The computer can be a tool located on desks, a tool that helps us design, compose and format texts for print or on-line distribution. It can be a tool that helps us store and organize data.
Computers can operate as environments .
If we shift our focus from the computer as a tool to the computer as an environment all its own, an environment created by the configuration of hardware and interface, then we can talk about a computer as a virtual space, an space into which we project ourselves. We can think, therefore, about Building Learning Spaces on the Internet . Finally, computers can operate as a medium that presents tools in a particular environment. Consequently, each application of computer technology creates a medium that, through the arrangement of tools and space, enables certain practices while suppressing others. Just as we need to consider what theories inform any discussion of technology, we also need to know at what level people are talking about technology.