Steve E writ: "These kinds of discussions" are, I think, pedagogic discussions: we try to learn from our engagements with each other. Hypothesis: we don't use sound and images for this kind of dialog, this kind of teaching/learning, because they are essnetially secondary, supportive, and not central to the work of teaching/learning. Charlie B: Text is not the only way to have a pedagogic discussion. Both icons and text can have huge impact. Our understandings are not internalized just in text and thus instruction should include a variety modalities. I'm reminded of the quote "When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." I can bang away on lots of things with just text but there are circumstances where there are better tools than text. At the risk of distracting from my points above, this is the American list of Internet Researchers. How come all of our text is in US English? The USA is not the only country in America. Charlie Balch