| Sumario: | This article focuses on advantages and disadvantages of computer-aided education (CAI). Modern computer technology makes possible an explosive proliferation of new educational tools. Within a few years, thousands of terminals will be in the schools and many more will begin to appear in homes. Already there exist many CAI systems which, controlled by suitable computer programs, can be used for an astonishing variety of educational activities. The computer can also aid the lesson-writer and the teacher because it is tolerant, in its own way. It welcomes any and all solutions of a problem that can be properly presented to it. One danger in the use of CAI is obvious. A less obvious but more immediate danger is that CAI will reinforce and extend the unfortunate effects of poor social science courses and texts. Both dangers arise from the power of computer technology to afford rapid and easy duplication and distribution of educational materials. The CAI system is not a warm teacher or a loving parent. But once it has been taught how to deal constructively with individual intellectual differences, it can do so more rapidly and more patiently than can a person.
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