This study reviewed the literature in the areas that directly affect systemic reform, and concludes with recommendations that will enable technology to play a significant role in this movement. It stated that the educational system of the United States was not serving the nation well. Absorption of its contents tends to be the measure of educational success. Students are often recipients of instruction rather than active participants in learning. School teachers work largely in isolation from their peers.
Teachers interact with their colleagues only for a few moments each day.
Most other professionals collaborate, exchange information and develop new skills on a daily basis. Although half of the nation's school teachers use passive video materials for instruction, only a small fraction have access to interactive video, computer networks, or even telephones in the classroom. While computers are a frequent sight in America's classrooms and training sites, they are usually used simply as electronic workbooks. Interactive, high performance uses of technology, such as networked teams collaborating to solve real-world problems, retrieving information from electronic libraries, and performing scientific experiments in simulated environments, are all too uncommon. U.S. schooling is a conservative institution, which adopts new practice and technology slowly.