The use of contextualized learning environments with learners who are at risk of school failure arises from the recognition that students who are introduced to concepts and strategies out of a meaningful context will view them as irrelevant to daily life. Contexts created by teachers using videotape and random access videodisc technologies have three advantages: (1) they provide rich sources of information with opportunities to notice various images, features, issues, and problems; (2) they enable students to perceive dynamic moving events; and (3) they allow students to develop skills of pattern recognition related to visual and auditory cues. Anchored instruction projects at Vanderbilt's Learning Technology Center have examined the effectiveness of shared contextualized learning environments in promoting learning. One study showed that a group of preschool children who viewed a videodisc of a story learned much more than a group who heard the same story read aloud. A second project found that fifth grade students who received instruction in the language arts and social studies within the context of a movie were much more likely to use the new vocabulary, writing skills, and historical information that was presented than students who received the same instruction without the video anchor. Data from such projects offer an opportunity to merge recent knowledge about cognition, instruction, and culture with video technology to develop instructional systems that can make significant improvements in the way the teaching and learning process for at-risk students is carried out in the schools. (9 references) (BBM)