ABSTRACT
The prevailing results of research and development activities, which influence all cultures, comprise an increasing body of knowledge and skills, improvement of knowledge and production methods, an increasing length of education, and expanding the involvement of people in different countries all over the world in joint enterprises and projects. Although voice and gestures have always been important in imparting the ever increasing amount of knowledge and skills, for a long time other media have also been used. For a much shorter period, the use of telecommunications has had some importance for education. Recently, the use of information and communication technologies reached a new stage of development. These technologies offer new possibilities for instruction and raise new problems for instructional design. Those possibilities and issues are addressed in the following part of this volume. The reader also is referred to the chapter of Bourdeau and Bates (chap. 16 of this volume).
