Government and even some university administrators have maintained that there has been no drop in standards. This is not the experience of many of us working at the coal face, as it were. The introduction of computer based teaching needs to be seen within this context. If computers can help with the donkey work of preparation and backup, then they will be a means to preserve quality. However, it is as possible that they will contribute to concealing a decline in quality.
Computers are glamorous, dramatic, and symbolise where our culture is heading.
This can mean that their introduction into education is often taken rather uncritically as being a sign of progress. Computers are cheap while people are expensive. Thus in times of declining provision for education, replacing teachers with computers is, in effect, merely downsizing in the academy. There is no question but that computer technology will soon be the conventional medium of education at all levels. Education necessarily reflects the technology and media of the culture that surrounds it.