Using Multimedia/Hypermedia Tools over Networks for Distance Education and Training

The rapid developments in the Information Technology sector as well as the deployment of faster networks brings us to the era of the New Information Technology (NIT). The citizen of the near future must be able to use them else he will be seriously handicapped in his everyday life. Thus NIT becomes part of the educational process while on the other hand offers the tools and the infrastructure for the establishment of the distance education process. The educators are one of the first professions that must learn to use NIT and its tools. Multimedia/hypermedia tools offer solutions to the problems posed by the distance education process. They can be user-friendly and enticing and they can cover most, if not all, the needs of their users. A lot of prototype systems (tools) for distance education have been developed, each offering a number of functions that aid the process of distance education. The rapid growth of World Wide Web is adding another factor that can lead to the wider deployment of distance education systems. Although the value of distance education is unquestionable there is still a lot of work to be done before a wide spread implementation platform emerges.