Educational multimedia systems: the past, the present, and a glimpse into the future

The progress in multimedia capture, analysis, and delivery, combined with the rapid adoption of broadband communication, have resulted in educational multimedia systems that have advanced traditional forms of teaching and learning. In addition, new trends in multimedia technology, such as multimedia on handheld devices or advanced approaches for the automatic analysis of multimodal signals, offer novel and exciting opportunities for teaching and learning. However, the question about how multimedia can really make education more exploratory and enjoyable is as yet unanswered, and we are just beginning to understand the real contribution of multimedia to education.This concept note provides a motivation for the ACM Workshop on Educational Multimedia and Multimedia Education. Based on a brief overview of the history of educational multimedia systems and a rough analysis of the current situation, we venture a glimpse into the future and argue that educational multimedia is a vivid and relevant area for research