Ms Foster, keynote speaker : The time is right for distance learning, its time has come
Ms. Foster, is this your first visit to Croatia? How do you like the country, the people, this conference?Yes, it is, but I haven't actually seen lots of Croatia, flying into the airport, I saw hills, lots of trees, it looked beautiful.
What makes the quality of Internet training materials?
The teacher. It's important to have a good teacher, thinking about the learning objectives, making those learning objectives really clear to the students and that they have a possibility to test themselves on what they have learned. I think that keeping the teaching and learning objectives in mind results in good teaching materials.
If Croatian students have an access to the Internet, what kind of training materials are available to them, and where do you suggest they should begin?
I would suggest that they start looking locally. There are some good teaching materials in Croatia, in Croatian language and they have good access to it. If they access materials elsewhere, then they could search for a particular subject at a particular level on the Internet and find good teaching materials. Speaking of quality, there is no way at present to say: "This is quality, this isn't quality," it hasn't happened yet. But I would suggest that they look in Croatia first.
Please, could you compare the situation in distance learning through the Internet in the UK with those in the US and the rest of Europe?
I've seen a little bit, like the Virtual Medical School in Split and what they are trying to do there. The UK has its "open university" which has developed distance learning degree courses particularily for people who live in the UK, but also in Europe and in other places. That has always been government funded. I haven't seen anything of the equivalent in the United States but what you see is that prestigious colleges are getting more students by offering a lot of courses, such as MBA courses, across the network to generate revenue. I think that universities in the UK are now looking to generate income by making their courses available to overseas and some of them are doing successfully.
What implications will distance learning have on the educational system?
Distance learning has always been there. I think it is the studying that is changing rather than that distance learning is changing the educational system. It's almost the other way round because the skills needed by the people are changing so rapidly. You need to continually update skills because everything is changing so rapidly nowadays and therefore people need access to learning, lifelong. Therefore I think distance learning is now coming into its own because the Internet access has made this possible. The time is right for distance learning, its time has come.
In your opinion, is it possible that a computer replaces a personal contact with a teacher?
Definitely not. Having the teacher around is of course the best. Everybody would like to have a personal tutor but you can't always have that. When you are in a class you are one of many and there are a lot of questions. The best thing is to have your own tutor, the next best thing is to be in a class. However nowadays you need to learn new skills "on demand" and you may not be able to wait for a taught course. Online teaching materials are then the best option.
Interview
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Sonja Prišćan
Interview
- Jill Foster
Interview
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George Munroe
Distance
learning
Interview
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Vesna
Vrga
Basic
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