Christof Daetwyler (Berne, Switzerland)

Editor’s Preface

Dear reader

When I was asked if I would be prepared to put together an issue of the „Zeitschrift für Hochschuldidaktik“, I felt it to be a great honour. I then looked upon it as an obligation, and finally I really came to enjoy it. It took more than a year from when I first started to contact writers until the magazine’s publication. A year full of intense contact with pioners - people who became masters through their own hard work and who are posessed by a passion to go fearlessly into uncharted waters. Even though medical reserch has a totally different status to introducing learning and teaching through the use of new media, these poeple are all researchers in their own right. The people who are active in this area, and with whom I had the luck to come into contact with, are people working very much at the cutting edge of their discipline.

I am proud and happy that I was able to include in this publication the work of people who have supported me in my endeavour, and therefore take the oportunity to spread their thinking. Without their thoughts as my constant companions, this publication could never have taken place.

The goal of this publication is not to find some sort of consenses, which is against the pioneering spirit anyway, but to show the wide range of experience in the many facets of our speciality. The reader is thus given the opportunity to form his own oppinions. Because there were more excellent articles than there is place for in one volume, they have been divided into two sections. The first volume covers more theoretical themes and the second focuses on the more practical aspects.

What follows is an introduciton to the authors. This is important for me because I know nearly all of them personally and hold them in great esteem. I have chosen to introduce the authors in the order in which their articles appear in the magazine.

The first three authors are experienced professors, whom I consider to be masters of didactic.

1  Marco Mumenthaler is the author of the introduction. I first met him in 1994 in Berne. That was already several years after his retirement, but we understood each other right from the start, and we decided to do some work together. The products of our collaboration are the two award-winning CD-ROMs „Neurologie-“ and „Kopfschmerz interaktiv“, and a deep friendship. In Marco Mumenthaler I recognize a master of didactics, whose insights constantly impress me. He also tought me more about clinical medicine than I learned during all my years at university. I am happy that Marco Mumenthaler produced an introduction that covers his almost 60 years of intense learning and teaching.

 Rolf Schulmeister, the author of the second article „Didactic aspects of virtual learning - an overview“ is known to many of us as the author of the standard work „Grundlagen hypermedialer Lernsysteme“, about learning with multimedia. He represents the opinion that the potential of the new media has only seldom been realised. Usually what is on offer is old products in new packaging. Rolf Schulmeister investigates the development and the use of the new media and shows not only where dead end streets exits, but where new avenues are opening up.

 Joe Henderson wrote the third article „The virtual practicum: computer supported preparation for an unpredictable reality“. He runs the interactive media lab at the University of Darmouth in the USA. He focuses on developing programmes that prepare the user not only in a tecnical, but also an emotional way. He shows how this can be achieved with the programme „The virtual HIV Clinic“, which he introduces through basic didactic concepts.

These are followed by three further articles which concern themselves with the possibilities opened up through Collaborative Learning:

 Kim Issroff is the author of the fourth article "Computer-supported collaborative learning - an Introduction". She teaches at the Higher Education Research and Development Unit of the University College in London. Her special fields of interest are artificial intelligence in

2 education, and methologies for collaborative learning. I am glad that she has written an article that ecompasses her wide range of experiences.

 Sissel Guttormsen-Schär and Peter Haubner wrote the fifthe article „How can computers support collaborative project-orientated learning“. Sissel Guttormsen-Schär leads the „Man-Machine Interaction“ group at the Institute for Hygienics ath the ETH Zurich. She is interested in the scientific applications of new forms of interactions made possible by these new media. She focuses on several areas; her doctorate, for example, looked at implicit and explicit learning of computerisized tasks. Therein Sissel Guttormsen-Schär explores under what conditions, and to what depth, things are learned that are not communicated verbaly. I am glad that she consented to co-write this article on collaborative learning, bringing her great practical experience to assist co-author Peter Haubner.

 Peter Langkafel is the author of the sixth article „IMIPP: International Medical Iinternet Project of Problem-based Pain Management“ . This is a project where groups of doctors use the internet to establish problem-oriented pain management. This article is the last installement in this publication under the theme „Collaborative learning“.

The following chapter covers Formative and Summative Evaluation with the WWW.

 Rober Ogilvie is the co-author of the seventh article „Computer-administered Formative and Summative Exams in a Medical Basic Science Course“. It is a summation of his four years’ experience in computer-assisted examinations. He shows how these examinations are encouraging new forms of studying and assessement. This article gives us the opportunity to take the advantage of Rober Ogilvie’s wide experience in this area.

In the last section of the first volume we are looking into the future in both tecnical and social aspects.

 Victor Spitzer. The author of the eighth article „The Visible Human: a Model for Computer-assisted Learning in Medical Education“ is really the father of the Visible Human Project. It was in his laboratory that a human body was sliced into 1 milimeter thin

3 strips. These were then photographed and made available through the National Library of Medicine. Producing the digitalized pictures were just a beginning. Virtual operations are already possible on a Visible Human in Victor Spitzer’s laboratory.

 Jacques Monnard is the author of the ninth article „How the Virtual Campus will Change Future Education“. He gives us a look into the future, exploring the potential and the implications of New Technology Education on learning and teaching. He also looks at the question of how far the Universities should go to take advantage of this potential. The article concludes with how learning in the future could look from a student’s perspective.

In the second volume of the magazine, the producers of computer asissted media are given the opportunity to put their ideas and enthusiasm into words. This section includes articles from Christof Daetwyler, Gernoth Grunst, Alexander Repenning, Reinhard Friedl, Jens Dørup, Dino Novak and Martin Fischer. It is concluded with some thoughts about the use of the new learning technologies. Peter Frey, Richard Wagner, Richard März and Florian Eitel contribute to this section.

I wish the reader an interesting and entertaining lecture.

Berne, 14th of Feburary 2001, Christof Daetwyler.