Computer-aided learning and videotex. The use of copper wire telephone lines restricts the rate of information flow, and the keypad permits only limited responses.
Economies of scale are extremely important in computer-aided learning.
Children who grow up in a world in which they can access virtually any extant courseware from their living room, and in which a much greater proportion of learning is self-motivated, will end up with their cognitive processes organized differently from people of previous generations, whose learning environments have been far from optimal. They will be smarter, more knowledgeable, more skilful. They will be better equipped to solve problems in many areas of human endeavour. H.G. Wells thought that the fate of the human species would be determined by the outcome of a race between education and catastrophe. Developments in the past few years suggest that catastrophe is winning, but videotex-aided learning has the potential to tip the odds in favour of education.