Media Multiplicity at Your Fingertips: Direct Manipulation Based on Webbles

Abstract

Webble Technology is the most recent form of Intelligent Pad. Webbles are objects in a browser window that allow for direct manipulation by drag and drop. One may pick up any Webble and move it over any other one for operational combination. The new Webble is plugged into the previous one and data between them flow through predefined slots. Human users may reconfigure the slot connections of Webbles as necessary. The technology is ready to deal with a great multiplicity of media ranging from text, audio, pictures and video through building blocks of interactive laboratories to highly abstract objects such as decision trees and partial recursive functions. This makes Webbles particularly appropriate for e-learning. The paper aims at an intense workshop discussion of the reach of the technology putting emphasis on the didactic potential of directly manipulating a manifold of digital media types.