Human understanding in design evolves through a process of critiquing existing knowledge and consequently expanding the store of design knowledge. Critiquing is a dialogue in which the interjection of a reasoned opinion about a product or action triggers further reflection on or changes to the artifact being designed. Our work has focused on applying this successful human critiquing paradigm to human-computer interaction. We argue that computer-based critiquing systems are most effective when they are embedded in domain-oriented design environments, which are knowledge-based computer systems that support designers in specifying a problem and constructing a solution. Embedded critics playa number of important roles in such design environments: (1) they increase the designer's understanding of design situations by pointing out problematic situations early in the design process; (2) they support the integration of problem framing and problem solving by providing a linkage between the design specification and the design construction; and (3) they help designers access relevant information in the large information spaces provided by the design environment. Three embedded critiquing mechanisms-generic, specific, and interpretive critics-are presented, and their complementary roles within the design environment architecture are described.

Computational critic mechanisms provide an effective form of computer-human interaction supporting the process of design. Computational critics embedded in domain-oriented design environments can take advantage of knowledge representations in these environments to provide less intrusive, more relevant critiques. Three classes of embedded critics have been studied. Generic critics use domain knowledge to detect problematic situations in the design construction. Specific critics take advantage of additional knowledge in the partial specification to detect inconsistencies between the design construction and the design specification. Interpretive critics are tied to a perspective mechanism that supports designer's in examining their artifact from different· viewpoints.

We are developing a conceptual framework and a demonstration system for collaboration among members of design teams when direct communication among these members is impossible or impractical. Our research focuses on the long-term, indirect communication needs of project teams rather than the

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Educational standards are a central focus of the current educational system in the United States, underpinning educational practice, curriculum design, teacher professional development, and high-stakes testing and assessment. Digital library users have requested that this information be accessible in association with digital learning resources to support teaching and learning as well as accountability requirements. Providing this information is complex because of the variability and number of standards documents in use at the national, state, and local level. This article describes a cataloging tool that aids catalogers in the assignment of standards metadata to digital library resources, using natural language processing techniques. The research explores whether the standards suggestor service would suggest the same standards as a human, whether relevant standards are ranked appropriately in the result set, and whether the relevance of the suggested assignments improve when, in addition to resource content, metadata is included in the query to the cataloging tool. The article also discusses how this service might streamline the cataloging workflow. digital library services. The results of these focus groups indicate that teachers want standards information associated with classroom materials and prefer specific information such as detailed national standards or their particular state standards. Digital libraries can address this need by providing access to materials that have been associated with educational standards information and developing services that support the use of these materials in classroom settings. IntroductionOf the three main elements that make up a digital librarydocuments, technology, and work-, Levy & Marshall (1995) identify work as the most essential. Work is defined as the work of digital library users but also the work of librarians to support the users by making the library resources accessible. After all, a collection and supporting technology would be of no value if users could not find what they needed. The research presented here concerns both types of work: (a) the work of teachers to educate students according to certain state and national education standards, and (b) the work of catalogers to associate these standards with educational resources as metadata, thereby making the most relevant resources accessible.Associating educational standards with learning materials requires that two significant challenges be addressed.