As American culture is increasingly transmitted through multimedia, education must adapt to mirror the culture in which it functions. The changing face of educational technology requires educators to encourage thinking that draws connections between various aspects of a project, concept, or course. Enter the Poster Tool.

The Poster Tool is based on a web application first developed at the Carnegie Foundation's Knowledge Media Lab. Like the Carnegie Foundation's "Snapshot Tool," the CNDLS' Poster Tool captures a vast array of materials in a succinct and accessible format, acting as a shared workspace for courses or groups, helps organize course or project data into an online snapshot, and facilitates the use of various types of content. The tool works as a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, making it easier for users to create or edit online content. Depending on the needs of the instructor or group, a template controls the content format—a feature intended to help students structure their thinking, or at times, elicit certain types of thinking.

The latest version of the Poster Tool allows for multi-user editing while providing a secure place where all users' work is kept. By allowing groups of students and instructors to incorporate text, images, video and audio clips, files, and web links in a static web page format, both processes of learning and teaching are essentially documented, resulting in a trackable path that invites collaboration and feedback.