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NEW MEDIA AND DISTANCE EDUCATION: AN EU-US PERSPECTIVE

This paper presents an overview of the development of new media in the secondary and higher education systems of the European Union (EU) and USA. A combination of driving forces in pedagogical thinking, technological progress and business models have raised new expectations for the wide-spread use of educational technology, such as by providing major market opportunities as in the adult training segment. Many public sector and private commercial initiatives for connecting schools to the Internet, first adopted in the USA, and then in member states of the EU, have met with marked success. Most of the secondary schools are, or are being, wired, if but to a limited extent. The diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the EU schools is particularly rapid given their initially low penetration rate. If American organizations are indeed leading the development of online courses and programmes in the higher education sector, European universities have now realized the importance of investing in this field. However, for new media to significantly improve the educational process in the EU and in the USA, they must be embodied in the complex school or university environment, and be nurtured by new partnerships between business and the academy.