Getting the message across : ten principles for web animation

The growing use of animation in Web pages testifies to the increasing ease with which such multimedia components can be created. This trend indicates a commitment to animation that is often unmatched by the skill of the implementers. The present paper details a set of ten commandments for web animation, intending to sensitise budding animators to key aspects that may impair the communicational effectiveness of their animation. These guidelines are drawn from an extensive literature survey coloured by personal experience of using Web animation packages. Our ten principles are further elucidated by a Web-based on-line tutorial

Talking with pictures: Exploring the possibilities of iconic communication

As multimedia computing becomes the order of the day, so there is a greater need to understand and to come to terms with the problems of visual presentation. This paper deals with iconic languages as a means of communicating ideas and concepts without words. Two example systems, developed respectively at the universities of Exeter and Brighton, are described. Both embody basic principles of the iconic communication which,, though not unique to learning technology, is forming an increasingly important part of user‐interfaces, including those in the area computer‐assisted learning

Discourse and Digital Practices

Discourse and Digital Practices shows how tools from discourse analysis can be used to help us understand new communication practices associated with digital media, from video gaming and social networking to apps and photo sharing. This cutting-edge book: draws together fourteen eminent scholars in the field including James Paul Gee, David Barton, Ilana Snyder, Phil Benson, Victoria Carrington, Guy Merchant, Camilla Vasquez, Neil Selwyn and Rodney Jones answers the central question: "How does discourse analysis enable us to understand digital practices?" addresses a different type of digital media in each chapter demonstrates how digital practices and the associated new technologies challenge discourse analysts to adapt traditional analytic tools and formulate new theories and methodologies examines digital practices from a wide variety of approaches including textual analysis, conversation analysis, interactional sociolinguistics, multimodal discourse analysis, object ethnography, geosemiotics, and critical discourse analysis. Discourse and Digital Practices will be of interest to advanced students studying courses on digital literacies or language and digital practices

Designing intelligent computer‐based simulations: A pragmatic approach

This paper examines the design of intelligent multimedia simulations. A case study is presented which uses an approach based in part on intelligent tutoring system design to integrate formative assessment into the learning of clinical decision‐making skills for nursing students. The approach advocated uses a modular design with an integrated intelligent agent within a multimedia simulation. The application was created using an object‐orientated programming language for the multimedia interface (Delphi) and a logic‐based interpreted language (Prolog) to create an expert assessment system. Domain knowledge is also encoded in a Windows help file reducing some of the complexity of the expert system. This approach offers a method for simplifying the production of an intelligent simulation system. The problems developing intelligent tutoring systems are examined and an argument is made for a practical approach to developing intelligent multimedia simulation systems

Human-computer interaction : Guidelines for web animation

Human-computer interaction in the large is an interdisciplinary area which attracts researchers, educators, and practioners from many differenf fields. Human-computer interaction studies a human and a machine in communication, it draws from supporting knowledge on both the machine and the human side. This paper is related to the human side of human-computer interaction and focuses on animations. The growing use of animation in Web pages testifies to the increasing ease with which such multimedia features can be created. This trend shows a commitment to animation that is often unmatched by the skill of the implementers. The paper presents a set of guidelines and tips to help designers prepare better and more effective Web sites. These guidelines are drawn from an extensive literature survey

A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of a Yoruba Song-drama

This paper presents a multimodal discourse analysis of a story that has been turned into a Yoruba song-drama, highlighting the ideational, interpersonal and textual aspects of the song-drama. The data is a short song-drama meant to teach children importunity, determination and hard work through persistence. The multimodal and narrative conventions used for analysis according to Kress and van Leeuwen (2001), show the need for cooperation and determination in a world that is characterized by individualism. The study reveals that, at the ideational level, information, anticipation, request and insistence are prominent features. At the interpersonal level, the study reveals that the song-drama is a metaphor for the possibility of a better life for the poor and needy in a society full of oppression and selfishness, while the textual level reveals the distribution of information in the different modes- song, drama, and paralinguistic expressions. The study concludes that pedagogically, storytelling, re-telling, writing and rewriting have the capacity to improve pupils’ vocabulary development. ESL teachers could creatively use video watching (which has replaced story telling), storytelling and retelling to launch the present day ESL learners into 21st century critical thinking and learning activities

Rhetoric of landscape architecture and interior design discourses: preparation for cross-disciplinary practice

In the current reform context, the uniqueness of local disciplinary practices is being forgotten in the race towards cross-disciplinary practice. The rhetoric of the pedagogic discourses of landscape architectural students and interior design students is described as part of a doctoral study undertaken to document practices and orientations prior to cross-disciplinary collaboration. We draw on the theoretical framework of Bernstein and the rhetorical method of Burke to study the grammars of 'landscape' representation employed within these disciplinary examples. We offer a method of investigating how prepared final year students may be for working in a cross-disciplinary manner. The discursive interactions of their work, as illustrated by four examples of drawn images and written text, are described. Comparisons of these examples show both similarities and differences in the students' grammars of representation within their disciplines. Furthermore, however, the findings suggest a progressive weakening of the grammars of the pedagogic discourses that apply to the concepts and procedures of both disciplines. This poses some key issues for educators. It is argued that while weak grammars foster students' deeper understanding of concepts, they also weaken the pedagogic identity and autonomy of their discipline. Strong grammars resist domination and subordination, ensuring the ongoing relative autonomy of a discipline