Information Arcology and Data Explorations: Scientific Content for Multiple Learning Styles and Environments

Abstract

The World Wide Web presents unprecedented challenges for educators and information providers. Educators are faced with an unprecedented amount of information and data providers are faced with unprecedented diversity of audience. In order to address these challenges, we must develop dynamic systems for structuring data to create information and for allowing users to incorporate that information into their own knowledge base. These systems must combine the classic discipline of Information Architecture with organic and interactive users, fusing Information Architecture and Interactive Systems to form a new discipline termed Information Arcology. We describe such a system built on a simple yet powerful content model that includes groups of pictures and descriptions. We then describe a number of presentations that can be derived from that model. These presentations can be used to support a wide variety of learning styles and environments. Functional examples are presented along with insights gained from using those examples in a Montessori classroom.