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. It may, of course, go the other way. Students tired of canned culture may relish real-time, demanding lectures which leave them with questions and with work to do Which ever way it goes, the introduction of computer technology needs to be carefully monitored.