A Construction Set for Multimedia Applications
IEEE Software
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Success in exploiting the potential of advanced computing systems that are currently emergning could depend upon how well we learn lessons from those who have already experimented with them. This was the purpose of the doctoral research study conducted by Mary Hopper of Purdue University, which is the subject of this paper. The following projects were the focus of this study:• Engineering Specific Career-Planning and Problem-Solving Environment, Educational Research and Information Systems, Purdue University• Context 32, Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship, Brown University• TODOR and Mechanics 2.01 Problem Set Solutions, Athena, Massachusetts Institute of Technology• The Physical Geology Tutor, Center for Educational Computing Initiatives, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyInterviews with 19 key participants and information from major documents were used to construct a description of the relationships between educational goals and important technical characteristics. In each project, the predominant reason for the choice of software was based on the need to access the particular set of functions perceived to be most congenial to representing a specific academic body of knowledge. The following are the three main functions of computers which relate to improved representations of particular aspects of disciplines during this study:• Powerful database functions allowed for the inclusion and management of more extensive representations of the knowledge-base of the discipline• Multimedia functions allowed for more realistic and powerful representations of multimodal and experiential content• Microworlds were emphasized for their ability to provide students with the ability to interact with computational representations of dynamic systems and processesWhile each project began with a primary emphasis upon the particular type of software function they needed for the type of data to be represented, each project was eventually also constrained by a set of convergences and circumstances related to the question, "How can the software be more usable?" Some courseware projects in this study arrived at their answer to this question for practical reasons, while others arrived at it for educational reasons, but they all ended up appreciating the importance of usable educational software from both the learner's and author's perspective.