Modern information technologies are transforming the way people learn. E-learning provides new possibilities for personalized learning at home or in the workplace, reduces the need for costly classroom training, and enables an optimal balance between tradi

OVERCOMING TECHNICAL FRUSTATIONS IN DISTANCE EDUCATION: TELE-TASK*University of Trier FB IV - Computer Science D – 54296 Trier meinel@uni-trier.deChristoph MeinelUniversity of Trier FB IV - Computer Science D – 54296 Trier schillings@uni-trier.deVolker SchillingsUniversity of Trier FB I - Pedagogics D – 54296 Trier vanessa-walser@gmx.deVanessa WalserABSTRACT Modern information technologies are transforming the way people learn. E-learning provides new possibilities for personalized learning at home or in the workplace, reduces the need for costly classroom training, and enables an optimal balance between traditional and innovative forms of knowledge transfer. But facts have proven that content creation for online courses is time-consuming and costly. Also most of them are not easy to call up. A simple and efficient solution of content creation for online courses is strongly required. Our new system, tele-TASK [1]- Teleteaching Anywhere Solution Kit, paves the way for these requirements. With the help of the new developed system tele-TASK a new, drastically simplified entrance technology for on-line lectures has been reached. Not only contents of teaching, which are presented to the students in the lecture-room by either a whiteboard or a video beamer are delivered but also video and audio of the lecturer. For tele-TASK a special hardware (T-Cube) is now available, which permits the creation of Real or Mpeg4 streams in different bandwidth ranges on the fly. Thus a pre-installed standard player can be used.1. NOWADAYS E-LEARNINGOur society today is characterized by what is called informational society“. Our communication culture and information organization is going to change, as the importance of the internet is growing. As in the term of the informational society‘ is expressed knowledge is a central aspect of people` lifes, that s is – as soon as it is learned – antiquated. So people are forced to lifelong learning not to miss their connection to future developments. At the same time globalization calls for mobility and flexibility. In consequence the processes of learning have to be adapted. They have to be untied from time and place. E-Learning creates new possibilities. So Urry talks about the begin of the computime‘ [2]. Knowledge is deterritorialized and turned into bits of information resulting in ’information blizzards‘ [3]. Besides the mentioned flexibility the use of New Media changes the processes of learning, too. Tele-Teaching is one of this new modes. The public and scientific opinion in reference to E-Learning is ambivalent. While some authors emphasize the revolution of our work via E-Learning, its cost-effectiveness and its greater social inclusion, others speak of a crisis of E-Learning and its little acceptance. Certain is that E-Learning changes the quality of learning experience itself. The reason why critical voices are raised is the fact that many of realized E-Learning projects don’t overcome the status of a pilot project. Why? The answer is given by Hohenstein & Tenbusch [4]: They are missing a perspective paying attention to the functional and structural qualities of a system. In the development of an E-Learning project it is unalterable to consider the aspects organization‘, man‘ and technique‘ equivalently and simultaneously. ORGANIZATION MAN TECHNIQUE Environment Personality soft-/ hardware - culture of learning - qualification - infrastructure - structure - acceptance - quality - process - motivation - meshingsee Hohenstein & Tenbusch 2002 [4] * Proceedings of the e-Society 2003 Conference, Lisboa (Portugal), 2003, pp. 34-41