Social Changes Made by Computer Technology

According to Downing (1991), computer technology has introduced several social changes in the world in general and American society in particular--changes which cannot and should not be overlooked by educators whose job it is to prepare young people to function successfully within this new society. The purpose of this paper is to examine social changes that have occurred and social changes that can be expected to occur by the year 2000.

The benefits and the problems associated with these changes and their meaning for education will also be explored. Further, the paper offers some solutions for these problems and explores how computer-technology related changes might specifically affect the writer's own area of work (preschool to elementary school). Recommendations are formulated for dealing with the problems associated with this area of work.

Computer Technology and General Social Change

Mandell and Mandell (1989) have specified a number of ways in which computer technology has revolutionized Americans' lives both at home and at the office. These changes can be summarized as follows:

(1) With the advent of the personal home computer, people are able to bring new forms of entertainment into the home (e.g. computer games) and, more importantly, a number of personal business functions (e.g. banking and bill paying, obtain stock market information, make travel arrangements, and even enroll in college courses) can be handled at home rather than outside the

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ween those who do and do not understand computers can be resolved by providing computer training to those who do not know how to utilize computer resources. And finally, courses can be offered that help people formulate and conceptualize personally satisfying notions of time, distance, and mind in such a way that they are not intimidated by computer technology. In other words, an element in resolving several of the problems arising as a result of the continued development and proliferation of computer technology is education. This fact makes it important to understand how education itself is currently being affected by computer technology and how it might be further affected by it in the future. Computer Technology and Education Ognibene and Skeele (1990) have noted that the development and growth of computer technology has impacted the educational system in several ways. First, most of the organizational and/or business functions of schools (e.g. payroll, record-keeping, etc.) are handled by computers. Second, an increasingly important part of the curriculum in many schools has become the teaching of computer literacy and other computer-related skills. Third, many classrooms (from preschool through college) utilize compute

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