Some schools therefore try to make children familiar with all this kind of equipment, rather than merely with pen and ink. But most of this equipment will be obsolete by the time children have finished school. Computers are regarded by school as devices that handle text and numbers. Just like school rather concentrates on spelling than on speech and meaning, it rather teaches the technical skills how to use video equipment such as VCRs, than fluency in the new audiovisual languages. School is into discipline and all it teaches children is the name of the equipment and the button to push to switch it on and off.
Most schools barely have a photocopier.
The computer is mostly used to schedule rosters and children's personal details and grades. School is not the place for children to develop fluency in any language. But the future is not likely to give a high profile to text. As processing power and storage capacity increased, computers changed the face of industries that use data and text, such as in scientific research, banking, accountancy, secretarial work and publishing. Now that audiovisual signals can be processed digitally, industries such as telecommunications and broadcasting are set to undergo similar dramatic changes.