ABSTRACT
Most people who have thought much about the impact of technology on modern society feel compelled to choose sides. Outside the schools, film, radio, and television enjoyed tremendous success, but inside the schools, the textbook continued to be the dominant instructional tool. Despite the difficulty of integrating new forms of technology into the classroom, the expectation that schools would finally bow to technological change never ebbed. R. Gross and J. Murphy published a collection of essays called The Revolution in the Schools, in which they described the coming “industrialization” of the schools. Computers have already proven their value even within the context of traditional classroom instruction. The new technology holds an ambivalent promise for the fields of literature and history, which are the primary humanistic subjects. The curriculum in the arts can be vastly enriched by the new technology, whenever the software catches up with the potential of the hardware.
