Why use multimedia?

Because in general humans are better able to understand material if they move at their own pace, investigating that which interests them, and stimulating more senses. Multimedia provides an environment that allows the reader to interact with the information, synthesize the parts into a whole, and build their own meaning from the information.

Since the author no longer controls what path a reader will take, multimedia creates an environment for independent critical thinking. In a sense readers are also writers of the material because they make connections themselves. And making those connections, pulling together different bits of information and creating a whole new meaning, entails critical thinking.

All our steps in creating or absorbing material proceed through one of the senses--the tactile when we touch keys, the oral when we speak or listen, the visual when we read.

Vannevar Bush