Threaded discussion and conferencing tools. Groupware and collaboration tools. Groupware tools facilitate more than discussions. They allow collaborative production and authoring of products and documents. Multimedia presentation technologies, including audio, graphics, and video.
Quality communication depends upon quality presentation of material.
Multimedia tools can facilitate this, but much remains to be done before end users feel empowered in their authoring and presentations. Powerpoint is a case study in a presentation tool that has grown in power while maintaining an ease of use that invites novices and everyday use. Theorists are working hard to keep up with this new generation of learning technologies. This list doesn't include the various fields that make use of these learning technologies, such as cognitive science, instructional design, business, organizational development, and so on. Here are some basic similarities and differences, drawing again on Figure 1.