This paper examines the effective deployment of conversational agents in virtual worlds from the perspective of researchers/practitioners in cognitive psychology, computing science, learning technologies and engineering. From a cognitive perspective, the major challenge lies in the coordination and management of the various channels of information…

Presents a group of semiotic principles for software design and uses them to show how they explain different educational possibilities. Discusses interface design and describes Theater in the Computer, a software environment for children, to illustrate semiotic-based principle of interface design. (Author/LRW)

Describes Aran, a knowledge-based system designed to help users deal with problems related to Unix operation. Highlights include adaptation to the individual user; user modeling knowledge; stereotypes; content of the individual user model; instantiation, acquisition, and maintenance of the individual model; dynamic acquisition of objective and…