The introduction of a new technology within one discipline

The appearance of a new technology on the educational scene sets educators the task of defining the roles or functions it can most appropriately have within different disciplines. This task will involve consideration of the properties of the new hardware and the existing software. At that time the only available video materials designed for English Language Teaching (ELT) were series originally produced for television broadcast. We made conscientious attempts to write these into the syllabus as one insurance against our new technology becoming no more than an advertising gimmick. But there were major problems: fifteen minute programs incorporating their own teaching slots did not fit easily into a syllabus designed on different principles and taught in fifty minute sessions; the programs followed a developing storyline, so it was difficult to dip into the series; teachers felt unsure about methodology with materials which dominated the lesson in a way their other supplementary materials did not; finally, some aspects of Britain in the sixties portrayed in one series we were using led to considerable embarrassment in classrooms in muslim Iran.