Can We Escape the Trough of Disillusionment?

Progress in multimedia capture, analysis, and delivery, combined with the rapid adoption of broadband communication, have resulted in educational multimedia systems that have advanced traditional forms of teaching and learning. New trends in technology, such as mobile multimedia or advanced approaches for the automatic analysis of multimodal signals, offer novel and exciting opportunities for teaching and learning. However, many scientists have stopped working on the topic because they were disappointed with mediocre results that seemed to have no impact. In this article, we investigate the reasons for this and argue that the question of how multimedia can really make education more exploratory and enjoyable is as yet unanswered, and we are just beginning to understand the real contribution of multimedia to education. Based on a brief overview of the history of educational multimedia systems and a rough analysis of the current situation, we venture a glimpse into the future and argue that educational multimedia is (still) a vivid and relevant area for research.