Multimedia environments suggest to us a new perception of the state of changes in and the integration of new technologies that can increase our ability to process information. Moreover, they are obliging us to change our idea of knowledge. These changes are reflected in the obvious synergetic convergence of different types of access, communication and information exchange. The multimedia learning environment should not represent a passive object that only contains or assembles information but should become, on one side, the communication medium of the pedagogical intentions of the professor/designer and, on the other side, the place where the learner reflects and where he or she can play with, test and access information and try to interpret it, manipulate it and build new knowledge. The situation created by such a new learning environments that give new powers to individuals, particularly with regard to accessing and handling diversified dimensions of information, is becoming increasingly prevalent in the field of education. The old static equilibrium, in which fixed roles are played by the teacher (including the teaching environment) and the learner, is shifting to dynamic eqUilibrium where the nature of information and its processing change, depending on the situation, the learning context and the individual's needs.

This text emerges out of the need to share information and knowledge on the research and practices of using multimedia in various educational settings. It discusses issues relating to planning, designing and development of interactive multimedia, offering research data.

The purpose of this book is to stimulate reflection on the different issues concerning the design, development and implementation of interactive multimedia learning systems. Multimedia, hypermedia, and interactive systemsmore generally need to be examined in terms of underlying cognitive processes, interface characteristics, and theoretical principles regarding learner control of instruction. This book is based on a NATO Advanced Research Workshop held in Quebec in 1991. The papers in the book present a critical analysis of the multimedia design concept that reveal it to be still immature, sometimes ambiguous, and even confusing. Within this contexta variety of different design dimensions are considered, such as those of interfaces, procedures, content, control, and advisory processes. A central requirement is to define the interactivity concept, both to enable the learner and the system to collaborate through communication and to direct this communication in order to stimulate effective learning. Proposals made in the book include adaptive interfaces, interactive transactions, intelligent strategies, knowledge representation, and student modeling.

This book introduces new concepts and mechanisms regarding the usage of both social media interactions and artifacts for peer education in digital educational games. Digital games in general, and digital educational games in particular, represent an area with a high potential for interdisciplinary innovation, not only from an information technology standpoint, but also from social science, psychological and didactic perspectives. This book presents an interdisciplinary approach to educational games, which is centered on information technology and aims at: (1) improving digital management by focusing on the exchange of learning outcomes and solution assessment in a peer-to-peer network of learners; (2) achieving digital implementation by using forms of interaction to change the course of educational games; and (3) providing digital support by fostering group-formation processes in educational situations to increase both the effects of educational games and knowledge exchange at the individual level. In addition to a systematic analysis of the relationship between software architecture, educational games and social media applications, the book also presents the implemented IT systems' architectures and algorithmic solutions as well as the resulting applicable evaluation findings from the field of interactive multimedia learning.

This book summarizes the works and new research results presented at the First International Symposium on Intelligent Interactive Multimedia Systems and Services (KES-IIMSS 2008), organized by the University of Piraeus and its Depa- ment of Informatics in conjunction with KES International (Piraeus, Greece, July 9–11, 2008). The aim of the symposium was to provide an internationally respected forum for scientific research into the technologies and applications of intelligent int- active multimedia systems and services. Besides the Preface, the book contains sixty four (64) chapters. The first four (4) chapters in the book are printed versions of the keynote addresses of the invited speakers of KES-IIMSS 2008. Besides the invited speaker chapters, the book contains fifteen (15) chapters on recent Advances in Multimedia Data Analysis, eleven (11) chapters on Reasoning Approaches, nine (9) chapters on Infrastructure of Intelligent Interactive Multimedia Systems and Services, fourteen (14) chapters on Multimedia Applications, and eleven (11) chapters on Quality of Interactive Multimedia Services.

Packed with advice, vignettes and case studies, as well as useful tips and checklists for improving teaching, the second edition of Developing Your Teaching is the ideal toolkit to support the development of teaching practice. Providing a blend of ideas, interactive review points and case study examples from university teachers, this accessible handbook for professional practice provides ideas on a range of topics including: learning from student feedback and peer review students as consumers and their expectations building effective partnerships with students and colleagues developing a teaching portfolio choosing effective teaching practices the challenges and benefits of securing an initial teacher qualification A must-read for all those new to teaching in higher education, as well as more experienced lecturers looking to refresh and advance the quality of their teaching, this fully updated new edition is the ideal toolkit to support the development of teaching practice.