Animations for teaching purposes:: Now and tomorrow

Animation is commonly seen as an ideal tool for teaching dynamic phenomena. While there have been very few studies testing this hypothesis, animations are used extensively in teaching, particularly in the field of algorithms. We highlight features that we consider important for animation systems, describe the development of algorithm animation by examples, and present a new Java-based system supporting annotation and recording of animations. We also outline a way to annotate animations and movies given in the MPEG video format. By listing several case studies we describe new ways and possibilities of how animation systems may be used in the future.