Some Poetic and Social Criteria for Education Design

Abstract

Ten years is in some ways a challenging and in some ways a very awkward period for predicting the impact of computers in education. If you asked me whether the practice of education will have undergone a fundamental change through the impact of computers in either five years of in twenty-five years, I could answer with complete confidence "NO" to the first question and "YES" to the second. But what happens in the ten years depends very sensitively on how hard we try; on when the people with the requisite financial, intellectual and moral resources recognize the opportunity and the urgency of action. If we act smartly it is still possible that by 1985 the existence of model schools and learning centers will have changed the ball-park in which society sets the sights of its educational ambitions.