Multimedia Education in Computer Science: a Little Bit of Everything Is Not Enough

William I. Grosky Media Impact Utz Westermann

Multimedia Education in Computer Science: A Little Bit of Everything Is Not Enough

Gerald Friedland ultimedia is everywhere. People use it for stadt University of Technology, Germany), and International Mentertainment purposes, for example, Timothy K. Shih (Tamkang University, Tai- Computer Science when storing, accessing, and sharing videos wan)—discussed the current status and the Institute on platforms such as YouTube. However, the future of multimedia education at a workshop use of multimedia becomes increasingly seri- held at the 2007 ACM Multimedia conference Wolfgang Hu¨rst ous in contexts such as VoIP and video (see Figure 1). The ‘‘Panel Summary’’ sidebar Utrecht University conferencing. The quickly growing pervasive- (on page 80) summarizes the main statements ness of multimedia increases the relevance of of the panelists; further information about the Lars Knipping its knowledge for today’s computer science workshop can be found at http://emme2007. Berlin University and software engineering students. But its informatik.uni-freiburg.de. The panelists’ com- of Technology significance for the future of computing ments and discussion with the audience clearly generally is not reflected in current curricula. showed the high relevance of this topic. This For example, few universities offer dedicated topic is of significant importance for the programs; most only teach multimedia as part multimedia community because the way in of other courses such as computer graphics which we teach multimedia not only shapes and computer vision, or else not at all. How today’s students (who will be tomorrow’s should the multimedia community deal with multimedia researchers and developers), but this issue? What makes up a good multimedia also influences the field’s general definition, education? Do we need to rethink and im- self-conception, and overall acceptance among prove the way in which we teach multimedia other disciplines. This is because discussion today? about the content of good multimedia education almost inevitably forces us to take a closer To answer these and related questions, a look at the definition of multimedia as a panel of experts—Susanne Boll (University of discipline and the current status and nature of Oldenburg, Germany), Ramesh Jain (University the field. of California, Irvine), Max Mu¨hlha¨user (Darm- Current multimedia education resembles the earlier days of computer science, where Editors’ Note people were discussing whether the topic Media Impact usually focuses on the practical impact of multimedia required its own interdisciplinary curriculum research on IT business. Yet given the pervasiveness of multimedia or whether it should be taught as part of a technology in our everyday life, a thorough reflection on the impact of traditional discipline, such as mathematics or multimedia progress on education and, in particular, multimedia electrical engineering. Because of the rele- education is overdue. Multimedia teachers at the 2007 ACM Multimedia vance and uniqueness of multimedia, we conference engaged in a panel discussion on the current state and future of suggest establishing it as its own discipline multimedia education. In this issue’s, Wolfgang Hu¨rst of Utrecht University and getting the subject higher recognition in and his colleagues Gerald Friedland of the International Computer Science related fields. In the following sections, we Institute, Berkeley, and Lars Knipping of Berlin University of Technology use discuss the most critical issues for improving this panel as an opportunity to argue the need for a dedicated multimedia the current status of multimedia education, curriculum in computer science education. enforcing the standing of multimedia among —William I. Grosky and Utz Westermann other disciplines, and making its relevance for the future of computing more clear.

78 1070-986X/08/$25.00 G 2008 IEEE Published by the IEEE Computer Society Authorized licensed use limited to: International Computer Science Inst (ICSI). Downloaded on May 07,2010 at 21:41:30 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. Figure 1. At the workshop on Educational Multimedia and Multimedia Education, several researchers and educators gathered to discuss new technologies and approaches for multimedia-based education. (Photo courtesy W. Hu¨rst.)

Multimedia curriculum would establish a common basis of multime- Following traditional definitions, multimedia knowledge not only for future multimedia dia combines at least two elements from researchers but also for general computer continuous and discrete media types, such as scientists and software engineers. audio or video and text or images. As a Such guidelines and a commonly accepted consequence, many successful multimedia re- multimedia curriculum will not only improve searchers and educators actually don’t have a multimedia education but will certainly be of degree in multimedia technologies, but often high relevance for people already working in the have either a rather broad computer science field as well. We mentioned the traditional view education or are experts in one particular area of multimedia as a combination of a discrete and with high relevance for multimedia—for exam- continuous medium. This definition dates back ple, computer vision, graphics, computer net- to the days when PCs could barely manage to working, or human–computer interaction. The render a single video and providing temporal resulting interdisciplinary characteristic is a key synchronization seemed to be the Holy Grail for aspect of multimedia. In fact, for many people multimedia research. Shouldn’t more recent it’s one of the main reasons multimedia is such issues, such as multimodal artificial intelligence, an exciting research area. However, multimedia interactivity, or even social aspects, be reflected not only profits from the contributions of in the definition as well? people with various backgrounds, but also sometimes suffers from this interdisciplinary Learning material nature by not being seen as a discipline of its The question of whether multimedia should own but as a melting pot of different areas. actually be used to teach multimedia is another For example, what is the answer to a highly discussed issue. Many multimedia teach- student’s question about what to study to ers barely make use of new media in their become a good multimedia researcher? An courses, often instead relying on traditional answer such as ‘‘a little bit of everything’’ ways of teaching using chalkboards or slides. On would be as unsatisfying as the recommenda- the surface it could seem that there might not tion to concentrate on one particular technol- be much value in media-supported teaching ogy. A generally accepted curriculum for when even multimedia experts don’t use it, but multimedia doesn’t exist but is strongly need- we disagree with this statement. For example, to ed. And although such a curriculum would be explain the complex formula or calculation an important step in the right direction, it procedure used in a multimedia compression isn’t enough. In the same way that multimedia algorithm, the chalkboard might indeed be the research benefits from interdisciplinary con- most appropriate tool. On the other hand, in

tributions, multimedia education should take foreign language learning, having a textbook 2008 April–June advantage of courses taught in different disci- with associated audio clips obviously seems to plines. Hence, we also need some sort of add value. Hence, if and how multimedia can guidelines elaborated by the community. make teaching more exploratory and successful These should harmonize the education of depends on the actual content and subject multimedia-related content taught in differ- rather than on the discipline. Nevertheless, ent courses of related disciplines. Doing so examples of really good multimedia teaching

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Panel Summary A panel at the ACM Workshop on Educational Multimedia brought up the issue of the community looking into and Multimedia Education at the 2007 ACM Multimedia employment opportunities and that the demands from the conference discussed the current state and future of industries should be better considered in multimedia education. multimedia education. Panelists included four experienced On the basis of his own experience with using multimedia multimedia researchers and educators. Here, we summarize in his classes, Shih strongly argued for the production of some of their statements. reusable and exchangeable e-learning courseware and Max Mu¨hlhaüser of the Darmstadt University of Technol- mentioned standards such as the Sharable Content Object ogy, Germany, stated that in relation to general computer Reference Model, Content Object Repository Discovery and science, multimedia is not particular with respect to the Registration/Resolution Architecture, and the e-learning spec- involved concepts, but with respect to multimedia’s inter- ification Common Cartridge. In relation to multimedia disciplinary nature. The big challenge related to the content textbooks, he said that a perfect one might not exist but of multimedia education is not the identification of the core mentioned Li and Drew as an example of a reasonable choice algorithms and methods, Mu¨hlhaüser argued, but pushing for a basic multimedia course.1 these approaches into canonical computer science educa- Susanne Boll of the University of Oldenburg, Germany, tion. Mu¨hlhaüser said that although lots of basic algorithms identified multimedia as a truly interdisciplinary field that goes are indeed taught in introductory classes, harmonization beyond single topic areas, such as computer vision and between the different fields is strongly needed to establish a computer graphics, by being multimodal, involving human reasonable baseline and get the foundation needed for a aspects, and meeting usability and accessibility issues. For solid education in multimedia. Hence, Mu¨hlhaüser said, this these reasons, she argued against teaching multimedia only in problem is a political rather than a technical one. Because of advanced courses but said she believes that its basic its interdisciplinary nature, multimedia is often considered a technologies should be taught in introductory BS and MS soft topic and an application domain not covered in basic classes. However, at many universities multimedia is not computer science classes but later in the curriculum. considered a relevant basic course on part with subjects such Mu¨hlhaüser argued that computer science in general should as operating systems or artificial intelligence, and is sometimes become more interdisciplinary by focusing, for example, on not taught at all. To deal with this issue, Boll argued that the human aspects as well as traditional topics. In that sense, multimedia community should elaborate a standard curricula multimedia could serve as a way to introduce an interdis- or guidelines. Plans of the recently founded section on media ciplinary nature to future computer science. informatics within the German Society for Computer Science In relation to learning material, Mu¨hlhaüser mentioned as well as related efforts of the new European subchapter of that the lack of a good textbook could just be an artifact and the ACM Special Interest Group on Multimedia illustrate that argued that textbooks might not be a timely medium for a the community is indeed starting to address such issues. A quickly changing field such as computer science. Instead, curriculum certified by the community would help define the Mu¨hlhaüser suggested that we should work on new and better field and give individual teachers a stronger standing for ways to use educational multimedia material in teaching. implementing related courses. In addition, it might help in Timothy K. Shih of Tamkang University, Taiwan, analyzed collecting and exchanging related material. the computer curricula recommendations of the ACM and the In relation to learning material, Boll said that the issue is IEEE Computer Society for computer science, computer less about incorporating more multimedia into our courses engineering, and software engineering, and concluded that than it is about practicing multimedia with the students. multimedia indeed exists in these curricula but mostly in More multimedia tools could be introduced in lectures to relation to applications and systems and topics related to foster experimentation through small practical projects. human–computer interaction. However, the basic concepts Ramesh Jain of the University of California, Irvine, US, and uses of multimedia technologies can and should be taught argued that multimedia education is not in a good state. In in introductory and programming courses. On the other hand, fact, Jain said the whole discipline is often considered by he raised the issue that the field is changing very quickly and educators outside the field to be a second-class citizen. Jain new trends, such as ubi-media (ubiquitous multimedia) said this attitude seems surprising if you look at the historic computing or video game technology, create a constant need development of computer science. In the early stages, to adapt and change course contents. To deal with this issue, computing was all about data. Then we started dealing with Shih argued that the multimedia community should specify information. Now experience is becoming the main focus, some guidelines for basic multimedia technologies taught in which is, in fact, inherently multimedia-based. Jain said that introductory classes, thus creating a solid basis so we can teach new trends and technologies, such as powerful mobile advanced up-to-date topics that meet the changing demands phones, will push this last phase even more because people of industries in elective courses. In this context, Shih also using these phones will not distinguish between video, audio,

80 Authorized licensed use limited to: International Computer Science Inst (ICSI). Downloaded on May 07,2010 at 21:41:30 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. or text. The reason multimedia is not getting the respect it multimedia using real multimedia would be a logical deserves might partly be our own fault in that the multimedia approach that gives us the opportunity to keep up with community has not clearly identified the fundamentals of its new developments and, more importantly, allows the own discipline. The lack of a good textbook is one example community to author it, thus helping to define the field. supporting this statement. Where there are plenty of research The statements presented by the panelists resulted in a overviews (which are generally written from researchers for lively discussion. A mutual agreement among participants researchers) and encyclopedias (which are created by was that there is a need for a multimedia curriculum or editors), true textbooks (which are written by teachers and guidelines for multimedia teaching, especially for boost look at multimedia purely from a student’s perspective) are multimedia education at introductory levels. In addition, missing. If we don’t have a textbook that synthesizes the there was agreement that better teaching material is fundamentals, how can we expect our colleagues in other necessary. Klara Nahrstedt agreed with Jain’s statement computing sciences to consider multimedia as a discipline? In about the relevance of a good textbook. She gave an fact, there are many areas such as computer graphics, example of some recent developments at her university computer vision, or databases that only gained acceptance where course-specific textbooks are created using a mixture as a basic discipline within computer science once appropri- of chapters from different books to better fit the needs of a ate textbooks had been written. particular class. Although some skepticism about this For the creation of such a book, Jain argued against a approach was mentioned in the discussion, it’s a clear traditional textbook but for some sort of organic book that is indication that publishers have started thinking about better multimodal, created by the community, and continuously and more timely ways for the production of teaching developing. The multimedia community keeps claiming that material. In fact, such efforts could even be interpreted as information and knowledge should not be created, distrib- a small but nevertheless important step toward the creation uted, and stored exclusively as text. Hence, a book on of an organic book as proposed by Jain.

material are rare, and it’s somehow surprising consisting of selected chapters from different that multimedia experts don’t come up with books and exclusively produced for a partic- more and better multimedia material for their ular class (see again the ‘‘Panel Summary’’ own courses. It’s unclear if this is due to a lack of sidebar). Multimedia researchers have long good tools or active media competence (which worked on recording lectures and the result- someone with theoretical background knowl- ing systems are now used by a growing edge might not necessarily have), or just an number of teachers. The produced content issue of limited time and resources. certainly will not replace textbooks or print- The lack of good teaching material is evident ed matter in general, but can complement not only for multimedia tools but also for them and therefore might help solve the traditional media. It’s generally understood in problem of insufficient or outdated teaching the multimedia community that no really good material. textbook for a basic multimedia course exists— Other promising approaches exist for the a perspective even shared by Klara Nahrstedt, a creation of up-to-date teaching material. If co-author of the de facto standard multimedia implemented successfully, they would not only book (see the ‘‘Panel Summary’’ sidebar). There help today’s multimedia students and teachers, are many possible reasons for this. There are but also would act as guides to find ways for rather pragmatic ones, such as limited time and better creation of teaching material in general. a lack of reward for writing a good multimedia An organic book, as proposed by Ramesh Jain in textbook. Another, more crucial argument the panel (see the ‘‘Panel Summary’’ sidebar), might be that the field has become too big to that grows out of contributions from different cover in a single book. In addition, the field disciplines and keeps evolving over time in changes very quickly—a fact that applies to response to new developments seems like a

most areas of computer science, but is even good step in the right direction. Students and 2008 April–June more applicable to multimedia. teachers would benefit from a good textbook Because of the long editing cycles, publish- about basic multimedia technologies, and, ers have begun to rethink traditional ways of again, so would the community as a whole, publishing teaching material and are experi- because such a book would help define the field menting with new approaches, such as indi- and increase its acceptance among other areas vidual, class-dependent versions of textbooks of computer science.

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Discipline acceptance improve evaluation of the skills expected of a Unfortunately, there is not much accep- multimedia engineer. tance of multimedia as a discipline from people not working in a multimedia-related Consequences field. Quite often multimedia doesn’t get the Multimedia research has achieved tremen- respect it deserves. We see no problem here dous results over the last years, which is with today’s students because the current demonstrated by the increasingly ubiquitous generation already accepts multimedia as a role new media plays in our everyday life. natural part of computer science. For example, However, it’s obvious that multimedia educa- current computer science students have grown tion is not in a perfect state. We as a community up with digital music, MP3 players, and so on, should do something about this, first to improve and don’t typically use analog media, such as the education of today’s students and second to tape recorder and LPs or even CDs. However, increase the general acceptance of the field. We it’s exactly this entertainment aspect of mul- should develop common guidelines for multi- timedia that hampers multimedia as a disci- media education. We should talk to multimedia- pline from gaining acceptance in some parts of related industries and communicate the need for traditional computer science. For some people, multimedia with people working in traditional multimedia has become such a buzzword that areas of computer science. We should better they actually avoid it and use different terms, evaluate and specify job opportunities and such as media technology, to attempt to requirements for our students. And, finally, we deliver a more scientific connotation. should produce better teaching materials and think of timely and more forward-looking ways True multimedia is probably one of the for their production. most difficult fields in which to do research Doing all this is a tremendous challenge because, to do it right, you need significant because of the interdisciplinary character of knowledge of many disciplines. However, the field and its rapid evolution. However, it’s because of this interdisciplinary characteristic exactly because of this dynamic and multime- and focus on users and applications, multimedia’s interdisciplinary nature that we have the dia is not always acknowledged by some of our chance to accomplish these goals. By doing so, colleagues. Similarly, there are many different we would be contributing to the field and perceptions of multimedia in the industries. serving as pacemakers and creative directors On the one hand, we have the growing for others, introducing a more interdisciplin- multimedia-related industries that acknowl- ary character to computer science in general edge that developing computer games or and illustrating new and better ways for the entertainment-related media not only is fun production of timely teaching material. but also requires the highest skills in computer The discussions at our workshop and the science. On the other hand, we have many related activities show that the community is traditional industries that don’t accept that becoming aware of the importance of multi- multimedia is becoming ubiquitous and a media education. We hope that our views normal, integrated part of everyday comput- presented here can help foster some new ing, and is not just a field with the main momentum. We encourage everyone—those applications related to fun and entertainment. who agree and those who disagree—to partic- Again, a general multimedia curriculum as ipate in this discussion to help improve well as some common guidelines on multime- multimedia education and to make sure that dia education would be helpful. In addition, our field gets the recognition it deserves. MM the multimedia community should not think only about how it can better impart media Reference knowledge to students, but should make sure 1. Z.-N. Li and M.S. Drew. Fundamentals of Multime- that the industries that hire those students dia, Prentice-Hall, 2003. become aware that this knowledge will be an essential requirement for the future of com- Contact author Wolfgang Hu¨rst at [email protected]. puting. We should work harder on to increase acceptance, describe the job opportunities for Contact editor William I. Grosky at wgrosky@umich. students of multimedia more clearly, and edu and editor Utz Westermann at [email protected]. IEEE MultiMedia

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