Recording technologies made possible widespread communication with minimal diminution of impact. However they too are fixed media.

After four centuries during which literacy was defined by the technology of print, new technologies for communication began to emerge. The development of recording technologies - still photography, sound recording, film, and video - made it possible to capture, preserve, and distribute communications with minimal diminution of impact. Broadcasting began to supplant print publishing as the primary vehicle for mass communication. These technologies made their way into classrooms, providing alternative media for conveying knowledge without requiring decoding. It seemed that almost all of the advantages of oral language had been recovered.

While these recording technologies broaden the set of tools and communications options in today's classrooms, they, like written language, are fixed media. Films, slides, audiocassettes, and videocassettes are used primarily for presentation to students, affording limited opportunity for students to act on or interact with the content presented. In almost no cases are source materials edited or changed by teachers or students. Children rarely make records, films, or video. To borrow a phrase from the computer revolution, these new media are "read-only" in most classrooms, used for presentation, not exchange. Even with these expanded tools, their fixed nature makes it difficult for learners to be truly active or expressive. Though these new media entered classrooms, they didn't bring about significant changes in the nature of teaching and learning.