Abstract

An attempt is made to identify the more likely future impact on society of computers in education. Four roles of computers are distinguished. Computers used for administration of education are likely to help centralization of education and to further the conflict over the purpose of education. Computer aided instruction may help to put children from certain minority groups into a constructive relation to the dominant culture. Computers used as tools for other educational fields may help the students to advance more rapidly in these fields, but introduce a risk that the students may acquire a distorted view of reality. Educational topics oriented toward the computer itself will help to introduce the computer in ever wider areas of application throughout society and to make the computer increasingly acceptable and indispensable, and thereby an object of political interest. The position of the computer in a technology-based society facing a scarcity of resources is finally touched upon.