Reviews

edited by Philip Barker

Integrating Information Technology into
Education edited by Deryn Watson and David
Tinsley, London, Chapman & Hall, 1995, ISBN:
0-412-62250-5, 316 pages.

In these days of research-assessment exercises and
cost-cutting measures, if you have not arranged
beforehand for the proceedings of your conference
to be published, you can expect fewer proposals
for papers from experts at the cutting edge of their
subject. Many departments will not normally fund
attendance at conferences, especially those held
abroad, unless there is a concrete outcome which
can be added to the departmental publications list.
This is why, over the last few years, we have seen
such an increase in the number of edited
conference papers. Unfortunately (and I certainly
do not include this current issue of ALT-J in this
statement, because the selection procedure has
been really quite cruel), many of these proceedings
are of low overall quality. The is no doubt partly
because once your paper has been accepted for the
conference, you want as much of a guarantee of
publication as possible before you turn up and give
it, and conference organisers are thus under
pressure not to give the copper-bottomed guarantee
they cannot of course give, but at least to keep you,
as far as possible, in Promise Land. This situation
tends to lead to diluted proceedings.

It was therefore a pleasant surprise to find that this
set of proceedings - the result of the International
Federation of Information Processing Working
Conference, held in Barcelona last October, on
integrating technology into the curriculum at
secondary-school level - was sufficiently focused
oh a main topic (essentially, how do we make IT
as 'invisible' as TV?) to produce many very
thoughtful papers. Not only that, but the editors

have clearly been at the contributions, prior to
publication, with a not-so-gentle editing hand, such
that they all end up well structured and well
written (it would be hard to believe that they were
all received in their final published state).

The conference was truly an international one; that
is, not one organized from the UK in some foreign
town to give the event an international dimension
and at which most participants are actually British.
Contributors at this conference came from all over
the world, and together were able to give a
genuinely global perspective on the problems of
integrating IT into schools. Many of these
problems are identical in the world of higher
education, so these proceedings will be of
considerable interest to ALT members.

Topics range from learners' expectations and their
achievements when relying on IT, through the role
of the teacher in an integrated IT environment, to
specific instances of success, part-success and
even failure in integrating pieces of software into
the classroom. There are 23 major (invited) papers,
eight short papers, and nine so-called focus-group
reports. The latter are summaries of round-table
discussions, and in some ways represent the most
interesting part of the proceedings, since they tend
to highlight practical problems. But, in any case,
such practical problems are everywhere present in
the papers, whose themes cover topics such as
coming to terms with teachers' concerns, the role
of software in changing the conceptual basis of
subjects, the role of IT itself as a subject of study
and its role in fostering inter-disciplinary activities,
and the need for national government initiatives.

It would be unfair to pick out one paper rather than
another as being more important to, or more

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Volume 4 Number I

representative of, the proceedings as a whole, but
ALT members will be particularly interested in a
number of contributions. These include Collis on
societal and organizational influences of
networking, Olson on the classroom ethos, van
Weert on integrating IT generally into education
(including higher education), Graf on inter-
disciplinary and inter-cultural intentions, Teague
and Clarke on some proposed historical reasons for
gender differences in interest in computers, and
Aston's short paper on the British approach to
integrated IT.

Gabriel Jacobs, University of Wales Swansea

The Simulation and Gaming Yearbook. Volume 3:
Games and Simulations for Business edited by
Danny Saunders, London, Kogan Page, ISBN:
0-7494-1617-3, 1995, 331 pages.

This series of annual volumes succeeds
Simulation/Games for Learning, the quarterly
journal published from 1970 to 1992. Like the
journal before it, the yearbook is compiled by
SAGSET (the Society for the Advancement of
Games and Simulations in Education and Training)
which has about 150 members, mainly
educationists and trainers in the UK. Volume 3, the
1995 yearbook, contains 29 papers arranged into
six main sections: Activities and Ideas; Business
Applications; Transforming the Curriculum;
Development and Design; The Finland
Symposium; and Computer Applications. A
seventh section lists contacts (including SAGSET),
publishers and recent articles. However, much of
the content transcends this simple classification,
with themes and ideas recurring across sections.
Nor is the content confined solely to the topic of
the book's subtitle - the environment,
mathematics, primary education, English teaching,
higher education and theoretical issues feature as
well as business.

Games and simulations provide frameworks of
rules and roles with the aim of promoting live,
vividly interactive learning experiences, usually
through group work, sometimes with computer
support. As Jacques points out (p. 27), 'the magic
ingredient is undoubtedly the imagination,
triggered by a sense of play'. Although there are
ways that we in ALT can incorporate such
elements into the computer-based learning
software we design, we probably have to accept
there is little chance of creating such high levels of
interaction for students working one-to-one with
computers.

Some of the ideas described in the book make no
use of computing technology at all. A simple but
useful example is the Jigsaw induction activity
described by King and Saunders (Chapter 6).
Rather than just giving information to new
students verbally or on paper, it is broken down
into separate information cards handed out one per
student. All students are then given a questionnaire
which they can complete only by interacting with
others.

More sophisticated is Walford's Caribbean
Fisherman (Chapter 20) with 30 years of
development behind it. Teams decide where to
fish, whether to risk dangerous currents in order to
catch larger fish, whether to run a holiday hotel or
make pots rather than fish at all, and so on. It
seems doubtful that a computer-based version
could ever match the flexibility and spontaneity of
an experienced human facilitator, for example by
instantly inventing new rules for fishermen who
unexpectedly ask whether it is possible to run
tourist trips.

These kinds of activity, when organized well, are
clearly very motivating. Thiagarajan (Chapter 5)
goes one step further in arguing mat the ultimate
motivator is money, and describes role play games
in which actual cash changes hands. These games
employ devices such as secret ballots in order to
create conflicts between self-interest and common-
interest in competing teams. He writes: '[...] cash
games arouse intense emotion, including
interpersonal hostility. As a facilitator, you should
be ready to abort the game if things appear to be
getting out of control'.

Of course, games and simulations are not just for
fun, they promote experiential learning. For
example, Thiagarajan's cash games are intended to
bring out concepts such as co-operation,
confrontation, escalation and fairness, and to
exercise skills such as negotiation, persuasion and
building trust. Several contributors attempt to
place games and simulation within a context of
educational theory. Kolb's experiential learning
cycle is discussed in several places.

Another recurring theme is the importance of
debriefing for transforming experience into
positive and lasting learning. Debriefing usually
involves discussion in which the facilitator's main
dilemma is to maintain balance between structure
and free flow of comment. Crookall points out that
debriefing is the most neglected stage of
simulation and gaming: 'Compared to the amount
that has been written about other aspects of
simulation/games, very little has been written

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Reviews

about debriefing' (p.10). The book goes some way
towards making good this deficit.

Also running through several papers is the issue of
the nature of education and its future, especially
higher education. All contributors see simulations
and games as a means of improving learning
quality. Evans and Jewell (Chapter 17) answer
sceptics who might not regard 'games' as a serious
academic endeavour. Cudworth (Chapter 19)
deplores the stigma of 'abnormality' placed upon
creative teaching and the hold of conformist
tradition upon higher education, which still relies
on lectures as the main form of learning. Yorke
and McCormick (Chapter 14) report a workshop in
which senior university staff planned institutional
strategies beyond 2001 in order to submit
proposals for an imaginary funding initiative.
Changes to the nature of teaching and learning
featured heavily in the strategies created.

Computing technology is by no means absent from
the book; it plays a part in more than half of the
games and simulations described, especially in
business games in which teams manage simulated
organizations competing in simulated marketplaces
over a series of time periods. The main role of the
computer here is in evaluating performance at the
end of each time period. Examples include
Fawcett's account of a team game for hospitality
students who manage restaurants competitively
(Chapter 11) and Gray's cost-accounting game
which simulates competition between manu-
facturing companies (Chapter 12). Burgess
(Chapter 7) traces the evolution of these business
games, and the gradually increasing importance of
computers within them. He sees this trend
continuing into the future, with expert systems and
decision-support systems to aid both organizers
and players, and multimedia to give greater
realism. Gray's cost-accounting game actually runs
on microcomputer networks, and he sees no reason
why games could not be run with 200 teams and
1,000 globally distributed participants.

I found the quality of papers variable. Some seem a
little out of place in the collection. One or two
would have benefited from strict editing for length.
There is no index. But these things aside, the book
provides a rich source of ideas from experienced
designers and users of educational simulations and
games. We in ALT, who sometimes perhaps focus
too narrowly on the design of software rather than
the design of broader learning experiences involving
computers, might be able to use some of these ideas.

Robert Ward, University of Huddenfield

Simulations - a Handbook for Teachers and
Trainers by Ken Jones, London, Kogan Page (third
edition), ISBN: 0-7494-1666-1, 1995.

As a teacher, how well do you prepare your
students for the workplace?

Few would deny their ability to convey the basics
of their own special subject. However, the social
context in which professional graduates find
themselves involves a variety of different
behavioural skills, often beyond the technical
aspects of the degree subject they have read. In
attempting to prepare students for a life in a
workplace that is dependent on communication
and negotiation skills, where they are largely self-
motivated, and perhaps expected to perform
single-handed in strategic positions, benefit can
often accrue from the experience of a simulation,
described by Ken Jones as a classroom event in
which (1) the participants have functional roles -
survivor, journalist, judge, fashion designer, Prime
Minister; and where, (2) sufficient information is
provided on an issue or problem to enable the
participants to function as professionals, using
real-world ethics.

If an appropriate level of autonomy is granted to
the participants, such events permit powerful
learning by one's mistakes, making them well
worth pursuing in most learning areas. And the
immense effort of creating a satisfactory
simulation can be relieved by use of published
simulation material: Jones refers to several
sources, including his own previous work in this
area.

Following a thorough grounding in the
characteristics of simulations (where the objective
is to experience professional activities) and
contrasting these with those of a game (where the
object is generally entertainment), Jones goes on to
describe how simulation was first used in war and
business before being transferred to the
educational arena. Personal development and
social/cultural awareness are other applications
that can benefit from a classroom simulation.
Indeed, it seems difficult to imagine an area of
learning that would not benefit by this immersion
technique.

For anyone with an interest in design, choice or
use of these activities, this little book holds a real
wealth of information in an entirely readable
format. While many authors have attempted to
formally assess the value of simulation in
education, there is arguably more to be gained
from the flip-side: using simulation in assessment

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ALT-J Volume 4 Number i

rather than assessing simulation. A major role of
classroom simulation lies in student-evaluation -
for example, of oral skills and behaviour.

However, one note of caution: a section on
computer-assisted simulation presents this only as
a supporting device for the perceived primary role
of simulation: human interaction, not as a cost-
effective technological simulation of complex
systems in training prospective users. Jones
concentrates on the social and behavioural aspects
rather than the recent innovations of simulation in
physiology or surgery; situations where the ability
to learn by one's mistakes has naturally been
somewhat problematical and limited to unfortunate
animal work. A reader of modem simulation will
find little here to inspire confidence in computer
technology providing virtual learning environ-
ments for those heading for careers in control of
large or vital systems such as trains, boats and
aeroplanes, power-generation plants, hospitals, or
even electronic design. Perhaps this is due to a risk
of over-simplification in simulations of this type,
and the relatively recent introduction of computer-
simulation and modelling techniques for such
specialized training functions.

Nevertheless, if you teach any subject, and hope in
vain that the students will somehow absorb the so-
called transferable skills of communication
negotiation and/or the art of listening, then this
book will be of considerable value.

George Kernohan, Queen's University, Belfast

Design and Production of Multimedia and
Simulation-based Learning Material edited by Ton
de Jong and Luigi Sard, Dordrecht (Netherlands),
Kluwer Academic Publishers, ISBN: 0-7923-3020-
X, 1994, 253 pages.

This book is a collection of papers by different
authors chiefly from within the DELTA
(Developing European Learning through
Technological Advance) programme, which aims
to facilitate the use of information technology in
learning through the development of more
effective design, production, and delivery. Thirty
projects are funded under DELTA, and eight of
these are covered in this book, though in order to
provide a broader view of the current status of
research into learning and technology within
Europe, three other projects which lie outside the
DELTA programme are also included.

The book has an introduction, followed by 11
chapters, each focusing on a different project. In
the introduction, de Jong and Sarti focus on current

trends in the design and production of computer-
based learning material. Design and production are
defined, and related to the contributions presented
later in the book. A distinction is also made
between 'general' courseware and simulation-
based training material. Again, the concepts are
related to the individual contributions made later in
the book. The introduction ends with a brief
description of each of the contributions which
make up the work. This is useful in a book of this
kind for several reasons: it provides a conceptual
framework for the reader, and it allows the reader
to rapidly gain a detailed overview of the contents
of the book, and to focus in on areas and issues of
specific interest. Such a useful introduction is all
too often omitted from books consisting of
collections of papers.

The range of projects covered in the book is,
diverse, but all address the issues of design and
production at some level, and a number of papers
deal with both these issues at a significant level
(Barker; van Rosmalen; de Jong et al; Verreck and
Weges). Barker, for example, outlines models for
both learning design and for interactive learning
environment implementation. Other papers tend to
centre primarily on either design or on production
issues: a strong emphasis on design issues is
particularly notable in some contributions
(Grandbastien and Gavignet; Mispelkamp and
Sarti; and Tait), while a focus on production can be
found in others (Ulloa; Benamou and Celentano;
Busch et al; and Hartel).

A key problem with books created from
collections of papers is the lack of continuity and
structure. Authors' styles vary, and they are
producing essentially stand-alone pieces of work.
This means that such books are less amenable to a
'cover to cover' approach, and considerable effort
is required of the editors in order to structure and
sequence contributions. Although in this particular
book some structure is provided by the
introduction, it would have been useful if some
form of sub-sectioning had been applied so that
readers could more immediately focus into areas of
interest to them. Sub-sections are not used and, as
a result, the order in which papers are organized is
not immediately obvious.

Although all contributions are project-based, it is
interesting that they successfully address
underlying conceptual issues and problems. As a
result, this book will be of general interest to
anyone involved in the design and production of
computer-based learning materials.

Stephen Richards, University of Teesside

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Reviews

How to Motivate People by Twyla Dell, London,
Kogan Page (second edition), ISBN: 0-7494-1823-
0,1995, 96 pages.

This is one of the books in Kogan Page's Better
Management Skills series. It is designed to be used
as a self-study guide, and offers managers a series
of practical tips on how to increase employee
commitment

It centres on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and
the theoretical base on which the book is founded
is thus very narrow. Dell does not deal with the
work of many of the motivation theorists which
would be expected to be part of a general text on
the subject (e.g. Herzberg, McGregor,
McClelland), and because of this the book cannot
be considered an in-depth treatment. However,
through the clever use of activities and exercises,
Dell brings the reader face to face with the realities
of their personal management style and the
expectations of their subordinates.

The book has four parts, which lead from theory to
practice. One immediate criticism is of Part 3,
entitled 'Five Steps to Success'. It is wise to be
somewhat sceptical of any book which purports to
have the answer to management success. Perhaps it
would have been better for Dell to use a more
considered approach, drawing readers into full
knowledge of the complexity of motivation theory,
and to introduce them to the range of methods
available to create an atmosphere within an
organization where motivation is encouraged.

Another possible flaw is the assumption that
employees are capable of achieving -100%
productivity in the workplace. I have the niggling
feeling that if we could get 100% effort out of staff
in the academic workplace, they would be unlikely
to give the extra 50% to 60% which is necessary
for the survival of higher education. This
highlights an obvious weakness in the book - that
of how to motivate staff where a significant
proportion of their effort depends on goodwill - a
weakness no doubt brought about by the author's
experience in running a commercial company
where motivation factors (e.g. bonuses, perks and
promotion) are more readily available than in
education. But perhaps it is too much to expect
Dell's book to cater for all eventualities.

Part 1 ('Close the Commitment Gap') introduces
the reader to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and
begins the process of applying this knowledge to
the reader's specific circumstances. The exercises
in this section are geared to creating awareness of
how one, and one's subordinates, are performing.

Part 2 ('How to Empower Staff) seeks to convey
the three phases of empowerment, which in the
opinion of Dell are 'to give someone the power to:
judge - act - command*. As with Part 1, the
practical exercises are immensely useful, enabling
readers to understand their particular management
style, and how they might best empower those
members of staff for whom they are responsible.

Part 3 consists of those 'Five Steps to Success'.
Although 'instant success' books of this nature
abound in the area of management, this text does
contain some very practical wisdom. The five steps
which, in Dell's opinion, will lead to success are:
Learn to Lead; Examine Expectations; Act as
Though You Care; Respect Employees as
Professionals; and Never Stifle Personal Growth -
not exactly 'earth shattering', but they do offer
some common-sense tips towards creating a more
contented, productive workforce.

Having confronted the reader with the basis of
motivation theory and its application in the
workplace, Part 4 ('Practise What You've
Learned') attempts to ensure that what has gone
before is not forgotten, but is put into practice.

This book is aimed at anyone who has staff who
are under-producing in the workplace, either by an
act of will, or by being prevented from doing so by
circumstances or lack of training. The practical,
well-thought-out exercises are useful in forcing
managers to be honest with themselves in
establishing reasons for lack of motivation.
Although they are designed to be used by
individual managers, some would also be
extremely useful in gaining the opinions of the
workforce. This would require some re-wording,
but as all the exercises are brief, it would not
present too much of a problem.

The book would have benefited enormously,
however, from the addition of a bibliography,
which would have added weight and authority to
the arguments postulated. Readers would then
have become aware that the ideas are based on
sound theory, as well as practical experience.

Brian Sloan, Napier University, Edinburgh

Evaluating and Assessing for Learning by Duncan
Harris and Chris Bell, London, Kogan Page, ISBN:
0-7494-1301-8, 1994, 204 pages.

Good teaching requires evaluation. This means
measuring how well the teaching is going, and
identifying areas that need to be improved.
Evaluation can also identify what the learners need

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Volume 4 Number I

to know. But an easy criticism of any book on
evaluation is to ask what evaluation the book itself
has undergone. How well have the authors
addressed the needs of the readers? Did they elicit
the views of readers? It would seem that the ideas
Harris and Bell present have been developed
through discussion and criticism with teachers and
learners. Each section has a discussion on
'difficulties and criticisms', so their ideas do indeed
seem to have been evaluated. And the book is in its
second edition, so there has been plenty of time for
evaluation. The structure of the work has been
retained, but it has also been built upon: this second
edition has more pages, case studies have been
expanded, and sections rewritten and extended.
This has improved an already good book.

The authors anticipate that the readers of the book
will include mature students on advanced courses,
tutors of advanced courses, teachers or groups of
teachers undertaking curriculum development, and
groups of trainers undertaking development of
training material.

There are five sections, each with some
suggestions for group activities, the discussion on
difficulties and criticisms mentioned above, and a
useful annotated bibliography. Harris and Bell
attempt to cater for different types of learners by
providing overviews in the form of concept maps,
and also a conventional table of contents.

The book is centred on the needs of the learner,
providing practical, well presented ideas on how to
assess and evaluate learning. This is not, however,
a how-to guide; rather, it is more of a discussion of
the issues necessary for an effective learning
environment Much of the discussion is on the
context of learning, with some advice on how to
assess or evaluate.

Section 1 is devoted to the needs of the learner.
The types of learner follow Honey and Mumford's
1982 classification of 'activist, pragmatist,
reflector, and theorist'. Harris and Bell describe
how each type of learner would learn best, then go
on to describe different types of learning. There
are many ways of describing these, but whatever
the terminology used, most readers will be familiar
with memorizing, decoding, and creating. The type
of learning I was not familiar with was termed
'loving'. This is the learning that occurs in groups,
and Harris and Bell suggest that it is necessary for
the individual and other members of the group to
identify each learner's needs rather than depending
on learning that is driven by the teacher.

Section 2 deals with evaluation, and fitting the

system to the needs of the learner. It is where the
underlying theme of the book is discussed. Needs
analysis will help to avoid a mismatch between the
learner and the content or the approach to learning.
One of the methods discussed is the Delphi
procedure, a way of collecting information and
combining ideas from a number of individuals. The
information collected is fed back to the group to get
more information and to refine ideas, the process
continuing for as many iterations as necessary.

In Section 3, the authors address the topic assessing
for learning, and for me this section was the core of
the book. I wanted to find out how to assess
learning, and I was looking for techniques that I
could use to identify learning gains, techniques that
would show that the learners' ideas had changed,
that their understanding had developed, or even that
knowledge had been gained. However, the section
focuses on reasons for assessment. It seems that
learning is more complex than my ideas would
allow. Cook-book techniques to assess learning are
likely to miss important points, because issues
central to learning have not been addressed. Harris
and Bell discuss why, how and what you should
assess. They assert that assessment should be
focused on active involvement by the learner on
learning. Their philosophy is to feed back
information to the learners, assisting them in
learning and giving them responsibility for their
own learning and assessing.

In Section 4, entitled 'Role of Learners and
Teachers', Harris and Bell adopt a musical
metaphor for teaching: composer, conductor,
performer, critic; and summarize the learners' role
as receiver, detective, generator, and facilitator.
They take the view that much of the
communication between teachers and learners
should be through the medium of assessment and
evaluation.

Section 5, 'Meeting the Needs of the Learner',
discusses different forms of teaching and learning.
Harris and Bell develop a model in which there is
two-way communication between teacher and
learner and also between learners. They stress the
importance of group work.

The learning context and evaluation are
intertwined: the context will limit the evaluation
that can be applied. This book discusses the
context, and explains appropriate evaluation and
assessment. An ideal learning situation for Harris
and Bell would be one in which the teacher
negotiates the learning task and assessment
strategy, and resolves between them the best
approach for the learner.

I l l



Reviews

A ripping good yarn? No, but it is clear and
readable, with case studies and different
approaches to revive waning interest I would
recommend it for anyone who is interested in
improving teaching and learning.

John Milne, University of Aberdeen

HTML Manual of Style by L. Aronson, Emeryville
CA, Ziff-Davis Press, ISBN: 1-56276-300-8, 1994,
132 pages.

The Internet and World Wide Web (WWW, or the
Web) have now become valuable learning,
teaching and training resources. Consequently,
over the last few years books on these topics have
become very popular. Essentially, these deal with
three basic issues: the underlying theoretical and
technical matters relating to using distributed
networks; accessing Internet and Web services;
and Web publishing. An important aspect of
publishing material on the Web is the use of an
appropriate markup language so that search
engines and Web browsers (such as Lynx, Cello,
Mosaic and Netscape) can access the information
and interpret it in the correct way. The markup
language used on the Web is HTML (HyperText
Markup Language) which, through the use of an
appropriate DTD (Document Type Definition), is
essentially a subset of the ISO 8879 standard
SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language).
Obviously, anyone wishing to publish material on
the Web will find some knowledge of HTML
useful. This monograph provides a helpful
introduction to the topic.

The book contains just four chapters, plus three
appendices and a subject index. The opening
chapter ('What is HTML?') is very short and
provides a brief introduction to HTML, hypertext
and hypermedia, Mosaic, the Web and the Internet.
Chapter 2 is more substantial, and is devoted to the
HTML (Level 2) language itself. It covers such
issues as HTML syntax, formatting tags (for
headings, paragraphs, lists and styles), anchors and
links, images, and forms (which facilitate input
from users). In Chapter 3, the author discusses how
to write HTML documents. The chapter is
organized into four major sections which together
cover such issues as general principles, identifying
good HTML style, how to create a home page, and
the conversion of existing documents into HTML
format.

The final chapter is by far the largest, and is
devoted to a series of eight case studies. In each
case study, the author describes various existing
Web pages accessible, then goes on to discuss the

HTML encoding underlying their appearance. The
examples presented in this chapter include a
personal home page, typical home pages for small
and large organizations, an electronic brochure, a
Web survey, and pages for a number of subject
guides and specialisms. The site addresses (URLs)
for the examples are given and, surprisingly, they
can all be accessed relatively easily. I used a full-
screen, text-based browser (Lynx) to access them.
Indeed, I explored the home pages described in the
book using an old DOS-based computer (an
Amstrad 1640) as a remote terminal running at
1200 Baud (using VT100 emulation). Not
surprisingly, however, most of the pages (except
the Web survey) were in many ways different from
those described by Aronson. Obviously, since the
book was originally published, much of the
material has been updated and restructured.

I was interested to find (p. 107), the example used
to illustrate the home page for the San Francisco
Bay Area chapter of the ACM's Special Interest
Group on Computer-Human Interaction (BayCHI)
was advertising a talk entitled 'Too Much
Hypertext or Too Little?' by Jacob Nielson (to be
given on Tuesday, 11 October 1994). When I
accessed this same page a year later (while writing
this review) I was excited to see the BayCHI page
advertising a lecture to be given by two of my HCI
'heroes' (William Buxton and Stuart Card) entitled
'Radical Human-Computer Interaction'
scheduled for Tuesday, 10 October 1995 at 7.30
pm! Wouldn't it be lovely if the Internet could be
used to transmit this lecture 'live' to interested
people in Europe? Unfortunately, herein lies some
of its basic limitations. Maybe the future
information Superhighway will provide enough
bandwidth for this type of thing to happen. Who
knows?

In addition to the case study examples described
above, the three appendices at the end of the book
are also very useful. The first provides a quick
reference guide to HTML (based on the HTML 2.0
DTD specification). The second gives an overview
of HTML+, describing many of the features and
extensions that are to appear in new versions of the
language. The third appendix gives details of
various HTML resources (such as guides and
references, browsers, conversion tools and list-
servers), many of which can be obtained using the
Web itself. Unfortunately, since the book was
published, the info.cem.ch documents have been
relocated to www.w3.org. This meant that my
initial attempts at accessing some of the guides and
references failed when I entered the URLs quoted
by Larry Aronson.

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ALT-J Volume 4 Number I

Overall, although the book has some very minor
limitations (such as out-of-date URLs and the
occasional spelling error), I found it quite
interesting and fairly easy to read. The author is
thorough in his explanations and has chosen some
good examples in order to illustrate the points he
wanted to make. It is my belief that the text will
make a useful first reader for those wishing to
launch themselves into markup techniques and
Web publishing. It is also a book that I would
definitely recommend to any student who wants to
find out about HTML and what it has to offer.

Philip Barker, University of Teesside

Film and Television in Education edited by Chris
Dry, London, Chapman & Hall (Bluprint), 1995,
ISBN: 1-857130-16-2, 341 pages.

This is the second edition of the Handbook of the
British Universities Rim and Video Council
(BUFVC). The first edition dates back to 1991;
this new one is more extensive. It consists of about
100 pages of short articles on various aspects of
film and video as educational media, including
(but by no means limited to) the new digital-video
technologies of the last few years, and about 200
pages of Directory. The Directory consists of
reference entries on a wide variety organizations
whose business, in one way or another, is audio-
visual, and on distributors of film, video and
related media, classed by subject. There are also
lists of sources of multimedia products, library
suppliers of audio-visual materials, equipment
suppliers, European audio-visual projects, and
courses and events. Supplementary information
includes a section on media legislation and reports,
and one on the activities of the BUFVC.

In all, then, this work offers a pretty wide coverage
of the field, and could be very useful to developers
of courseware, who would do well to keep it on
their shelves. For instance, if you need some top-
quality sound recording, some 1-inch video
mastering, some graphic design, some
professionally produced video sequences, or just
the loan of a good camcorder, you will certainly
find good sign-posts in its pages, as you will if you
want to know your nearest audio-visual centre
(university or otherwise) and precisely what it has
to offer. Equally, if you need to know exactly what
a particular audio-visual organization can do for
you, from the Arts Council of Great Britain to the
Writers and Scholars Educational Trust, you will
find enough to give you a fairly good idea, as well
(of course) as all relevant contact details. ALT is
there too, I am very glad to say. Also of interest to

many ALT members will be the lists of UK
distributors (116 pages, making up the largest
section of the Directory) and what they can offer -
everything from educational CD-ROMs and videos
for sale or hire (there is a good list of available
catalogues, too) to printed publications on
resources.

The articles preceding the Directory are of varying
interest to educationists. Some, meant of course for
non-specialists, merely re-state themes (such as
interactivity and technology) which will be well
known to ALT members. Others, however, offer
interesting insights into aspects of educational
technology not often dealt with in journals and
newsletters about computers and education, such
as the future role of educational television, or the
history of moving pictures and education (a short
but excellent contribution by Murray Weston, the
Director of the BUFVC), or how to research film
and television collections in Europe).

Thus, this handbook, while primarily of use a
reference work, also offers a good overview of
audio-visual aspects of educational technology. It
is certainly worth adding to one's collection, and is
the sort of thing which will come in useful when
you least expect it.

Gabriel Jacobs, University of Wales Swansea

Multimedia Technologies and Future Applications
edited by Damper, R.I., Hall, W. and Richards,
J.W., London, Pentech Press Publishers, 1994,
ISBN 0-7273-1320-7, 267 pages.

This book is the proceedings of the IEEE (Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
International Symposium on Multimedia
Technologies and Future Applications, held in
1993. As such, it is an eclectic collection of papers
on the development of multimedia technologies
and their applications, ranging from theoretical
overviews to highly technical reports.

It consists of 19 papers by different contributors
from industry and academe, representing a wide
variety of backgrounds, from engineers to
linguists, computer scientists to broadcasters,
publishers to human-factors experts. This may
seem a disparate group, but in fact it actively
reflects not only the breadth of the appeal of
multimedia technologies and techniques at the
moment, but a general consensus in almost all
disciplines that we are on the brink of a
multimedia revolution. It also demonstrates the
often claimed 'interdisciplinary' nature of
multimedia in that the techniques perfected in one

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discipline are often applied in other, quite
different, areas.

The papers are divided up into four sections. Each
contains a helpful introduction which summarizes
the content of the papers which follow, and which
help to put them into the context of the work as a
whole. These introductory chapters are a very
useful addition when material which is
comparatively so varied in scope is represented in
one publication. Another useful aspect is the
inclusion of an introduction or abstract at the start
of each individual paper. I have one minor quibble,
however, with the lack of chapter numbers within
the individual sections. This makes cross-
referencing rather difficult - the editor of Section 1
himself confused the sequence of two chapters in
his introduction.

The collection begins with an introductory and
general foreword looking at the implications of
multimedia in publishing, and comparing the
information revolution which is facilitated by
multimedia to the technological revolution created
by Gutenberg. This is a concise and clear
introduction to the many political and social issues
intrinsic to the 'multimedia revolution*.

Part I, on Core Technical Issues, is primarily
concerned with data compression, particularly with
reference to image quality and speed of delivery.
Although at first frankly terrifying in its technical
complexity to the reviewer with a non-technical
background, it quickly becomes apparent that
issues of data, image and video compression are
something all of us involved in multimedia
development need to be appraised of, and this
collection provides an excellent overview of the
problems and some possible solutions. The first
paper presents an identification of the components
necessary for a systems approach to solving the
problems of standardization across machines and
networks using multimedia communications.
Having identified with the systems analyst,
recognizing that their concerns are of interest to all
involved in multimedia development, we can more
confidently approach the following papers. These
include a new technique for high speed image
coding, an overview of design issues pertinent to
the development of a low bit-rate audio/data/video
multimedia system, an exploration of an algorithm
for image coding which could help solve problems
of storage and compression of images, and a
practical technique for image processing with an
origin in pure mathematics which is compared to
more conventional coding methods based on
simulation results. The final paper in this section

describes Acom Replay, software-only full-motion
video from CD-ROM, a patent-pending technique
which has the potential to be used in the
production of low-cost educational software. All
six papers in this section deal with highly complex
technical issues in an clear and easy-to-follow
manner. They are as good a summary of complex
techniques as I believe will be found in one
volume.

Part II, on Audio-visual Delivery Systems
addresses implementation problems inherent in
audio-visual systems in the digital domain,
especially processing power and bandwidth. The
first paper describes a collaborative project to
develop a multimedia environment which will
allow high-quality video, data and audio
connections between remote sites using ISDN,
supporting a multimedia system in both local and
remote networked environments. This is followed
by an overview of a technique to store high-quality
picture information in a way that is compatible
with the needs of distributed multimedia
environments. This paper characterizes the
components of, and interactions within, a
multimedia environment. The final paper in this
section, entitled 'The multimedia microwave oven'
is the perspective of a television producer looking
at the new multimedia communications systems
which are set to replace what was not so long ago
the only audio-visual system in use - broadcast
television. This is a reflective paper in the 'where
are we and how did we get here?' mould. The
author (MacGregor) reflects upon the political,
social and cultural implications of the adoption of
multimedia technologies, and surmises the
infrastructure required before the 'multimedia
revolution' - which we are constantly reminded is
upon us - can really begin.

Part HI, entitled Human-Computer Interface, looks
at the 'human' issues - how people interact with
technology - rather than the technical concerns of
the previous sections. All the papers in this section
address the issues involved in creating high-quality
multimedia materials, paying particular attention to
questions of why and for whom this material is
created. In his thoughtful paper, 'Not a cottage
industry: understanding the scale of multimedia
production', Bruce Ingraham addresses the myth
that multimedia is a quick and easy solution to
educational problems. As the developer of France
InterActive, Ingraham is well placed to realistically
assess the real cost and scale of developing
intelligent educational multimedia. His argument is
that the investment in educational technology must
include an investment in the structures, skills and

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tools to support its use for real benefits to be
gained. Other papers in this section report on
specific ways in which human interaction can
assist in the development of multimedia
technologies, including voice and facial image
integration for person recognition, interaction
between a patient and psychiatrist to analyse the
use of video telecommunications, the way in which
users interact with audio and visual information in
the workplace, and the perceptions of language,
sound and vision which may contribute to the
development of formal and effective multimedia
applications.

Part IV, Applications, presents examples of
applications in use at the moment, any or all of
which may well become prototypes. All represent
examples of good practice in the use of multimedia
for specific tasks, practical or pedagogical. Again,
contributors come from industry and academia.
There is a description of a system in use by Lloyds
Register to enable users to make quick and
interactive decisions about damage on board a
ship, and a contribution describing the Microcosm
project, addressing media integration issues within
open-media systems. The papers in this section
illustrate what Wendy Hall herself says in her

introduction to this section: multimedia
applications are today much more than simply
presentation systems. Multimedia information
systems are merging with computer technologies
to the extent that soon the two will be inseparable
and interchangeable.

Multimedia Technologies is a timely collection,
one which demonstrates the huge impact of
multimedia technologies on so many disciplines. It
demonstrates clearly that there is more to
multimedia than theory - that there is a need for
the techniques used in multimedia development to
catch up with the technology available. Multi-
media is a term which is bandied around to the
extent that it seems to mean all things to all-
comers - few of us stop to think about the
technical issues which are so crucial in successful
development and implementation of multimedia.
This collection makes no claims to being
exhaustive, but is a valuable snapshot of the state
of play in the technological developments which
make it possible for us all to look to the use of
multimedia in our own disciplines.

Lorna Hughes, Arizona State University

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