Striking the Balance between Communication and Access to Information: Recipes for Telematics-Based Education and Training

The paper presents Eumedea, a Europe-wide on-line teacher training course on EE, run by the Istituto Tecnologie Didattiche within the framework of T3 and involving five different European countries. EuMedea aims to experiment new ways to train teachers at a European level and create a network of people sharing common educational methods in environmental education, who can continue to co-operate after the course. In Eumedea learning is a social activity performed at a distance with the mediation of technology. Here participants interact in a fully-fledged learning community, which encourages individuals to overcome their isolation and enhances their contribution to the group. Participants become aware of the possibilities offered by interaction and collaboration not just with colleagues in their own country, but also with those working at European level. Even when the course is over, the teacher can keep a channel open with the community. Finally we discuss the technology used to fulfil the requirements posed by the course.