Integrated Services Digital Networks and Distance Education

Abstract

The future economic advancement of countries depends on an expanded skilled workforce. Current, conventional educational systems are unlikely to be able to provide the expansion on the scale needed. However, distance education, or distance independent learning can address this need. Distance education has a symbiotic relationship with information technology. New Zealand is a world leader in distance education, and its distance education institutions have relied almost exclusively on print technologies and the conventional postal system. The postal system is undergoing massive changes, while at the same time, the Telecom Corporation of New Zealand Ltd is implementing Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDN). In the context for the expanding need for education and the rapid introduction of information technology based on ISDN standards with extraordinary potential, this technology could prove to offer for New Zealand the most convenient, effective and cost efficient method of learning and so help to resolve the country's needs.