Possible versus desirable in instructional systems

The popularity of the Internet has infected education, particularly distance education, with technological opportunism. Educators feel the 'technology pull&' of Web applications and want to experiment. I have talked to colleagues from around the world, and their stories about new developments usually start with the technology, for example: &';We wanted to see what we could do with Java.' Reinhardt (1995, 55) predicts an optimistic future with improved educational productivity and qualitatively changing learning profiles - he predicts an improvement in learning due to technology alone.