This CD-ROM provides an interactive multimedia approach to teaching about weather. Activities include making your own weather instruments, looking at the effects of wind, investigating sun and shade, looking at weather in the United Kingdom, looking at Europe, shopping the world's supermarket, shifting the seasons, the effects of the Earth's axis,…

Teachers have acknowledged the richer learning environment and interactivity of multimedia teaching, its flexibility to different learning styles, and learner control that allows the learner to fully engage in the learning process. However, they still have problems in courseware design because their work is mainly centered on exercises and not on…

Supported by funds and technical assistance from the U.S. Department of Education Innovation Challenge, the WEB Project has built several dynamic online networks that foster professional growth and measure improvement in student learning. The classrooms and networks of teachers and community professionals involved include work in music, visual…

This research examines high school students' performance on an interactive multimedia tutorial for learning physics concepts in conjunction with their individual differences. Performance was compared between the initial portion of the tutorial where students learned concepts and the final portion where they applied the concepts. (Author/LRW)

Discusses studies of German students using "CyberBuch," a hypermedia application for reading German texts that contains annotations for words in the form of text, pictures, and video. The article examines incidental vocabulary learning, the effectiveness of different types of annotations for vocabulary acquisition, and the effect of…

Discussion of HTML (HyperText Markup Language) focuses on its use for developing CD-ROMs. Topics include the World Wide Web; cross-platform compatibility; the incorporation of text, graphics, audio, and video; learner control over display characteristics; and limitations of HTML for designing instructional materials. (LRW)

This article uses the example of a single training course to show how to incorporate human factors into the interactive multimedia courseware development process. Three types of testing to identify human factors issues in courseware are discussed: usability testing, pilot testing, and field testing. (Author/LRW)

Education and entertainment both seek to create memorable events. This article explores memory enhancement techniques in each field, the potential role of multimedia in these techniques, determining appropriate and inappropriate merging of education with the emotionalism of entertainment, and assessing one's options for edutainment purchases.…

Examines design decisions regarding the use of video segments in interactive multimedia applications. Highlights include video functions in relation to content or logistics; utilization patterns; and results of audiovisual research on presentation or production variables, including narration and sound, special effects, pacing, and animation. (LRW)

Explains the Wildlife Interpretive Gallery developed at the Detroit Zoo to portray nature and wildlife in their natural environments through displays on touchscreen interactive kiosks. Highlights include multimedia software development; focus group meetings; a virtual tour of the zoo; and graphics, sound, text, and video components used to create…

Explores the potential for using technological tools to foster teacher understanding of cultural diversity and promote teacher reflection, reviewing studies in which different technologies were used in ways that allowed implicit teacher and student beliefs to become more explicit and easier to reflect on. The paper focuses on technological…

Suggests that the Internet plays an important role in socialization and that children need to be recognized as active participants rather than passive recipients of multimedia texts and messages. Argues that there needs to be a shift away from the current emphasis on restriction to a focus on communication between adults and children. (LRW)

Introduces a four-week environmental education project developed for elementary school students with the cooperation of the college of education and local school districts. Supports student learning in science through inquiry. (YDS)

Evaluates a multimedia program produced to support test takers facing a new performance test for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teachers in Hong Kong as part of a language certification test. Describes how groups of trainee ESL teachers in Hong Kong were first introduced to the test via the print syllabus produced by the Hong Kong…

Explains Webcasts and discusses how they can be used for teaching. Topics include Webcast technology; streaming audio and video; bandwidth capacity; locating Webcasts, including search engine strategies for the Internet; using Webcasts in the classroom; similarities with other multimedia materials; expectations for students and faculty; and future…