One fundamental challenge for the design of the interactive systems of the future is to invent and design environments and cultures in which humans can express themselves and engage in personally meaningful activities. Unfortunately, a large number of new media are designed from a perspective of viewing and treating humans primarily as consumers. The possibility for humans to be and act as designers (in cases in which they desire to do so) should be accessible not only to a small group of “high-tech scribes, ” but rather to all interested individuals and groups. Meta-design characterizes activities, processes, and objectives to create new media and environments that allow users to act as designers and be creative. In this paper we discuss problems addressed by our research on meta-design, provide a conceptual framework for metadesign, and illustrate our developments in the context of a particular system, the Envisionment and Discovery Collaboratory.

Lifelong learning is an essential challenge for inventing the future of our societies; it is a necessity rather than a possibility or a luxury to be considered. Lifelong learning is more than adult education or training --- it is a mindset and a habit for people to acquire. It creates the challenge to understand, explore, and support new dimensions of learning such as: (1) self-directed learning, (2) learning on demand, (3) informal learning, and (4) organizational learning. Lifelong learning requires a deeper understanding of the co-evolutionary processes between fundamental human activities and their relationships with new media. It requires an integration of new theories, innovative systems, practices, and assessment. New intellectual spaces, physical spaces, organizational forms, and reward structures need to be created to make lifelong learning an important part of human life. These new spaces and structures must support individuals, groups, and organizations who will engage in and experience them as innovators and risk takers, and will use their creativity and imagination to explore alternative ways of learning.

This paper presents these trends and progresses on one hand, but on the other hand, also addresses the dangers and pitfalls that such an avalanche of changes can bring, and stresses the responsibility we have, to make sure the real goal is never left out of sight: enhancing and improving learning. Finally, we show how we tackle this challenge at the Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence, University of Electro-Communications, Japan, where we have built the framework and prototype of an intelligent media-oriented integrated distance education environment

With the rapid development of information technology (IT) and the Internet growth, it is widdy accepted that computer and information communication literacy has become extremely important, and will play a major part in everyone's lives in the future. In order to teach the next generations computer literacy, it is first necessary to train our teachers. In Japan a new teachers' education framework is being built, to enhance the teachers' teaching skills and information literacy, with special focus on Internet and Multimedia_ Our research bdongs to this new research direction. The purpose of this study is to propose and develop a distance educational model, as a school-based curriculum development and training-system. In this environment, a teacher can learn via an Intemet-based sdf-training system about subject contents, modem teaching know-how, and students' learning activities evaluation methods, about the new subject called "information". We call our system RAPSODY: Remote and AdaPtive educational System Offering a DYnamic communicative environment. In this paper, we describe the structure, functions and mechanism of our distance educational model and then discuss the educational meaning of this model within the new learning ecology, based on multi-modality and new learning situations and forms.

Informed participation is an approach for community-based learning and design in which all participants actively contribute toward the framing and solving of complex and multidisciplinary problems. Informed participants go beyond the information given to explore large problem spaces, learn from their peers, and create new understandings. Informed participation requires social changes as well as new interactive systems that provide the opportunity and resources for social debate and discussion rather than merely delivering predigested information to participants.

In our long-term efforts to support collaborative learning, we are exploring how to supplement communitybased learning theories with innovative collaborative technologies. Inspired by a process model that underlies the evolutionary and decentralized development of open systems, we reconceptualize courses as seeds rather than as finished products. This paper outlines the conceptual framework underlying the courses-as-seeds model and contrasts it with traditional educational models in which courses are seen as finished products. Characteristics of course information environments (CIEs) as supporting technology are then presented, along with a set of initial expectations that provide criteria for assessing applications of the model. Next, an application of the courses-as-seeds model in a university course is reported and analyzed with respect to the expectations.

This study discusses the finance of Swedish higher education from a lifelong learning perspective. Sweden’s rapid enrolment increase has been made possible, in part, by the development and expansion of university colleges. A significant level of public R&D investment has been used to create a good research base at university colleges. This has been argued to negatively affect the R&D investment for traditional universities. A further complication in the finance of Swedish higher education is the increase in capital expenditure on premises. Some believe this development is due to the creation of Akademiska Hus, a product of the 1993 higher education reform. Akademiska Hus is a governmentally owned company responsible for higher education premises. Critical actors have argued that the government can appear to still increase the R&D investment, due to the recycling of money through the company. Various issues concerning R&D investment and Akademiska Hus are raised throughout this study. Public Private Partnerships, which is a new concept for financing the construction, refurbishment and maintenance of university premises, is suggested as an alternative solution for financing the development of education real estate. Models of Public Private Partnerships are described with a comparative focus on the use and utilisation of PPPs in the United Kingdom.