"Educational Software and Multimedia" Task Force - Evaluation report

The European Commission''s Task Force on "Educational Software and Multimedia", which began work in March 1995, has published a report presenting a review of the current status of the European educational multimedia industry and making recommendations for a Community action plan in this area.

The Task Force''s evaluation of the educational multimedia sector in Europe found the following:

- The demand for educational multimedia in the home, together with the wide availability of hardware means that the market will grow in the 1990s;
- The nature of commercial suppliers in Europe, predominantly small businesses, means that they are having difficulties in imposing themselves both inside and outside Europe;
- There is great potential for the application of multimedia educational software in primary and secondary schools, but these are often under-equipped and teachers insufficiently trained to make use of the opportunities;
- Multimedia may be used by universities, for distance learning and inter-institutional collaboration, but the high costs associated with its use form a barrier to its spread in universities;
- Educational multimedia has applications for vocational training, but although major enterprises can use customized applications to respond to their varied needs, the costs for SMEs and vocational training bodies have restricted multimedia use amongst this category of users.

The Task Force has established a plan for Community action which sets objectives for access of pupils and teachers, as well as universities and adults, to multimedia. The major objective set out is for access to multimedia for all by the year 2000.

The action plan sets out proposals for coordinated action through various Community funding programmes and instruments, including the following:

- Specific RTD programme in the area of Telematics Applications;
- Specific RTD programme in the area of Information Technologies (ESPRIT);
- Specific RTD programme in the area of Targeted Socio-Economic Research;
- Specific RTD programme in the area of Training and Mobility of Researchers;
- SOCRATES Community action programme for education;
- LEONARDO DA VINCI action programme for the implementation of a Community vocational training policy;
- MEDIA II programme for training, and development and distribution, in the European audiovisual industry;
- INFO2000 programme to stimulate the development of a multimedia content industry;
- Structural Funds;
- Trans-European telecommunications networks;
- Cooperation programmes with third countries.

Annexes to the report contain details of the membership of the Task Force, individuals and organizations consulted during the Task Force''s first year of operation, and examples of multimedia projects implemented in Member States, including those which were carried out with support from Community-funded programmes.