All the photos on this page, including the banner, were taken by me on a weekend trip to Seattle. Above: My husband Jeff, sitting on what I thought were some rather cool steps. Below: another shot I snapped on our stroll through the city.

It’s strange to think that most of today’s young adults have never lived without access to a computer.
My 20-year-old sister and her peers can’t recall a time they didn't have e-mail accounts internet access and computers readily available both at home and at school. Their worlds have been inundated with technology from the get go, and knowledge of how to use it seems to come naturally.

Computers and multimedia have changed our lives and the way in which we receive information.
We are an information society, we want lots of it — and fast!
With that mind set, multimedia is important now and will become increasingly so in the years to come.
I think educators will turn less and less to hard-bound books and more and more to interactive media when it comes to teaching. This medium allows students to be active participants in their education rather than passive observers. When wanting to know how dinosaurs became extinct, kids are much more likely to retain a multimedia presentations where they click buttons, navigate from screen to screen and hear sound effects, than they are to when just reading and listening. Don’t get me wrong, I love books, but multimedia offers us another way to learn about a multitude of things including other cultures and countries. It brings far away places into our living rooms and offices, allowing us a look at places we may otherwise never see. We can travel without a passport or plane ticket.

Multimedia makes our lives easier (and quicker). As a journalism major, I can’t imagine researching and reporting without access to today’s technology. I get exhausted just thinking about it.
The same holds true for other professions. Attorneys no longer spend
days sorting through law journals — they have online journals, complete with search engines to help them find what they need.
Small business owners have access to more information on funding, education, ideas and forums than ever before. They can open a coffee shop in Port Angeles, Washington, and get advice from a small franchise owner in New Jersey. They can visit the web sites of espresso machine vendors and watch videos on their products, ask questions of the manufacturer and purchase necessities, all with the click of a mouse.

I’m excited to see what the future of multimedia holds for us — and a
little daunted by the prospect of never-ending education in this ever-
changing field. I’m the kind of person who likes to learn something, put it in my back pocket and then feel like I’ll never have to learn that again. Multimedia is a different kind of beast, but hey, I’ll adapt. We always do.

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