This paper suggests a framework for understanding the roles that children can play in the technology design process, particularly in regards to designing technologies that support learning. Each role, user, tester, informant, and design partner has been defined based upon a review of the literature and my lab’s own research experiences. This discussion does not suggest that any one role is appropriate for all research or development needs. Instead, by understanding this framework the reader may be able to make more informed decisions about the design processes they choose to use with children in creating new technologies. This paper will present for each role a historical overview, research and development methods, as well as the strengths, challenges, and unique contributions associated with children in the design process.

This paper explores the concept of multiple perspectives to enhance collaboration by allowing remote participants to tailor their views, user-interfaces and roles to their particular needs and expertise. It describes a preliminary design study conducted on users of a collaborative CAVE-based virtual reality tool for visualizing oceanographic data. Results will focus on the patterns of activity within this environment, in particular the manner in which participants transition between individual and group work during the course of a collaborative session.

Introduction In 1992 the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) developed the CAVE. Now in the year 2000, with more than 200 CAVE and related projection-based VR environments around the world, there is a community that is eager to collaborate. The CAVE^TM Research Network (CAVERN) is an international alliance of research and industrial institutions equipped with CAVEs, ImmersaDesks^TM, and high performance computing resources, interconnected by high-speed networks. This high-end visualization hardware combined with high bandwidth networks allows us to explore new research problems and applications of this collaborative technology without being hindered by the limits of the existing Internet. The CAVE [Cruz-Neira et al, 1993] is a virtual reality (VR) system where the display is a 10 foot-cubed room that is rear-projected with stereoscopic images, creating the illusion that 3D objects appear to co-exist with the user in the room. A user dons a pair of lightweight liquid cry

The evolution of higher education is shaped by changes in the characteristics of entering students, by development of new methods of teaching and learning, and by shifts in the knowledge that society values. Rapid advances in information technology are influencing each of these factors, as the standard interface for computers and telecommunications that brings distant experts and archives to one’s desktop is increasingly complemented by “Alice in Wonderland ” interfaces to virtual environments and “Ubiquitous Computing ” infusions of digital information into real world settings (Dede, 2002). Higher education institutions can prosper by basing their strategic investments on using these emerging educational technologies to match the increasingly “neomillennial ” learning styles of their students. Based on “mediated immersion” in “distributed-learning communities, ” these emerging learning styles include: • fluency in multiple media and in simulation-based virtual settings; • communal learning involving diverse, tacit, situated experience, with knowledge distributed across a community and a context as well as within an individual; • a balance among experiential learning, guided mentoring, and collective reflection; • expression through non-linear, associational webs of representations; and • co-design of learning experiences personalized to individual needs and preferences. Implications for higher education are presented, with particular emphasis on strategic investments in physical plant, technical infrastructure, and professional development. The implications for physical and technical infrastructure include: • infusing wireless networking and mobile wireless devices throughout the campus, • creating multi-purpose habitats personalizable by students (rather than specialized locations such as computer labs), and • experimenting with virtual versions of physical environments and with “augmented realities” based on ubiquitous computing. The implications for professional development include helping faculty develop capabilities in: • Co-Design: Developing learning experiences students can personalize • Co-Instruction: Utilizing knowledge sharing among students as a major source of content and pedagogy

This is a white paper outlining a methodology for employing collaborative, immersive virtual environments as a high-end visualization interface for massive data-sets.

We explore the effects of interfaces to take notes on problem solving and learning in a scientific discovery domain. In 2 experiments (1 correlational, 1 experimental), participants solved a series of 5 scientific reasoning problems in a computer environment. We provided some participants with access to an online notepad and found 3 main results: (a) Using the notepad helped participants solve the problems more accurately; (b) the benefits of using the notepad persisted after participants had stopped using it; and (c) participants who used the notepad for problem solving and self-explanation learned more, regardless of the type of notepad interface that was provided. Implications for learning systems with online notepads are discussed.

Introduction The problems faced by an individual trying to understand a software system are very difficult. As the size of software systems increases so do the complexities in understanding. A reasonable solution to this problem is the construction of software tools that assist us in the comprehension tasks. An obvious way to assist us with this problem is to build visual representation of the software. For example, the Unified Modeling Language (UML) uses a graphical notation to describe software in a visual manner. While these types of notations allow for an abstraction of an existing software system, they do not scale up well with respect to comprehension. That is, it is quite difficult to "see" an entire software system with these notations and tools. They suffer from the same cognitive related problems as source code. There is a critical factor limiting these notations (and other software visualization tools), namely they represent the information in only two visual dimen

Virtual ambients are a class of restricted simulations designed to support science inquiry learning among elementary school students. Virtual ambients employ large multi-user displays to support "first-person " collaborative exploration, data collection, and the construction of support for hypotheses in simulated environments. In order to reduce the cognitive load on learners, navigation—in space, time, and scale—is used instead of traditional learning simulations ' direct control of independent model variables. Early experience with elementary school students at three grade levels is reported, employing a configurable virtual ambient named the Field.

Currently, the focus of research within Information Visualisation is steering towards genomic data visualisation [21] due to the level of activity that the Human Genome Project [11] has generated. However, the Human Brian project [10], renowned within Neuroinformatics, is equally challenging and exciting. Its main aim is to increase current understanding of brain function such as memory, learning, attention, emotions and consciousness. It is understood that this task will require the “integration of information from the level of the gene to the level of behaviour”. The work presented in this paper focuses on the visualisation of neural data. More specifically, the data being analysed is multi-dimensional spike train data. Traditional methods, such as the ‘raster plot ’ and the ‘cross-correlogram’, are still useful but they do not scale up for larger assemblies of neurons. In this paper, a new innovative method called the Tunnel is defined. Its design is based on the principles of Information Visualisation; overview the data, zoom and filter data, data details on demand [18]. The features of this visualisation environment are described. This includes data filtering, navigation and a ‘flat map ’ overview facility. Additionally, a ‘coincidence overlay map ’ is presented. This map washes the Tunnel with colour, which