Like tomorrow, the next generation never comes

With each successive generation of new educational technologies the dawn of a revolution in teaching and learning is heralded. There have been many such dawns in the last 30 years, during which the desktop computer and the Internet have been developed; but there have been similar dawns throughout the century film, radio, records, broadcast television, audio-tape, videotape, programmed learning machines etc. Each time enthusiasts have announced the transformation or even the end of the school/college/university. In fact, the impact on the bulk of teaching and learning has been minimal. Developments in paper/printing technologies have had far more influence, with the consequence that face-to-face discussion and paper resources still dominate public education. Audio-visual media have been treated more as an icing-on-the-cake than as something at the very heart of learning and likewise their long-suffering support services (though the new media, particularly video, have fared somewhat better in the development of corporate training programmes).