Research-guided design of multimedia research tools

The main point of this article is to describe how the findings of prior research can be used to guide the design of software which itself is to be used for additional research. The beginning of the discussion will center around the development of a C program called 'Video Graph.' The name furnishes a hint as to what the program does-it provides introductory physics students with a tool for graphically analyzing video sequences. a second package was designed to provide a multimedia editing environment for use by middle school students. Although these two projects sound very different, the software for both shares the same purpose-it gives students multimedia tools to help them learn science topics while minimizing the distraction of the software itself. The research investigated the educational impact of the software.