The Advent of (Standardized) Integrated Multimedia Environments1

Next generation computer and communications technology for instructional environments is expected to accelerate progress in distributed and collaborative learning and interactive multimedia courseware. Various industry and international standards groups are currently creating specifications which will define a framework for how this technology will be structured. These standards encompass distributed object facilities, hypermedia document architectures, multimedia interchange, scripting languages, media formats, application toolkits, and multimedia networking. In this paper we review these developments, focusing on the overall framework and architecture that will result and its potential impact on delivery of instruction and educational services.