This article argues that computers, at least in their common or prevalent uses, constitute an important undermining influence on people's ability to tell, enjoy listening to, view, and read good stories. We discuss the centrality of narrative in defining our humanity and in educating our children, and justify the emphasis on "good" stories, invoking Ricoeur's views on the hermeneutic level of interpretation. We then address the question of the nonneutrality of electronic wrapping of words and the problematic relationship between computers' navigational properties and narrative, particularly vis-à-vis Deleuze and Guattari's notion of rhizomatic structures. We consider and critique some counterarguments to our claim, specifically those that appeal to postmodern and hypertextual conceptions of narrative, and suggest ways that education can play an important role in counteracting the negative influences we have indicated.One of this article's authors was once asked to act as the chairperson of a national committee dealing with the educational uses of computers. He accepted this post despite (or perhaps because of) his relative lack of knowledge of computer uses in education. Being of an anthropological turn of mind, he often found himself taking a participant observer position during discussions. As an outsider, he became fascinated by the culture of computer buffs as it exhibited itself in these discussions. It seemed to be a culture that was rather foreign to him. One of the committee meetings took place the day after this author had, by chance, reread and again admired Agatha Christie's superb short story "Witness for the Prosecution." While observing a member of the committee demonstrate a particular

The introduction of computers into education raises questions such as: are computers in education effective? If they are, in what sense? What are the most effective strategies for using computers in education? How should teachers be encouraged to use them?To answer these questions a large-scale experiment (Project Comptown) was carried out in Israel, to test ways and means under real rather than laboratory conditions. This project is a research-oriented educational intervention, applying massive computerisation of schools and their 'close environment' to two localities in Israel (Arad and Ashkelon). Our starting point was the premise that computerisation of education is an inevitable process. Consequently, turning the computer into a 'cultural tool' in schools becomes a major challenge, aiming to narrow the gap between 'school culture' and 'real-world culture'. The main objectives for Project Comptown are: [l] To create a computer culture in schools: [ 2 ] To use the computer's potential for innovative teaching and learning, both inside and outside schools. To achieve these, we identified a number of principles which we considered pre-conditions for an 'appropriate' computer strategy in schools.

This article proposes a taxonomy to aid decision makers in selecting computer software that is consistent with the their values and preferences for instruction. It builds on two interrelated arguments: 1) the nature of instruction and the use of information technology derive from a conceptual framework that is embedded in an explicit or implicit belief about the nature of human development and learning, and 2) due to the value nature of instruction, the instructional beliefs embedded in software should be congruent with the decision maker's beliefs underlying instruction. The taxonomy consists of three components: characteristics of patterns of instruction, properties of software, and the congruence between them. These components are interrelated in a mapping sentence [1] that maps characteristics of instruction onto properties of software. The taxonomy refers to two types of educational decision makers. Believers, whose decisions are predetermined by a belief commitment and orchestrators, whose decisions are heuristically taken. Decisions for believers are straight forward; decisions for orchestrators are more complicated and depend on contextual factors represented in the mapping sentence. Links between research findings and the taxonomy are presented and illustrate the taxonomy's use and its utility in predicting real world decisions.

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