“The little Web schoolhouse”: using virtual rooms to create a multimedia distance learning environment

1. ABSTRACT Education and training are expected to change dramatically due to the combined impact of the Internet’ and mukimedia technologies. In th~ transitional era, we are faced with a diIemma: do we design distance learning systems with the present or the Mure in mind? Common sense teIls us that users are more likely to accept innovation if they perceive it as arisiig from within a familiar conte~ and therefore we should look to the present for modeIs. But if we cIing to current modeIs, how WI we ever discover and Iearn to expIoit the unique possibilities that surely exist within this marriage? We can design with both the present and the future in mind by using a platform that utilizes a familiar model to start with, but alIows experimentation as users become more comfortable with the technology. The familiar