Charles,
   Thanks for your calm, thoughtful reply to my message.  Others were
not so kind.  A principal I once worked for said I had a tendency to
be overly articulate and this caused people to misunderstand me.
   The whole question of what impact things such as the Internet can
or will have upon education is mindboggling to me.  I suspect that
other advantages or uses for computers may, in the long run, be more
important than the Internet, especially at the elementary and
secondary levels of education.  There is little doubt in my own mind
that computers, especially computers with modems, will profoundly
affect instruction and communication, perhaps even to the point that
the delivery of education will be radically different from what it
now is.  I am concerned that, at the present time, there seems to be a
lack of imagination and experimentation on a wide scale of some of the
possibilities along this line.  It is fun and exciting to see how
things are evolving, however, in terms of the kinds of educational
software becoming more and more available.
   I was fascinated by your report about what one school district was
experiencing negatively from allowing student use of the Internet in
the school.  It corroborated my worst fears that secondary students
might lack the maturity required for a responsible use of the
Internet.  In my own experience I twice saw good ideas for changing
how education was delivered shot down by such a lack.  One occurred
when the Greece School System tried to institute modular scheduling
into the high schools, and the other occurred when we tried in the
vocational high school where I was a dept. head to implement a
curriculum schedule that I had a large part in developing and that had
great promise for that particular school.
   Just as Ken Blystone was able to experiment with his ideas with
special kinds of students (the potential drop-outs, etc.), I suspect
that further experimentation in many districts will be with students
on long-term suspension, school phobics, and students on home/hospital
tutoring programs.  Even individual teachers with computers in their
homes may be able to set up programs to assist them in reaching their
students, although I have seen or heard of little such use.  If I were
teaching today, I am certain I would make use of my computer along
such lines.
   Again, thanks for your reply and the information.
--Art--
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