From the Director . . .

Now with this first issue distributed through the World Wide Web, we're beginning a new "era" of disseminating information about the Georgia Center. Each quarter's "print" Georgia Center Quarterly will be slightly modified and placed on the Web. We're excited about this development and hope you will find the Georgia Center Quarterly On-Line helpful and interesting.

As a service unit of The University of Georgia, the Georgia Center for Continuing Education has as its mission "to serve the learning needs of adults and organizations and to provide leadership in developing the theory and practice of continuing education." Last year, the Georgia Center served more than 100,000 registrants through educational programming and support services.

Second of the adult residential conference centers funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Georgia Center opened its doors in 1957. Since that time, thousands of educational programs have been offered through a variety of formats -- residential conferences, seminars and programs for organizations offered on-site, videotaped instruction, computer-assisted instruction, and electronic outreach.

In December 1994, to better serve the learning needs of our students, the Georgia Center established the Institute for Distance Education, a collective effort that will provide training and development activities for those who have responsibility for instruction, administration, development, and operation of electronic outreach activities in education.

The first commitment of the "institute" will be to provide development opportunities for those who work with the various systems of educational, electronic extension. The initial activity is the "National Institute on Distance Education: Issues and Answers," to be held in late summer of 1995. Full details of this conference will be available May 1, 1995. The program will focus on issues of management, accreditation, multi-state/institution cooperation, maintaining currency with technology, and faculty development. Please contact us if you'd like to be placed on the mailing list (contact Jerry L. Hargis, associate director for communication services, Georgia Center for Continuing Education, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-3603, 706-542-3554, FAX: 706-542-6720, e-mail: hargisj@gactr.uga.edu ).

The new "institute" is just one of many initiatives from the Georgia Center that you'll be reading about in future issues of the Georgia Center Quarterly On-Line offered through the World Wide Web. Our goal is to provide information to further both practice and theory in the field of adult and continuing education.

Be sure to contact us for additional information about the Georgia Center or about any article you read in the Quarterly On-Line.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Edward G. Simpson Jr.
Director, Georgia Center for Continuing Education
Associate Vice President for Services, The University of Georgia
simpsone@gactr.uga.edu