Designing and implementing Web-based learning environments over the Internet is gaining in importance for many years. Providing the users with appropriate tools that facilitate production, reuse, sharing of pedagical contents as well as interactive access to distributed multimedia information is the global objective of such systems.
The talk focuses on the benefits to be taken from a so-called "document technology" approach to deal with various aspects of the distance learning process, such as support to collaboration, remote manipulations and, dissemination of information through a wide variety of devices.
A number of concrete examples will be presented and discussed in order to illustrate the potential of the adopted approach.
Christine Vanoirbeek is leading the MEDIA (Models and Environments for Document related Interaction and Authoring) research group at the Computer Science Department of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. Her main interests in research and teaching relate to structured dynamic documents, hypermedia, and WWW based information systems. She plays a leading role in MEDIA research projects; for many years, a special care has been given on the design and implementation of Web-based environments in educational purposes.
Christine Vanoirbeek is also involved in many international activities: committee member of international conferences such as EP (Electronic Publishing), CIDE (Colloque International sur le Document Electronique) and NLT (New Learning Technologies), member of the editorial board of Document Numerique (a Hermes publication) and, member of the executive committee of ERCIM (European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics). Since November 2000, she chairs the NET4NET (Network for New Educational Technologies), a new Swiss network created in the framework of ICTNet (Information and Communication Technologies network). The core activity of Net4Net is the knowledge and information management concerning new learning technologies in order to encourage the efficiency of the change and the development processes in educational institutions.