Educational Media, Technology and Instructional Productivity. A Consideration of Cost and Effectiveness. Occasional Paper Number 2.

This paper examines some of the questions to be answered and some of the problems to be faced if the widespread application of technology in education is ever to be achieved. The paper is not a "how-to-do-it" manual for conducting cost-effectiveness studies; rather it is an argument to be used in support of such studies and of the experimentation in educational organization which is needed to provide the data necessary to support the redesign of public education. Several aspects of the problem which are discussed include: (1) factors inhibiting the adoption of technology in public education, (2) the educational economic crisis, (3) the need to redeploy resources, and (4) the needed database for technology. Sixty-seven references are listed. (LLS)