ABSTRACT
A belief in the power of information and communications technologies such as the computer has fast become orthodoxy as ‘developed’ societies such as the UK are seen to lurch from the industrial to the post-industrial. There have been many individuals examples of groundbreaking and exemplary work focusing on the role of ‘new’ technologies in education. Any analysis of educational technology needs to also consider the cultural contexts in which technology is being used. Educational technology, then, is borne of a series of technical and social influences from its conception to implementation. Adopting a political economy view of educational technology has gained renewed importance with the rise of global telecommunications networks presently embodied in emerging information networks. Finally, there has been a general reluctance within the literature to recognise that educational technology is also shaped by political and economic concerns. Thus researchers have tended to ignore the dynamics of advanced industrial society in shaping the development and implementation of technology.
