Without the prod of a standards-based curriculum, computers tend to be used not for creative exploration but for drill and practice work, which is more likely to frustrate students than it is to inspire them. It would be tragic if the selective application of technology in education were to widen the inequities in American education, because in other spheres the personal computer has been a powerful democratizing influence. Personal computers distribute capabilities from central locations to the machines on each individual's desk. They greatly increase the individual's ability to communicate, to learn, to work. They have helped undermine tyrannies, such as when personal computers and faxes were used both during the Tiananmen Square uprising and in the declining days of the Soviet Union to transmit information to the outside world.
Information technologies can also preserve the traditions that make communities strong.
A student in New Mexico will be able to call up on a computer screen an image of an artifact stored in the museum, rotate the image, read the curator's text describing the piece, and then send a question to the curator. Huge libraries of film and photographs will be accessible from the archives. The museum's network will allow Native Americans to communicate with each other, take classes, or read the latest postings from Native American news sources. Government has an important role in ensuring access to new technologies. It can pay for hardware for disadvantaged schools, educate teachers, link all schools to computer networks, and disseminate information about useful hardware and software.