But the real long run threat to the established publishing industry will come instead from innovators who look well beyond the narrow role that a textbook currently plays in the learning process. It is learning, rather than our current conception of either text publishing or education, that must be the starting point for innovating with multimedia. Initially these new multimedia learning vehicles will travel on CD-ROM disks. Later they will migrate to the emerging interactive information highway, thus disassembling the current distribution networks. Multimedia will provide additional threats to both the publishing and educational establishments because of the value it will add to the way we learn.
Most students learn best if they are involved in a personalized way.
Reading or listening to a lecture is involvement of sorts, but it is the passive collective involvement of fans in the stands rather than the active and committed involvement of the player on the field. In fact, a fan in the stands is usually having a lot more fun and participating more actively than is a student reading a text or watching a lecture. Learning is enhanced if students can immediately apply the knowledge learned. Interactive simulations, such as a virtual reality tour of a factory, circulatory system, or internal combustion engine can provide attention riveting learning opportunities. Conceptual knowledge can also be closely linked to concrete examples via the multi-dimensional nature of multimedia.