Regular readers will see that this first 1996 edition of "Learning in a Global Information Society" is now in a new format. In fact this is all part of a new information and dissemination strategy being adopted by LearnTel aimed at keeping members up-to-date with the latest developments concerning using multimedia telematics for learning. For over two years an electronic news service has been offered through the FirstClass electronic mail and computer conferencing system. Now this March LearnTel has launched its own World Wide Wide site.
After extensively reviewing many sites across the Internet, LearnTel decided that there was still a need to have a focal point for organisations who wanted to know more about how to develop telematic-based learning services. The LearnTel WWW site will be structured around what is the main focus of LearnTel pedagogolical, managerial and technological issues related to using telematics for learning.
In addition the web site will also create a number of scenarios in which learning takes place - the home, school, college, workplace, university, library and museum. This will be based around the idea of Learnville - an imaginary village or urban district of a town set at the millennium (around the Year 2000) somewhere in Europe. It aims to show to the general public how learning using telematics could take place within these scenarios by the Year 2000. Going progessively down through hotlinks to different levels more details are given of the current thinking, developments and research activities in this field.
Private areas enable LearnTel members to keep up to date with the latest developments and research papers in this field. Eventually it is hoped that this will become a valuable "tool" to help policy makers and decision-makers understand better the implications of developing telematics based learning services within their particular context.
Another aim of Learnville is to try to enable a better understanding of the various technological configurations that could be used within telematic-based learning services. This is considered to be extremely important in a rapidly emerging service where technologies are developing very rapidly and where there is very little independent advice as to what may be the most appropriate technology for a particular context.
As a consequence of the LearnTel WWW development it has been decided that this newsletter will highlight key issues and provide pointers for more detailed information to be found on the LearnTel WWW site. It will also become more analytical it its approach.