Multimedia, the combination of text, graphics, image, sound and full motion video, represents a powerful and very desirable form of content representation, and can provide interactive communication experiences. The challenge is how to exploit these technologies to bring about widespread systemic and sustained educational change. It is not sufficient to bring this technology into the classrooms, it is also necessary to use this technology to bring multimedia into the classrooms in a coherent, well organized way. A key aspect of organization is the ability to access materials in a timely manner and when they would be most effective. The wealth of materials already in multimedia form that are sought for use in education makes this a significant problem.
Many content providers have libraries of videos capable of enhancing many lesson plans.
But these are not always available for public viewing when they would be most relevant and desirable. Other potential sources of multimedia content such as museums go unexploited, except by students in the immediate vicinity. Greatly enriching experiences are often only shared locally. This is also true of research laboratories and universities. Such resources are most commonly accessible to local schools, if at all.