Within an increasingly multimedia focused society, the use of external representations in learning, teaching and communication has increased dramatically. Whether in the classroom, university or workplace, there is a growing requirement to use and interpret a large variety of external representational forms and tools for knowledge acquisition, problem solving, and to communicate with others.

Use of Representations in Reasoning and Problem Solving brings together contributions from some of the world's leading researchers in educational and instructional psychology, instructional design, and mathematics and science education to document the role which external representations play in our understanding, learning and communication. Traditional research has focused on the distinction between verbal and non-verbal representations, and the way they are processed, encoded and stored by different cognitive systems. The contributions here challenge these research findings and address the ambiguity about how these two cognitive systems interact, arguing that the classical distinction between textual and pictorial representations has become less prominent. The contributions in this book explore:

• how we can theorise the relationship between processing internal and external representations
• what perceptual and cognitive restraints can affect the use of external representations
• how individual differences affect the use of external representations
• how we can combine external representations to maximise their impact
• how we can adapt representational tools for individual differences.

Using empirical research findings to take a fresh look at the processes which take place when learning via external representations, this book is essential reading for all those undertaking postgraduate study and research in the fields of educational and instructional psychology, instructional design and mathematics and science education.

Within an increasingly multimedia focused society, the use of external representations in learning, teaching and communication has increased dramatically. Whether in the classroom, university or workplace, there is a growing requirement to use and interpret a large variety of external representational forms and tools for knowledge acquisition, problem solving, and to communicate with others.

Use of Representations in Reasoning and Problem Solving brings together contributions from some of the world s leading researchers in educational and instructional psychology, instructional design, and mathematics and science education to document the role which external representations play in our understanding, learning and communication. Traditional research has focused on the distinction between verbal and non-verbal representations, and the way they are processed, encoded and stored by different cognitive systems. The contributions here challenge these research findings and address the ambiguity about how these two cognitive systems interact, arguing that the classical distinction between textual and pictorial representations has become less prominent. The contributions in this book explore:

• how we can theorise the relationship between processing internal and external representations
• what perceptual and cognitive restraints can affect the use of external representations
• how individual differences affect the use of external representations
• how we can combine external representations to maximise their impact
• how we can adapt representational tools for individual differences.

Using empirical research findings to take a fresh look at the processes which take place when learning via external representations, this book is essential reading for all those undertaking postgraduate study and research in the fields of educational and instructional psychology, instructional design and mathematics and science education.

This volume investigates a number of issues needed to develop a modular, effective, versatile, cost effective, pedagogically-embedded, user-friendly, and sustainable online laboratory system that can deliver its true potential in the national and global arenas. This allows individual researchers to develop their own modular systems with a level of creativity and innovation while at the same time ensuring continuing growth by separating the responsibility for creating online laboratories from the responsibility for overseeing the students who use them. The volume first introduces the reader to several system architectures that have proven successful in many online laboratory settings. The following chapters then describe real-life experiences in the area of online laboratories from both technological and educational points of view. The volume further collects experiences and evidence on the effective use of online labs in the context of a diversity of pedagogical issues. It also illustrates successful online laboratories to highlight best practices as case studies and describes the technological design strategies, implementation details, and classroom activities as well as learning from these developments. Finally the volume describes the creation and deployment of commercial products, tools and services for online laboratory development. It also provides an idea about the developments that are on the horizon to support this area.

This volume investigates a number of issues needed to develop a modular, effective, versatile, cost effective, pedagogically-embedded, user-friendly, and sustainable online laboratory system that can deliver its true potential in the national and global arenas. This allows individual researchers to develop their own modular systems with a level of creativity and innovation while at the same time ensuring continuing growth by separating the responsibility for creating online laboratories from the responsibility for overseeing the students who use them. The volume first introduces the reader to several system architectures that have proven successful in many online laboratory settings. The following chapters then describe real-life experiences in the area of online laboratories from both technological and educational points of view. The volume further collects experiences and evidence on the effective use of online labs in the context of a diversity of pedagogical issues. It also illustrates successful online laboratories to highlight best practices as case studies and describes the technological design strategies, implementation details, and classroom activities as well as learning from these developments. Finally the volume describes the creation and deployment of commercial products, tools and services for online laboratory development. It also provides an idea about the developments that are on the horizon to support this area.

This volume results from a meeting that was held in Barcelona, Spain, April 1993, under the auspices of the DELTA programme of the European Commission. DELTA (Developing European Learning through Technological Advance) is the commission's technology R&D programme that concentrates on "Telematic Systems for Flexible and Distance Learning". The overarching goal of this programme is to contribute through information technology to more efficient and effective design, production, and delivery of learning material. The DELTA programme started its main phase in 1992 with a total of 22 projects and a total budget of 92. 4 million ECU. In the meanwhile an extension of the programme has resulted in 8 extensions of existing projects and 8 new projects, bringing the number of projects to 30, with a corresponding total budget of 99. 9 million ECU. The programme has three main areas: telecommunication, delivery information systems, and design and production. In the projects, in total 201 organisations (industrial, commercial, and universities) from 12 European Union member states and 5 EFTA countries are represented. The DELTA programme pays much attention to the exchange of ideas and dissemination of information both between individual DELTA projects and between DELTA projects and other initiatives in the EU. Meetings in which DELTA projects are involved are held several times a year as so-called 'concertation meetings', meetings where also non-DELTA projects participate are called 'concerted actions'.

In October of 1992 an assembly of researchers in simulation and computer models for instruction convened in Bonas, France, to learn from one another in a non-automated environment. The event was the Advanced Research Workshop entitled The Use of Computer Models for Explication, Analysis, and Experiential Learning. Sponsored by the Scientific Affairs Division of NATO, this workshop brought together 29 leading experts in the field loosely described as instruction and learning in simulation environments. The three-day workshop was organized in a manner to maximize exchange of knowledge, of beliefs, and of issues. The participants came from six countries with experiences to share, with opinions to voice, and with questions to explore. Starting some weeks prior to the workshop, the exchange included presentation of the scientific papers, discussions immediately following each presentation, and informal discussions outside the scheduled meeting times. Naturally, the character and content of the workshop was determined by the backgrounds and interests of the participants. One objective in drawing together these particular specialists was to achieve a congress with coherent diversity, i.e., we sought individuals who could view an emerging area from different perspectives yet had produced work of interest to many. Major topic areas included theories of instruction being developed or tested, use of multiple domain models to enhance understanding, experiential learning environments, modelling diagnostic environments, tools for authoring complex models, and case studies from industry.

This volume results from a meeting that was held in Barcelona, Spain, April 1993, under the auspices of the DELTA programme of the European Commission. DELTA (Developing European Learning through Technological Advance) is the commission's technology R&D programme that concentrates on "Telematic Systems for Flexible and Distance Learning." The overarching goal of this programme is to contribute through information technology to more efficient and effective design, production, and delivery of learning material. The DELTA programme started its main phase in 1992 with a total of 22 projects and a total budget of 92. 4 million ECU. In the meanwhile an extension of the programme has resulted in 8 extensions of existing projects and 8 new projects, bringing the number of projects to 30, with a corresponding total budget of 99. 9 million ECU. The programme has three main areas: telecommunication, delivery information systems, and design and production. In the projects, in total 201 organisations (industrial, commercial, and universities) from 12 European Union member states and 5 EFTA countries are represented. The DELTA programme pays much attention to the exchange of ideas and dissemination of information both between individual DELTA projects and between DELTA projects and other initiatives in the EU. Meetings in which DELTA projects are involved are held several times a year as so-called 'concertation meetings', meetings where also non-DELTA projects participate are called 'concerted actions'.