Students can now access and manipulate information at a faster rate, removing the limitation imposed on them by the old paradigm. This multi-dimensional communication model allows the student to interact with the subject material, with other students, with the environment or with multimedia and technology. Technology facilitates information delivery by giving learners a variety of options based on an ongoing assessment of each student's interest, motivation and cognitive ability. By providing direct access to the knowledge-base, the new paradigm challenges students to manage and manipulate vast amounts of information while encouraging them to reflect on their own learning. It enables students to change roles born a passive recipient of information to an active knowledge worker.
Learners receive information and instruction in many modes and from many sources.
Due to the tradition of printed materials in education, we have become accustomed to reading in a sequential and linear manner. Information is encountered in a lock-step sequence predetermined. Cheap paper and printing democratised the knowledge base of society. Today, the limitation can be a deadly one for learning because the huge volume of information will not be effectively accessed by conventional means. The printed word will be tor many learning situations, simply too restrictive, bulky and slow.