INFORMATIONAL TECHNOLOGYAND ITS IMPACT ONAMERICAN EDUCATIONOffice of Technology AssessmentModern society is undergoing profound techno-logical and social changes brought ... and social changes brought about by whathas been called the information revolution. Thisrevolution is characterized by explosive develop-ments in electronic information technologies andby their integration into complex information sys-tems that span the globe . The impacts of thisrevolution ... world that will be shaped, to a largedegree, by these technological developments, theymast adapt through education and training . Alreadythere is ... en-abling educational institutions to respond to thechanges created by these technologies .BackgroundHistorically, the Federal Government's inte-rest in educational technology has been sporadic--rising as some promising new technology appearedand falling as that technology ... failed to achieveits promise . Attention was focused, moreover, onthe technology itself and not on the broader edu-cational environment in which ... decade, Federal funding forresearch and development (R&D) in educational in-formation technology has dropped precipitously .At the same time, development and applications ... dropped precipitously .At the same time, development and applications ofinformation technology have advanced rapidly fnmany sectors . Public schools, beset by ... rapidly fnmany sectors . Public schools, beset by problemsthat such technology might mitigate, have laggedbehind in adapting to technological changes . Inview of this situation, OTA was asked in ... in October1980 to reexamine the potential role of new infor-mation technology in education . The assessment wasinitiated at the request of ... Labor ; and 2) the House Subcommitteeon Science, Research, and Technology of theCommittee on Science and Techology .This report examines both ... on edu-cation will most likely stem from the integrationof these technologies into instructional systems .For this report OTA has defined education ... provided throughlibraries and museums or delivered directly to thehome . Information technology is defined to includecommunication systems such as direct broadcastsatellite, two-way ... thestudent what to do next, and managesstudent records and other information .2 . Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) -Wherein the student receives individual-ized ...
information technologyproducts and services that appearedcapable of fulfilling the educationalpromises anticipated ... . In summary, theassessment's findings are :The growing use of information technologythroughout society is creating major newdemands for education and training ... economic and social penalty for notresponding to those demands .The information revolution is creatingnew stresses on many societal institu-tions, particularly those ... borne the major responsibility forproviding education and other publicinformation services .Information technology is alreadybeginning to play an important role inproviding education and ... an important role inproviding education and training in somesec tors .Information technology holds significantpromise as a mechanism for responding tothe education and ... to instruction .Not enough experience has been gainedwith the new information technology todetermine completely how that techno-logy can most benefit learners or ... major national effort,whether federally inspired or not, tointroduce these new technologies intoeducation .The Information SocietyRole of Information - For the foreseeablefuture, information technology will continue toundergo revolutionary changes . The microprocessor--an inexpensive, mass-produced ... These technologieswill be integrated to form new and unexpectedtypes of information products and services, suchas videotex and on-line information retrievalsystems that can be provided over telephone orair waves directly ... affect manyaspects of the way society generates, obtains,uses, and disseminates information in work andleisure .The growing importance of information itselfdrives and is driven by these rapid technologicalchanges . Until ... ago, the informationindustry--that industry directly involved with pro-ducing and selling information and informationtechnology--was relatively small in economic terms .It is now ... service--some now have begun todefine and explore a fourth, the information sec-tor . One analysis has shown that this new sector,if ... the largest corpora-tions in the world, AT&T and IBM, principallymanufacture information products and provide in-formation services . Moreover, business in generalis ... in-formation services . Moreover, business in generalis beginning to treat information as a factor ofproduction that takes its place beside the ... internationalleakage of more general U .S . scientific and techni-cal information that other countries could con-ceivablyuse to pursue economic or military ... own .In addition to serving as an economic good,access to information is becoming incr