"E-Learning and Virtual Science Centers" addresses an aspect of Web-based education that has not attracted sufficient attention in the international research literature--that of virtual science centers, the cyberspace annex of traditional science centers. It is the first book to be published on the rapidly advancing field of science education. Addressed to science and technology centers, science museums, and researchers in Web-based education, this book provides an overview of the state-of-the-art developments in this new and emerging field of science education. Written for practitioners by practitioners, the 20 chapters featured in this book represent the contributions of more than 40 authors from over 10 countries--truly an international effort and a veritable gauge of state-of-the-art perspectives. "E-Learning and Virtual Science Centers" features theoretical issues, design considerations in the setting up virtual science centers, and case studies on various aspects of the field. Chapters of this book include: (1) Establishing Identification in Virtual Science Museums (Billie Jones); (2) Free-Choice Learning Research and the Virtual Science Center (Kathryn Goldman and Lynn Dierking); (3) Contextualized Virtual Science Centers (Andreas Zimmerman, Andreas Lorenze, and Marcus Specht); (4) Starting With What We Know (Bronwyn Bevan); (5) Weaving Science Webs (Susan Hazan); (6) Resource-Based Learning and Informal Learning Environments (Janette Hill, Michael Hannafin, and Denise Domizi); (7) Interactivity Techniques (Michael Douma and Horace Dediu); (8) From the Physical to the Virtual (Steven Allison-Bunnell and David Schaller); (9) Storytelling-Based Edutainment Applications (Anja Hoffman, Stefan Gobel, Oliver Schneider, and Ido Iurgel); (10) Revolutionizing Information Architectures within Learning-Focused Web Sites (Ramesh Srinivasan); (11) From Information Dissemination to Information Gathering (Joan Nordbotten); (12) Challenges in Virtual Environment Design (Renata Piazzalunga and Saulo Almeida Barretto); (13) Personalization Issues for Science Museum Web Sites and E-learning (Silvia Filippini-Fantoni, Jonathan Bowen, and Teresa Numerico); (14) E-Learning and Virtual Science Centers (John Falco, Patricia Barbanell, Dianna Newman, and Suzanne Dewald); (15) A Virtual Museum Where Students Can Learn (Nicoletta Blas, Paolo Paolini, and Caterina Poggi); (16) Open Learning Environments (Hannu Salmi); (17) Use of Log Analysis and Text Mining for Simple Knowledge Extraction (Leo Hin, R. Subramaniam, and Daniel Meng); (18) The Development of Science Museum Web Sites (Jonathan Bowen, Jim Angus, Jim Bennet, Ann Borda, Andrew Hodges, Silvia Filippini-Fantoni, and Alpay Beler); (19) The Educational Approach of Virtual Science Centers (Roxane Bernier); and (20) Real Science (Jim Spadaccini).