A computer's capacity for combining media offers students myriad channels of information on a subject through a single source.

The power of computers to combine media has led to the proliferation of information and education products drawing on that power. Examples include multimedia encyclopedias; books on disk incorporating video, audio, and animation segments to elaborate on text content; databases storing information in varied media; and countless other applications. Figures 7 and 8 are screens from computer programs that illustrate the use of combined media.

Figure 7 shows a screen from a music CD with companion software. The software includes a glossary that accesses the CD to illustrate musical terms. The screen shown in Figure 7 illustrates Beethoven's use of a theme and descant. Clicking the "Play Theme" and "Play Descant" buttons plays each part separately using the computer's sound while highlighting the appropriate parts of the score. Clicking the "Play from CD" button plays the combined theme and descant from the CD itself. Combined media enhance the power of information display and increase the effectiveness of instructional tools.

The plasticity of the new media is the key to their profound difference from all previous media and to their extreme centrality in reshaping literacy, literacy curriculum, and our understanding of human capacity.