This chapter examines ways in which technology can provide a medium for innovative design and the delivery of instruction that can result in new ways of learning and high levels of student engagement. Scaffolding can be a cognitive support for problem solving or motivational support to help learners realize their potential. BioWorld is a technology-rich learning environment designed to support medical students as they develop clinical reasoning skills. As stated earlier, the educational platforms are varied; they include pedagogical agents that serve as intelligent virtual tutors that employ language, facial expressions, and gestures to create effective learning experiences; simulation-based environments for promoting team effectiveness in trauma units; multimedia game environments to promote reasoning; virtual reality to provide immersive learning experiences; communication based video technologies to promote cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary teaching experiences; and social networking tools that are reusable for creating new knowledge.

This chapter is a cautionary description of 10 of the questionable principles that have developed and seem to be widely shared about multimedia learning. The updated questionable beliefs include the expectations that multimedia instruction: yields more learning than live instruction or older media; is more motivating than other instructional media; provides animated pedagogical agents that aid learning; accommodates different learning styles and so maximizes learning for more students; and facilitates student-managed constructivist and discovery approaches that are beneficial to learning. The more recent additions and the focus of this discussion are expectations that multimedia instruction benefits learning by providing autonomy and control over the sequencing of instruction; higher-order thinking skills; incidental learning of enriching information; interactivity; and an authentic learning environment and activities. Finally, multimedia is confounded with the content of instruction, such as critical and higher-order thinking skills.