Web-based multimedia tools for sharing educational resources

Reviewer: John R. Ray

Many educational resources and objects have been developed as Java applets or applications, which can accessed by simply downloading from various repositories. It is often necessary to share these resources in real time, some tools have been developed for this purpose that emulate a virtual classroom, and are primarily designed for synchronous sharing of resources. These enable participants to share Java objects in real time and also allow for dynamically managing the telelearing session. It seems certain that in the near future almost every person, no matter where, will be equipped with some sort of network computing capability, either by means of conventional desktop computing or through information appliances. This not only means that geographically-distributed people will be able to communicate easily, but also to collaborate; i.e., share multimedia documents and applications. Examples are joint editing, white boarding, joint browsing, and multiuser presentations, used in a variety of applications such as conferencing, collaborative design, training, and telelearning. Acknowledging this paradigm, the education community has begun to conduct research on how to best utilize global connectivity to facilitate and evolve education. An interesting issue is how to share these resources among geographically distributed people__?__ Basically speaking, the core technology behind any synchonous collaboration tool is a mechanism to enable a user to send updates to other users about interactions to a shared application. All of these approaches can be implemented using a centralized or fully distributed communication infrastructure. But all approaches have one thing in common--they must all use reliable communication. In addition to disseminating update messages, collaboration system must also address issues such as latecomers, floor control, awareness, synchronization, and management. Two resource sharing tools. The Java-Enable Telecollaboration System (JETS), developed at the Multimedia Communications Research Laboratory (MCRLab) at the University of Ottawa, with funding from the national Telelearning Network of Centers of Excellence and the Java Application Sharing in Multiuser Interactive Environments (JASMINE), a collaborative effort of MCRLab and the KOM Laboratory at the Darmstadt University of Technology are offered as examples. JETS and JASMINE have been deployed and tested in shared sessions. Based on their experience, the most interesting part of both systems is the ability to moderate from the user perspective. This enables a useful and practical session to be carried out without interruptions. The ability to dynamically bring any resource into a JASMINE session is another key feature enjoyed and emphasized by all users.