ABSTRACT
Networked multimedia databases may embed several types of information integrated in one system. Networked signifies communication between users and databases and among users, locally as well as over (long) distances. The term multimedia refers to the combination of text, graphics, audio, and video within one system although in fact a single medium (the computer) is purported to be multiple. (The term multimessage system would perhaps have been more applicable, as Copeland [1991] suggested. Here, the now generally accepted term multimedia however is used in the sense just described.)
Telecommunications facilities play an important role in providing access to remote databases, whereas mass-storage media such as laser discs or CD variants (e.g., CD-ROM, CD-I, or CD-XA) may be used for making databases locally available, in particular for the storage of information with heavy memory demands such as digitized sounds and pictures. The combination of telecommunications and mass-storage media offers seemingly unlimited possibilities for presenting information in any desired format at any desired place, and the interactive capabilities that stem from the built-in computer power imply the potential for a vast amount of educational applications. Traditional courseware options (Alessi & Trollip, 1985; Jonassen, 1988), application types of interactive video (Bayard-White & Hoffos, 1988), instructional uses of computer simulations (De Jong, 1991; Van Schaick Zillisen, 1990), electronic books, and hypertext applications (Barker & Manji, 1991; Benest, 1991; De Diana, 1991; De Diana & Van der Heiden,
1994; Kommers, 1991; Kuhlen, 1991; Megarry, 1988, 1991) may be combined into a single system so that education can benefit from both the traditional options and the multimedia possibilities (Verhagen & Bestebreurge, 1994).
