Challenging Educational Technology

SUMMARY

This paper is about the nature of educational technology in the 1980s and 1990s. It discusses four major challenges to the field in the late 1980s: the Theoretical Challenge from cognitive science, the Technological Challenge from information technology, the Political Challenge from the Left, and the Moral Challenge from radical critics. The paper speculates briefly on how educational technologists should respond in the 1990s. Finally, it contains reflections on the Utopian Educational Technologist, as a designer and dreamer.