The medium of presentation holds within it the capacity and design that it will present more information than can be processed in a sitting, and that different people will learn different things from the same package. This generation of students is truly random access in its approach to understanding and making sense of its world. All generations previous have been characterised by a uniquely linear approach to their making sense of the world. The dominant medium of expression used print technology. Interactive multimedia characterises this approach.
Students use video, graphics, audio and text to express their understanding.
They express that understanding in ways that take into account how other people will learn from their learning. Without expressing it in those terms, these students are indulging in metacognition. They do this in an environment that encourages others to explore in random or individual ways. The one dimension of interactive multimedia that separates it from the technology of the linear generations of learners preceding it is the navigable environment that is built in. Learners can express understandings in ways that are more developed, deeper in their expressed learnings, richer in their presentation and more cognisant of those who will engage it.