research in the area is quite active, with a significant number of good research groups spread throughout Europe. New and innovative tools and applications are being generated at a fast rate, innovative pedagogical experiences are taking place, making it particularly important for researchers entering the field to keep abreast of the latest developments. The wide range of new opportunities created by the ever increasing availability of innovative tools and applications presents several important challenges to educationalists (teachers, courseware developers, educational planners and managers, etc). One of the major challenges still requiring considerable effort is the need for increasing user acceptability and uptake relative to the new technologies. The issues of userfriendliness, cost, building up institutional frameworks suppportive of the new educational technologies, are now factors of paramount importance for their dissemination. Appropriate user training and awareness of the benefits brought by those technologies are other decisive factors for success that must be addressed both from the point of view of the software providers and of the open and distance learning experts. The effective use of the new technologies requires that people from diverse backgrounds be put into contact and work together: engineers that make the communications infrastructure to advance and the capabilities of computing and multimedia devices to progress, computer scientists that provide software frameworks integrating the new capabilities into a friendly and productive working environment, educationalists and cognitive psychologists to reflect on the impact of the new media on teaching and learning. Hence the interdisciplinary nature of the event that aimed at attracting people with these different backgrounds. Euroconferences are one of the Acompanying Measures of the Training and Mobility of Researchers (TMR) programme. They are defined as “high-level scientific meetings … bringing together young researchers and established scientists” [TMR Information Package]. In conformance with the Euroconference definition, the program has been designed to expose a group of young researchers to some of the most relevant research being done in the area, through invited lectures from senior researchers that have made significant contributions to the field. It also offered the young researchers participating the opportunity to give an account of their workin- progress through communications and poster presentations, to get the reactions to what they have already achieved, to get advice on the best ways to pursue their research, and to establish relations and links that will be useful for the progress of their research. The program included into four main themes: Multimedia/Hypermedia Development tools; Cognitive Processes and Pedagogical Experiences; Open and Distance Learning and Cooperative Work; Impact of the Information Technologies in Higher Education. In each of these areas a number of invited papers provides an overview of the state-ofthe-art, whereas the communications describe current research-in-progress. The event drew a good response from the research community, with a sizeable attendance and a significant number of presentations by young researchers. The invited papers offer an interesting overview of the main issues being tackled by the research community, with invited speakers coming not only from within Europe but also from the USA, with a mix of technological and educational backgrounds. The communications and posters have shown innovative work that demonstrates potential to lead to significant changes in the pedagogics and the organization of higher education in the years to come. António B. Ferrari. August 1999