Here at Universite de Montreal (department of history of art and film studies), we are actually working in the development of a multimedia classroom intended for the teaching of history of art and cinema. At this time, the multimedia classroom consist o f an integrated set of tools for the projection/diffusion of films, video and slides. We would like, however, to make another step in introducing computer and telecommunication technologies into these multimedia tools. We haven't yet a precise idea of what should be these tools and what purpose they should serve, since we don't know yet v ery much about the technological possibilities for these kind of applications. But here are some general purposes that we are keeping in view: - The main purpose of the multimedia tools in the classroom is to help the teacher to give his course, and not for directly interacting with students, although it is in our projects to develop in the futur these kind of tools. - A computer in a multimedia classroom should extend in a significant way the use of the traditional tools in this area. This includes features like 1) having access (on a CD-ROM or on a server) to high resolution images or video, 2) a good technology t o display these images on a screen without loosing to much in quality, 3) software tools that can handle these images or videos (capabilities of zooming, of viewing frame by frame, etc.), and which have, at least partially, an interface that can be manipu late by non professionnal people. - It would be usefull (but is it realist?) if this computer was connected to a server containing database of images or videos. We could imagine, for example, that a presentation software gets a part of its data from this server. Or we could also imagin e that one can prepare his presentation on a remote computer and download his data on the classroom computer before he gives his or her course. Any suggestion about hardware or software tools, or about possible usages of a computer in teaching will be welcome. TIA! DENIS SIMARD | e-mail: [log in to unmask] | maison: 514-271-4136 Etudes cinematographiques | travail: 514-343-6111 (#7858) Universite de Montreal | fax: 514-343-2393