According to a recent article in HBS Working Knowledge, while it's simple to convey content on the Web, it's not always easy to supply context. John Seely Brown, in a talk at Harvard, says that the tools exist to convey both content and context and its the kids who know how to do it. He calls 'screen language,' the vernacular of digital culture and says that it can be seen in things like instant messaging, video games, movies, and the open source movment.

New media, screen language, vernacular communication and programming aesthetics have tools that we could be and should be looking at for online education. None of these approaches are necessarily more information-packed than plain text. They are different. And as such convey different information in new ways.