Paradise Lost: Children, multimedia and the myth of interactivity

The dramatic expansion of IT use in the primary schools of South‐West Scotland, in the mid‐1980s, centred on highly interactive and pupil‐empowering forms such as LOGO or database management software. While later forms of IT in education which have come to dominate computer‐use in the same area, such as multimedia encyclopaedias and ‘living books’, are worthwhile, their surface sophistication and information richness does not compensate for reduced interactivity levels and the consequent loss of learner engagement and control. The uncritical adoption of technological advances combined with reduced local authority resources to drive curriculum development have resulted in failure to embed one of the most radical educational initiatives of the late twentieth‐century.