Piet Kommers
Piet Kommers is associate professor in the University of Twente, The Netherlands. His actual interest is media, learning and visual communication. His Master study in 1980 formulated algorithms for adaptive learning. In his PhD study he questioned how conceptual representations may support the cognitive integration in learning. He was Scientific Director of NATO Advanced Research Workshop: "Cognitive Technologies" in 1989.
From 1990 until now he was increasingly involved as partner and coordinator in European research projects in media based and continuous learning. His role in initiating higher education in Eastern Europe led to his UNESCO chair, followed by the award of honorary doctor by Capital Normal University in Beijing in 2000.
From 2005 to 2007 he was part time lector at the aspect of “mobile learning” by Fontys University of Applied Sciences. He is adjunct professor in the faculty of computer science in Joensuu University (Finland) and advisor in the ministry of Education in Singapore. His publications stretch the fields of media, communication, education and lifelong learning, among six books and more than fifty proceedings and journal articles. 24 PhD studies and more than 80 Master student projects were supervised.
Phone: +31 53 4893576 Secretary 3299
Address: University of Twente
Faculty of Behavioral Sciences
Box 217
7500 AE Enschede
From 1990 until now he was increasingly involved as partner and coordinator in European research projects in media based and continuous learning. His role in initiating higher education in Eastern Europe led to his UNESCO chair, followed by the award of honorary doctor by Capital Normal University in Beijing in 2000.
From 2005 to 2007 he was part time lector at the aspect of “mobile learning” by Fontys University of Applied Sciences. He is adjunct professor in the faculty of computer science in Joensuu University (Finland) and advisor in the ministry of Education in Singapore. His publications stretch the fields of media, communication, education and lifelong learning, among six books and more than fifty proceedings and journal articles. 24 PhD studies and more than 80 Master student projects were supervised.
Phone: +31 53 4893576 Secretary 3299
Address: University of Twente
Faculty of Behavioral Sciences
Box 217
7500 AE Enschede
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Papers by Piet Kommers
Education in Eastern European Countries
New technologies are entering schools at high speed: computers, CD-ROM players, Internet. Teachers and students learn to work with state-of-the-art media and telematics applications. Computer-based instruction, distance learning, hypermedia learning environments, intelligent tutoring systems, these are some of the buzz words. All is new in the classroom, it seems. But is that really the case? Sometimes, new technologies merely are incorporated in the existing didactic practise. However, there is more than just bringing the hard- and software to the schools. The new facilities should trigger essentially new and more effective ways of learning. It might be that, in essence, those new approaches have already existed for years. New technology, however, is in the elegant position to make it work: it stimulates to dig, excavate and implement true assets of pedagogical reformers from the past.
New technology for education constitutes a field of research in which the former Soviet and East-block countries have an extensive tradition. Partners from the western world were informed at three East-West Conferences on Computer technologies for Education (EWED) in the years '92-'94, respectively. In '95-'96 an in-depth actualization of the described research projects was made. Therefore, now this book can be announced as an atlas of Eastern European research projects in educational and media technology. An adequate overview of this field is furnished by distinguishing between three perspectives:
Theoretical background. Starting from early pedagogic, sociologic or historic materialistic views, much of the research into educational technology now seems to be driven by new media and software-engineering opportunities. In its didactic approaches, however, fundamental choices must be made. The underlying fundamental views on learning and teaching processes are reconstructed from recent work.
Media, development tools and communication infrastructure. Whereas researchers tend to concentrate their contributions on a focused and restricted media scope, now more and more attempts are made to provide overall scenarios for learning in the media landscape. This implies a shift of focus from the more formal aspects of computer-based instruction to the dissemination and integration of new media in the real school and training settings.
Case studies as they have been described in the EWED conferences give a good impression of the practical media implications for the learning process. They show which subject matters are well-suited and ready for media support and which type of problems one hopes to solve.
This book brings the EWED results to a broader audience. For those who have media plans in mind and prefer to see what has already been done, it should be a source of inspiration. The book helps significantly in establishing links between research groups in Eastern and Western Europe. Especially now that Internet provides a quick, easy and flexible 'meeting room', it may prove useful to have a paper-based 'map' of where different individuals may be found.
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