Words and Paper – Still Alive and Well

Elliot: I have a friend who is a lawyer.
Cathie: That’s useful given how much trouble you are always in.  
Elliot: NOT funny – especially right now.
Cathie: A little black humor?
Elliot: VERY little… So, I entered his office on the 300th floor of this skyscraper and strewn everywhere was paper.  And on the paper? Only words and a couple of numbers. No pictures. Not even graphs.
Cathie: Paper and words? How ancient.
Elliot: I know; sheesh.  I asked him “where is the multimedia, where is the video?” And he looked at me blankly. Like, Huh?
Cathie: The law is driven by words; what does the contract say, exactly?
Elliot: In 1992 we created MediaText in my lab.
Cathie: I remember that program!  It let children easily incorporate pictures, sounds, graphs, and video into documents. Didn’t you actually try to sell it?
Elliot: “Try” is the right word. That was Constructive Instruments and bankrupt company number 2. But we did win a Top 6 Award from Technology and Learning Magazine.
Cathie: And you will tell us how MediaText is relevant to this story?
Elliot: Thanks, I was just taking a trip down memory lane.
Cathie: For you, a long walk…
Elliot: OHHHHH… So, at that time another lawyer friend of mine and a stock analyst friend both said to me: “You are doing kids a disservice by allowing them communicate without words;  kids simply must learn to use words effectively if they are going to get a good job.”
Cathie: You remember their criticism; it clearly made an impact.
Elliot: Their words did stay with me.
Cathie: Words…
Elliot: Good point!
Cathie: Fast forward almost 20 years and we still aren’t doing a good job teaching children to deal with words.
Elliot: I believed then and I still believe now that my friends were wrong. Using multiple media, which is the vernacular of today’s youth, we can still teach them to use words effectively.
Cathie: Do you mean use multiple media as opposed to using just text to teach words? 
Elliot:  That is exactly what I mean. 
Cathie:  And what do you folks out there think? Click HERE to cast your vote on this question: “Can we teach children to use words effectively using computing technology and multiple media?”
Elliot: Vote whether you Agree or Disagree. We will report on the results in an upcoming blog post.
Cathie: Thank you all for sharing your opinion with us.