What seems to be sorely needed, then, are new theory and tools to facilitate communication, link university classrooms to clinical teaching contexts, afford social structures enabling teacher education candidates to engage in the public, joint construction of knowledge and reflective processes. Our expectation is that telecommunications and multimedia are powerful tools that can be used to solve the problems besetting the early clinical preparation of teachers. We predict that cultural genes such as microcomputers and telecommunication networks, and multimedia platforms will create a significant change and expansion in core teacher preparation courses and early clinical teaching experiences. These are tools that can mediate the constitution of social structures, connections between theory and practice, and promote reflection. Applied to the early clinical preparation of teachers, telecommunications is potentially a powerful tool for creating a social context for active, goal-oriented professional behavior.
Telecommunications remove the boundaries of time and distance in communicating.
We are now engaged in the development of the Fifth Dimension Clearinghouse . This project has been funded by the Mellon Foundation. Maintaining the Fifth Dimension Virtual Library Providing technical assistance, and Developing and evaluating Fifth Dimension publications and artifacts.