Democracy and computer conferencing

possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture. Our school system will be completely changed in the next ten years (cited in Saettler, 1968, p. 98). Later, audiovisual instruction promised to make knowledge more concrete and valid (Reiser, 1987). Television followed in the middle of the century as a broadcast medium that could take students to any place in the world, though that journey often ended in a studio with a single talking head (De Vaney, 1987). All of these media promised to improve educational practice, and all largely failed in the attempt. Integrating the computer into schools during the 1980s did little to change instructional technology's pattern of great promise followed by disillusionment. Though proponents of computers spoke of revolution and reform, early implementation of computers in schools was usually in support of established teaching practice. At best, drill, tutorial, and simulation programs served to amplify the