A Universal and Interactive Teaching , Learning , and Laboratory Environment for the World Wide Web 1

Introduction It’s here: : :it’s finally here! For those of us designing and/or using program, algorithm, and computer science concept animation systems, the one universal environment we have yearned for is finally available. That environment is the World Wide Web in concert with standard Web browsers, the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and Java. Now, educational software systems that have historically been tied to a particular type of computer and operating system can be ported to Java and made universally available on the World Wide Web. The potential impact of the alliances between this newly emerging technology, educational animation systems, and hypertext delivery mechanisms on standard college instruction—as well as distance learning, virtual universities, and even high school teaching—is profound. The World Wide Web and its browsers are already finding many uses in computer science education. It is used for mail, news, local syllabi, research assignments, class notes, and even hypertextbooks. In this paper—in keeping with one of the focuses of SIGCSE ’97 (papers with a futurist theme)— we look into the future at the next step in this evolving use of the Web for educational purposes, a step made possible by Java and Java-ready browsers, by presenting the impending role of the World Wide Web as a universal medium for the dissemination and use of computer science animation systems. A brief review of animation tools is given, followed by a short description of known work that is progressing in Webbased computer science animation systems. Then, our own work in program, algorithm, and concept animation underway at Montana State University is discussed in more detail. We close by presenting some formal evaluations of student learning in the presence of animation systems, followed by a