The Net is progress. Technology has cheated us before and is trying to cheat us again. Technology will bring us no real benefits. In the past, other technologies have played this symbolic role. The role of symbolizing the future is constantly migrating to a newer technology.
Children are innocent, pure, and impressionable.
The combination of these two symbols, Children using The Net, is a cultural powder keg. The reality, the real things people are doing in classrooms with children and net connections, is much more pedestrian. One common mistake is to think of The Net as one thing. Students and educators use computer networks in a wide variety of ways. Each approach is rooted in different educational traditions.