Educational Production Functions for Teacher-Technology Mixes: Problems and Possibilities.

The use of large-scale delivery systems to transmit information and skills to a large number of users at low cost is examined. A systematic review of past and current experiments with educational applications of computers and television is coupled with a study of the social milieu in which public schools can be expected to operate in the near future. The paper is divided into four sections: a general overview of the social conditions which characterize schools today, an overview of the many studies which have been done in the use of television and computers in education, and economic analysis of some of the best studies of media use in order to provide some data about the combinations of media and teacher which could produce a given "educational outcome;" and a summary of findings and implications. The report notes that while it is well established that students can learn from both television and computers, studies have not been done with an eye toward an economic product approach which would allow the determination of the best media-teacher mix to produce a given educational outcome. It is also found that certain aspects of the social milieu of present day education work against the effective use of educational technology. (JY)