Architecting multimedia environments for teaching

G. Friedland, K. Pauls
2005 Computer  
A lthough surrounded by today's many technological enhancements, teachers remain utterly alone in front of their classes. Even in 2005, most teachers still rely on well-established primitive aids. For example, the chalkboard-one of history's earliest teaching tools-remains the preferred exposition medium in many scientific disciplines. Since the advent of computational devices in education, researchers have sought the means for properly integrating them and taking advantage of their
more » ... . The difficult task of architecting multimedia environments for teaching must start with a needs analysis. The most challenging task involves warranting reliability on the one hand, while accommodating opportunities for innovation on the other. Thus, we propose building a reliable, ubiquitous, adaptable, and easy-to-use technology-integrating black box. Placing this system atop a service-oriented component model implemented on a platform-independent layer such as a virtual machine will provide the adaptability developers need. Loosely coupled components will accommodate a nonmonolithic approach and ease reuse. By reusing and enhancing components, the system will become increasingly reliable, while a building-block architecture will keep it manageable. WHAT TEACHERS HAVE The demand for computational equipment to use in education is surging. Several partial solutions already exist, but no one so far has put forth a global vision for using this technology. Nor have researchers devoted much effort to developing architectures that can combine technologies focused on the classroom with easily used designs. To date, three e-learning approaches predominate: • intensive use of slide show presentations; • video recording lectures transmitted via fiber optics and, more recently, Internet broadcasting; and • the creation of e-learning modules such as dynamic Web pages, flash animations, or Java applets. Slide show presentations enable good visualization and smooth lecture performance. The instructor plans the presentation's structure up front, taking into account all required resources. Visual elements such as tables, diagrams, or images can be directly presented to the audience. Further, computer-generated slides can be printed out so that students don't need to copy the content for later review. However, slide show presentations often appear static because everything must be planned in advance, leaving few possibilities for the teacher to adapt the content in interaction with the students. Usually, slides present content in note form, structured as bullet-point lists, which dramatically restricts the lecturer's freedom of expression. Often, the instructor must deliver information out-of-band Thus far, developers have created only partial solutions for using computational equipment in education. Research must focus more effort on developing architectures capable of combining technologies that target the classroom and that allow specifying "what" rather than "how" tasks should be done.
doi:10.1109/mc.2005.181 fatcat:n4rhu2msbvaddl72ul46xpp53m