The case for multimedia presentations in learning: A theory of synergy

Since Marshall McLuhan's elliptical phrase, “the medium is the message” (McLuhan, 1964), there has been a continuing and broadening debate on the influence of media in shaping cognition. Much of the debate has focused on whether or to what extent media should be used in instruction and how they might maximize children's learning. The argument centers around the relative role of the characteristic symbol system of such media as television, print, computers, and radio-the combination of pictures, sounds, print-and how these distinctive forms influence information processing demands. A number of scholars have made the case that each medium implicitly cultivates new skills for exploration and internal representation (Reeves & Nass, 2003). Therefore, as children are taught to read, David Olson a noted language theorist claimed (Olson, 1977), “They are learning both to read and to treat language as text” (p. 279).