Dr. David R. Crean
School of Australian and International Studies
Deakin University
davc@deakin.edu.au
The paper discusses the research behind the development of the "Australian Timescopes" project: an interactive, multimedia CD-ROM for Australian history. Some of the capacities of interactive information technologies to deliver a wider range of primary sources and to enhance opportunities for historical education are sketched. The project is an attempt to begin harnessing these evolving capacities. The thinking behind the programme is outlined -- its eductional goals; its epistemological, cognitive, and historical bases. How these have been built into the selection of resource materials, the design of the teaching modules, and the teaching/learning strategies deployed, is indicated. The project received a substantial National Teaching Development Grant from the Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching in 1994. A full prototype disc is available for demonstration.
