Les hypermédias et multimédias ont été placés assez arbitrairement au centre des développements a... more Les hypermédias et multimédias ont été placés assez arbitrairement au centre des développements actuels des techniques d'éducation. Cette publication a pour but de poser quelques questions fondamentales sur l'optimalisation de l'enseignement par les hypermédias et la conclusion en est que les aspects les plus positifs ne sont pas ceux sur lesquels on insiste habituellement. En particulier on peut observer que les créateurs de matériel d'enseignement par hypermédias en tirent une expérience didactique plus appréciée par eux que par les étudiants. Ceci est compréhensible d'un point de vue constructiviste de la pédagogie, dans lequel l'objectif clé est d'orienter celui qui apprend vers la réalisation d'un projet afin de le mener à une meilleure compréhension. L'étude en profondeur est un effet, une retombée de la compréhension. Cette publication analyse quelques approches à l'élaboration du "software"-outils de connaissance pour l'enseignement-illustrant cette démarche constructiviste.
The vicarious learner group has been developing a multimedia database system to promote and enhan... more The vicarious learner group has been developing a multimedia database system to promote and enhance the role of dialogue in learning. A specific interest, and the origin of the projects' collective name, is in the question of whether and how dialogue can be helpfully 'reused'. What benefits can students gain from dialogue as observers, not just as participants? We describe our initial attempts to generate and capture educationally effective discourse exchanges amongst and between students and tutors. Problems encountered with available CMC discourse formats led to our development of a set of Task Directed Discussions (TDDs). A medium-sized corpus of discourse exchanges was collected using the TDDs. A selection of nearly two hundred of these TDD exchanges formed the multimedia discourse database to the implemented prototype system, Dissemination. Initial results from a controlled experiment and evaluation of Dissemination are outlined
Abstract Three experiments investigated performance as a function of the visual hemifield to whic... more Abstract Three experiments investigated performance as a function of the visual hemifield to which verbal and spatial stimuli were presented tachistoscopically. The aim was to relate laterality effects to individual, sex and cultural differences in spatial ability within the ...
This paper attempts to bridge the psychological and anthropological views of situated learning by... more This paper attempts to bridge the psychological and anthropological views of situated learning by focusing on the concept of a learning relationship, and by exploiting this concept in our framework for the design of learning technology. We employ Wenger's (1998) concept of communities of practice to give emphasis to social identification as a central aspect of learning, which should crucially influence our thinking about the design of learning environments. We describe learning relationships in terms of form (oneto-one, one-to-many etc.
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, Sep 1, 2001
This paper examines the concept of an 'e-university' from the perspective of quality. The... more This paper examines the concept of an 'e-university' from the perspective of quality. The emerging and generic forms of the e-university are described, followed by a consideration of what might constitute a general specification for 'e-pedagogy'. In order to provide a framework for thinking about issues of quality in online learning, a distinction is drawn between three kinds of pedagogy, which map on to the fundamental stages of learning called here conceptualisation, construction and dialogue. A number of key issues about e-learning are identified, which add to the growing list of issues raised by the development of borderless education. Despite concerns about the costs of adequate learner-support, an overall conclusion points to the positive benefit of increased visibility for quality assurance.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 1988
Abstract 1. Modality effects in running memory were explored in a series of 5 experiments. The pr... more Abstract 1. Modality effects in running memory were explored in a series of 5 experiments. The precategorical acoustic storage (PAS) model of Crowder and Morton (1969) predicts an auditory advantage over the last item or 2 if recall is delayed by a rehearsal-preventing ...
Hypermedia technology needs a creative approach from the outset in the design of software to faci... more Hypermedia technology needs a creative approach from the outset in the design of software to facilitate human thinking and learning. This book opens a discussion of the potential of hypermedia and related approaches to provide open exploratory learning environments. The papers in the book are based on contributions to a NATO Advanced Research Workshop held in July1990 and are grouped into six sections: - Semantic networking as cognitive tools, - Expert systems as cognitive tools, - Hypertext as cognitive tools, - Collaborative communication tools, - Microworlds: context-dependent cognitive tools, - Implementing cognitive tools. The book will be valuable for those who design, implement and evaluate learning programs and who seek to escape from rigid tactics like programmed instruction and behavioristic approaches. The book presents principles for exploratory systems that go beyond existing metaphors of instruction and provokes the reader to think in a new way about the cognitive level of human-computer interaction.
Is there a common basis for the ethnic and sex differences that are characteristically obtained o... more Is there a common basis for the ethnic and sex differences that are characteristically obtained on psychometric tests of spatial ability? Three experiments approached this question by observing subject differences in the recognition and reconstruction of visual‐spatial displays. The pattern of performance on these experimental tasks was compared with that on a traditional spatial ability test.In the first experiment, two samples of 40 students, balanced for sex, from Zimbabwe and Scotland respectively, attempted a forced‐choice recognition task for meaningful scenes. Both ethnic groups and both sexes showed equivalent performance. The same subjects then undertook a task involving the reproduction of an arrangement of blocks into two‐dimensional plan and elevation views. On this task, involving spatial reorientation, the Zimbabweans made over three times as many errors as the Scots. In a third experiment the requirement for spatial reorientation was added to the original recognition task and this was performed by a further 40 subjects. A significant difference between ethnic groups now emerged and this effect covaried with spatial ability. Again, however, no sex difference was observed.The overall pattern of results points to spatial reorientation as a major factor in the cross‐ethnic differences. The absence of a sex difference on the experimental tasks contrasts with its appearance in both samples on the spatial ability test and represents a puzzling obstacle to our current understanding. This dissociation of sex and ethnic differences provides evidence against the hypothesis that they stem from the same source.
Thirty-four subjects performed a task which combined the running memory and 'throughlist' distrac... more Thirty-four subjects performed a task which combined the running memory and 'throughlist' distractor paradigms and was designed to permit an echoic consolidation effect across all ser i al posi tl ons , The predicted long-ter m diff erence between reading aloud and reading silently was clearly demonstrated and the results were used to argue in support of the 'indirect-echoic' hypothesis.
This article reports a study of absence in a regional police force. The main aims of the research... more This article reports a study of absence in a regional police force. The main aims of the research were to investigate the relationship between absence, age and type of shift work. From the outset, we were mindful of the need to design and carry out a methodologically sound study that would be compromised as little as possible by the practical constraints of field work. An unusually high degree of co‐operation in providing access to the required data was provided by the organisation chosen for study. The sample was probably one of the largest of its kind ever chosen for a study of absence. In the end, we were able to conclude nothing at all about the relationship between absence and shift work. We believe that, although the design was modified by practical considerations, it was nevertheless our concern not to settle for a simple “before and after” design that rescued us from drawing some entirely spurious conclusions. An account of how this occurred is offered as a striking reminder of the need for control groups in studies of organisational change. The research did succeed in achieving the other main aim of observing the relationship between absence and age, and this is discussed.
In a series of papers Pontius (cf. 3, 4) has reported an intriguing aspect of the performance of ... more In a series of papers Pontius (cf. 3, 4) has reported an intriguing aspect of the performance of various subject groups on the 'Draw-A-Person-Test-Wp-The-Face-InFrontal-View. A subset of each group will represent the face in a neolithic' style characterised by "a continuation of the forehead into the nose without any indication of a narrowing, indentation or discontinuity at the bridge (root) of the nose." Some 30 to 40 percent of samples of preschool children, older children with reading difficulties, and 'mildly mentally retarded' children so represented the face, as did a sample of Australian Aboriginal schoolchildren. In contrast about 5 to 12% of sampled 'Western' ~choolchildren and adults with 'normal' reading and writing attainment, produce this neolithic' face on Pontius' test. Pontius concludes from this interesting set of observations that the tendency to draw a 'neolithic' face is diagnostic of poor or absent literacy skills, a conclusion supported by published literacy rates in ethnic groups where this form of face representation is widespread. However, Pontius then embarks on a chain of speculative argument, the links of which are unsound and, for the Australian study at least, without sufficient regard for the potential implications of the conclusions. First, Pontius assumes that the 'neolithic' representations are less accurate than 'normal' face representations and that they must be mediated by a "specific visual representational deficit" (my italics). That the non-neolithic representations are more accurate is a questionable supposition. That this feature of performance implies an underlying deficit of visual coding entirely begs the question. Nevertheless, Pontius identifies such a deficit with that supposedly underlying dyslexia, although as Davidson (1) correctly points out, the evidence for associating dyslexia with a visual-spatial deficit is slight indeed. On this shaky foundation Pontius now builds a complex framework of speculation which relates hippocampal and occipital-parietal brain dysfunction to various subclasses of dyslexia. A particular casualty of these conjectures are the Australian Aboriginal children, 85% of whom are labelled by Pontius as dyslexic and then, by association, implicated in brain dysfunction and cultural deprivation. In fact, the only evidence Pontius produces to support this assumption of "ecological" dyslexia could just as plausibly seem to imply that over-all the Aboriginals' reading performance was equivalent to that of white Australians. Davidson is right to be critical of this. The term dyslexia, vague and disputed though its meaning is, becomes actively misleading when used simply to denote poor school performance without regard for socio-cultural factors. Throughout these papers, in fact, Pontius uses terms (such as dyslexia, deficit, dysfunction) in a way that establishes and then elaborates assumptions that are either unwarranted or only weakly supported. Of course, examples of such usage are widespread in the literature and it may seem unfair to single out Pontius' work for cr~ticism in this way. What makes this a special case, however, is its potential for harm to an ethnic group. To suggest, as Pontius seems to, that the "evolutionary neuropsychiatric viewpoint" somehow obviates the need to consider the socio-cultural dimension is to fail to understand the requirements of cross-cultural research. Perhaps Pontius' data could make a contribution to establishing the range of cognitive difficulties experienced by dyslexics (2); at present the way in which the data are presented obscures this contribution.
... mauvais Livre, afin de leur trouver place. On s'épargne par ce moyen bien de la peine &a... more ... mauvais Livre, afin de leur trouver place. On s'épargne par ce moyen bien de la peine & de l'ennui de part & d'autre. Mais la police pour regler ces bureaux n'eft pas îi ailée que l'on penfe à établir. Car uns parler ici du gout dans ...
A study is reported in which pairs of students were set the task of learning specified material f... more A study is reported in which pairs of students were set the task of learning specified material from a hypertext-based discovery learning system (StrathTutor). Conventional pre- to post-test change measures of learning were employed and demonstrated an average learning gain of some 20%, which was highly significant. In addition, the pairs were videotaped as they used the system together and the resulting dialogue was fully transcribed and annotated to reflect the subjects’ interactions, both with each other and with the machine. In this paper, we compare those dialogues in which the subjects were relatively more successful at the learning task, with those dialogues corresponding to less successful learning outcomes in an attempt to illuminate the process aspects of collaborative learning around the computer.
Automating the assessment of large numbers of students while providing instant personalised feedb... more Automating the assessment of large numbers of students while providing instant personalised feedback requires a multi-faceted computer-based solution. This paper describes how the long term eAssessment developments in science and technology at the Open University (OU) and mathematics at the University of Birmingham have been brought together in Moodle, highlights key features of these developments and discusses the costs and benefits of engaging with these ever more sophisticated systems.
As the worldwide computer network becomes ubiquitous, new tools have been developed, such as the ... more As the worldwide computer network becomes ubiquitous, new tools have been developed, such as the World Wide Web (WWW), for the delivery of multimedia hypertext-based documents. Similarly, there has been an explosion in the amount of email, bulletin boards, and Usenet News available. This has led to a major problem of information overload: we are slowly but surely being overwhelmed by the amount of information available to us. To address this problem, the New Technology Initiative (NTI) of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is funding the ELF project over a period of two years to develop a tool, the Electronic Learning Facilitator. This tool is aimed at assisting learners to make effective use of the information available. The ELF project started in December 1993, with the goal of producing a tool for installation in UK academic sites. This paper first discusses the new networked information sources that are appearing around the globe, and then analyses the requirements of learners for accessing this information. From the requirements, the paper shows the desirable features of an ELF, such as monitoring the user at work to gain hints as to what he or she is doing, being guided by the user directly, and using information gathered from other ELFs, or from monitoring the various information sources for announcements of new services, updates of information, etc. The main body of the paper illustrates the current progress on the project, outlining the implementation of the ELF-ELF is written using various high-level languages such as the Tool Command Language (TCL) and Perl, as well as the more traditional C++. It consists of various agents, each agent having a specific task to perform, such as monitoring a WWW site for any new documents, or monitoring a Usenet Newsgroup for articles that might be of particular interest to the owner of the agent. Finally, the paper reports on our plans to test users on a prototype.
Les hypermédias et multimédias ont été placés assez arbitrairement au centre des développements a... more Les hypermédias et multimédias ont été placés assez arbitrairement au centre des développements actuels des techniques d'éducation. Cette publication a pour but de poser quelques questions fondamentales sur l'optimalisation de l'enseignement par les hypermédias et la conclusion en est que les aspects les plus positifs ne sont pas ceux sur lesquels on insiste habituellement. En particulier on peut observer que les créateurs de matériel d'enseignement par hypermédias en tirent une expérience didactique plus appréciée par eux que par les étudiants. Ceci est compréhensible d'un point de vue constructiviste de la pédagogie, dans lequel l'objectif clé est d'orienter celui qui apprend vers la réalisation d'un projet afin de le mener à une meilleure compréhension. L'étude en profondeur est un effet, une retombée de la compréhension. Cette publication analyse quelques approches à l'élaboration du "software"-outils de connaissance pour l'enseignement-illustrant cette démarche constructiviste.
The vicarious learner group has been developing a multimedia database system to promote and enhan... more The vicarious learner group has been developing a multimedia database system to promote and enhance the role of dialogue in learning. A specific interest, and the origin of the projects' collective name, is in the question of whether and how dialogue can be helpfully 'reused'. What benefits can students gain from dialogue as observers, not just as participants? We describe our initial attempts to generate and capture educationally effective discourse exchanges amongst and between students and tutors. Problems encountered with available CMC discourse formats led to our development of a set of Task Directed Discussions (TDDs). A medium-sized corpus of discourse exchanges was collected using the TDDs. A selection of nearly two hundred of these TDD exchanges formed the multimedia discourse database to the implemented prototype system, Dissemination. Initial results from a controlled experiment and evaluation of Dissemination are outlined
Abstract Three experiments investigated performance as a function of the visual hemifield to whic... more Abstract Three experiments investigated performance as a function of the visual hemifield to which verbal and spatial stimuli were presented tachistoscopically. The aim was to relate laterality effects to individual, sex and cultural differences in spatial ability within the ...
This paper attempts to bridge the psychological and anthropological views of situated learning by... more This paper attempts to bridge the psychological and anthropological views of situated learning by focusing on the concept of a learning relationship, and by exploiting this concept in our framework for the design of learning technology. We employ Wenger's (1998) concept of communities of practice to give emphasis to social identification as a central aspect of learning, which should crucially influence our thinking about the design of learning environments. We describe learning relationships in terms of form (oneto-one, one-to-many etc.
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, Sep 1, 2001
This paper examines the concept of an 'e-university' from the perspective of quality. The... more This paper examines the concept of an 'e-university' from the perspective of quality. The emerging and generic forms of the e-university are described, followed by a consideration of what might constitute a general specification for 'e-pedagogy'. In order to provide a framework for thinking about issues of quality in online learning, a distinction is drawn between three kinds of pedagogy, which map on to the fundamental stages of learning called here conceptualisation, construction and dialogue. A number of key issues about e-learning are identified, which add to the growing list of issues raised by the development of borderless education. Despite concerns about the costs of adequate learner-support, an overall conclusion points to the positive benefit of increased visibility for quality assurance.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 1988
Abstract 1. Modality effects in running memory were explored in a series of 5 experiments. The pr... more Abstract 1. Modality effects in running memory were explored in a series of 5 experiments. The precategorical acoustic storage (PAS) model of Crowder and Morton (1969) predicts an auditory advantage over the last item or 2 if recall is delayed by a rehearsal-preventing ...
Hypermedia technology needs a creative approach from the outset in the design of software to faci... more Hypermedia technology needs a creative approach from the outset in the design of software to facilitate human thinking and learning. This book opens a discussion of the potential of hypermedia and related approaches to provide open exploratory learning environments. The papers in the book are based on contributions to a NATO Advanced Research Workshop held in July1990 and are grouped into six sections: - Semantic networking as cognitive tools, - Expert systems as cognitive tools, - Hypertext as cognitive tools, - Collaborative communication tools, - Microworlds: context-dependent cognitive tools, - Implementing cognitive tools. The book will be valuable for those who design, implement and evaluate learning programs and who seek to escape from rigid tactics like programmed instruction and behavioristic approaches. The book presents principles for exploratory systems that go beyond existing metaphors of instruction and provokes the reader to think in a new way about the cognitive level of human-computer interaction.
Is there a common basis for the ethnic and sex differences that are characteristically obtained o... more Is there a common basis for the ethnic and sex differences that are characteristically obtained on psychometric tests of spatial ability? Three experiments approached this question by observing subject differences in the recognition and reconstruction of visual‐spatial displays. The pattern of performance on these experimental tasks was compared with that on a traditional spatial ability test.In the first experiment, two samples of 40 students, balanced for sex, from Zimbabwe and Scotland respectively, attempted a forced‐choice recognition task for meaningful scenes. Both ethnic groups and both sexes showed equivalent performance. The same subjects then undertook a task involving the reproduction of an arrangement of blocks into two‐dimensional plan and elevation views. On this task, involving spatial reorientation, the Zimbabweans made over three times as many errors as the Scots. In a third experiment the requirement for spatial reorientation was added to the original recognition task and this was performed by a further 40 subjects. A significant difference between ethnic groups now emerged and this effect covaried with spatial ability. Again, however, no sex difference was observed.The overall pattern of results points to spatial reorientation as a major factor in the cross‐ethnic differences. The absence of a sex difference on the experimental tasks contrasts with its appearance in both samples on the spatial ability test and represents a puzzling obstacle to our current understanding. This dissociation of sex and ethnic differences provides evidence against the hypothesis that they stem from the same source.
Thirty-four subjects performed a task which combined the running memory and 'throughlist' distrac... more Thirty-four subjects performed a task which combined the running memory and 'throughlist' distractor paradigms and was designed to permit an echoic consolidation effect across all ser i al posi tl ons , The predicted long-ter m diff erence between reading aloud and reading silently was clearly demonstrated and the results were used to argue in support of the 'indirect-echoic' hypothesis.
This article reports a study of absence in a regional police force. The main aims of the research... more This article reports a study of absence in a regional police force. The main aims of the research were to investigate the relationship between absence, age and type of shift work. From the outset, we were mindful of the need to design and carry out a methodologically sound study that would be compromised as little as possible by the practical constraints of field work. An unusually high degree of co‐operation in providing access to the required data was provided by the organisation chosen for study. The sample was probably one of the largest of its kind ever chosen for a study of absence. In the end, we were able to conclude nothing at all about the relationship between absence and shift work. We believe that, although the design was modified by practical considerations, it was nevertheless our concern not to settle for a simple “before and after” design that rescued us from drawing some entirely spurious conclusions. An account of how this occurred is offered as a striking reminder of the need for control groups in studies of organisational change. The research did succeed in achieving the other main aim of observing the relationship between absence and age, and this is discussed.
In a series of papers Pontius (cf. 3, 4) has reported an intriguing aspect of the performance of ... more In a series of papers Pontius (cf. 3, 4) has reported an intriguing aspect of the performance of various subject groups on the 'Draw-A-Person-Test-Wp-The-Face-InFrontal-View. A subset of each group will represent the face in a neolithic' style characterised by "a continuation of the forehead into the nose without any indication of a narrowing, indentation or discontinuity at the bridge (root) of the nose." Some 30 to 40 percent of samples of preschool children, older children with reading difficulties, and 'mildly mentally retarded' children so represented the face, as did a sample of Australian Aboriginal schoolchildren. In contrast about 5 to 12% of sampled 'Western' ~choolchildren and adults with 'normal' reading and writing attainment, produce this neolithic' face on Pontius' test. Pontius concludes from this interesting set of observations that the tendency to draw a 'neolithic' face is diagnostic of poor or absent literacy skills, a conclusion supported by published literacy rates in ethnic groups where this form of face representation is widespread. However, Pontius then embarks on a chain of speculative argument, the links of which are unsound and, for the Australian study at least, without sufficient regard for the potential implications of the conclusions. First, Pontius assumes that the 'neolithic' representations are less accurate than 'normal' face representations and that they must be mediated by a "specific visual representational deficit" (my italics). That the non-neolithic representations are more accurate is a questionable supposition. That this feature of performance implies an underlying deficit of visual coding entirely begs the question. Nevertheless, Pontius identifies such a deficit with that supposedly underlying dyslexia, although as Davidson (1) correctly points out, the evidence for associating dyslexia with a visual-spatial deficit is slight indeed. On this shaky foundation Pontius now builds a complex framework of speculation which relates hippocampal and occipital-parietal brain dysfunction to various subclasses of dyslexia. A particular casualty of these conjectures are the Australian Aboriginal children, 85% of whom are labelled by Pontius as dyslexic and then, by association, implicated in brain dysfunction and cultural deprivation. In fact, the only evidence Pontius produces to support this assumption of "ecological" dyslexia could just as plausibly seem to imply that over-all the Aboriginals' reading performance was equivalent to that of white Australians. Davidson is right to be critical of this. The term dyslexia, vague and disputed though its meaning is, becomes actively misleading when used simply to denote poor school performance without regard for socio-cultural factors. Throughout these papers, in fact, Pontius uses terms (such as dyslexia, deficit, dysfunction) in a way that establishes and then elaborates assumptions that are either unwarranted or only weakly supported. Of course, examples of such usage are widespread in the literature and it may seem unfair to single out Pontius' work for cr~ticism in this way. What makes this a special case, however, is its potential for harm to an ethnic group. To suggest, as Pontius seems to, that the "evolutionary neuropsychiatric viewpoint" somehow obviates the need to consider the socio-cultural dimension is to fail to understand the requirements of cross-cultural research. Perhaps Pontius' data could make a contribution to establishing the range of cognitive difficulties experienced by dyslexics (2); at present the way in which the data are presented obscures this contribution.
... mauvais Livre, afin de leur trouver place. On s'épargne par ce moyen bien de la peine &a... more ... mauvais Livre, afin de leur trouver place. On s'épargne par ce moyen bien de la peine & de l'ennui de part & d'autre. Mais la police pour regler ces bureaux n'eft pas îi ailée que l'on penfe à établir. Car uns parler ici du gout dans ...
A study is reported in which pairs of students were set the task of learning specified material f... more A study is reported in which pairs of students were set the task of learning specified material from a hypertext-based discovery learning system (StrathTutor). Conventional pre- to post-test change measures of learning were employed and demonstrated an average learning gain of some 20%, which was highly significant. In addition, the pairs were videotaped as they used the system together and the resulting dialogue was fully transcribed and annotated to reflect the subjects’ interactions, both with each other and with the machine. In this paper, we compare those dialogues in which the subjects were relatively more successful at the learning task, with those dialogues corresponding to less successful learning outcomes in an attempt to illuminate the process aspects of collaborative learning around the computer.
Automating the assessment of large numbers of students while providing instant personalised feedb... more Automating the assessment of large numbers of students while providing instant personalised feedback requires a multi-faceted computer-based solution. This paper describes how the long term eAssessment developments in science and technology at the Open University (OU) and mathematics at the University of Birmingham have been brought together in Moodle, highlights key features of these developments and discusses the costs and benefits of engaging with these ever more sophisticated systems.
As the worldwide computer network becomes ubiquitous, new tools have been developed, such as the ... more As the worldwide computer network becomes ubiquitous, new tools have been developed, such as the World Wide Web (WWW), for the delivery of multimedia hypertext-based documents. Similarly, there has been an explosion in the amount of email, bulletin boards, and Usenet News available. This has led to a major problem of information overload: we are slowly but surely being overwhelmed by the amount of information available to us. To address this problem, the New Technology Initiative (NTI) of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is funding the ELF project over a period of two years to develop a tool, the Electronic Learning Facilitator. This tool is aimed at assisting learners to make effective use of the information available. The ELF project started in December 1993, with the goal of producing a tool for installation in UK academic sites. This paper first discusses the new networked information sources that are appearing around the globe, and then analyses the requirements of learners for accessing this information. From the requirements, the paper shows the desirable features of an ELF, such as monitoring the user at work to gain hints as to what he or she is doing, being guided by the user directly, and using information gathered from other ELFs, or from monitoring the various information sources for announcements of new services, updates of information, etc. The main body of the paper illustrates the current progress on the project, outlining the implementation of the ELF-ELF is written using various high-level languages such as the Tool Command Language (TCL) and Perl, as well as the more traditional C++. It consists of various agents, each agent having a specific task to perform, such as monitoring a WWW site for any new documents, or monitoring a Usenet Newsgroup for articles that might be of particular interest to the owner of the agent. Finally, the paper reports on our plans to test users on a prototype.
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Papers by Terry Mayes