Or imagine high school students being able to go into nearby communities and research events and news using handheld computers and wireless networks. No longer is information confined to a physical place and time. Information is rapidly becoming digitized, creating many new opportunities to tap into it. Educational institutions have a major role in making sense out of all this and working with learners in figuring out what the value of information is, how it can be distilled, and how it can be used to drive new ideas and generate thinking. Technology is changing very rapidly.
New inventions emerge everyday.
But no technology can be successful until it is socially invented. Understanding social inventions will help us make technology transparent for the user and responsive to the user's needs and interests. Over a decade ago, Apple Computer started the Apple Classroom Of Tomorrow educational research program. ACOT began its work in seven classrooms that represented a cross section of America's elementary and secondary schools. Its goal was to study how the routine use of technology by teachers and students might change teaching and learning.