Telematics in education: the Dutch case

In the Netherlands and elsewhere, the rapid technological developments in society and the rapidly escalating interconnectiveness within Europe and with the rest of the world are reflected in the sorts of educational developments that are taking place. Even in a small country as The Netherlands, the need for and use of telecommunications in education is becoming a premise. An ongoing dilemma for educational policy makers in general is that the tasks of stimulating innovations and preparing for future trends in society are often difficult to harmonize with tasks related to the ongoing needs and demands present in the educational system (Collis, Veen, & De Vries, 1993). This dilemma becomes particularly challenging with respect to telecommunications. The Dutch government has given low priority to telecommunications in its overall policy for information technology in education. In this article we will examine the current situation in The Netherlands for tl1e use of telecommunications in education. Most of the findings are based on a recent year-long study (Collis, Veen, & De Vries, 1994a&b) by the same authors.