But it has also radically changed human experience in the societies it adopted, for better or worse. Television is a good example of a technology which, within recent collective memory, has transformed social and personal space and time in our society. Broadcast television never successfully took root in schools and probably never will, but has become normalized within the home, functionally excluding previous patterns of family life. Some families prefer electronically unmediated social space, and banish television from their homes - but the capacity to make such a choice requires significant effort and compromise. Computers, in contrast to broadcast TV, have fast become fixtures in many school settings, with marked effects on communication, physical activity, space utilization, time allocation and the social construction of learning.
Computers alter the social reality of school spacetime in predictable and unforeseen ways.
Both the design of workspaces and scheduling of activities must change to accommodate computers, displacing book rooms and overhead projectors. The predictable effects are generally viewed favorably by school stake holders and are national priorities now. Other effects, like hidden Trojan horsemen, are latent or beginning to emerge. The cases analyzed by this paper are intended to inform the strategic decision to either confine computers to labs or support their infiltration of classrooms, and explore the relationship between school culture, classroom culture, and technology as a change agent. Summary narratives of what took place in each setting will be presented first, followed by a section of analysis and recommendations.