COMPUTERS: EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY PARADOX? 

ABSTRACT

As we move further into the new millennium, the need to involve and adapt learners with new technology have been the main aim of many institutions of higher learning in Malaysia.  The involvement of the government in huge technology-based projects like the Multimedia Super Corridor Highway (MSC) and one of its flagships, the Smart Schools have invoked responses to many institutions of higher learning to change their method of educational instruction to fit the present-day needs.  To view the computer as nothing more than the latest thing in educational technology is to miss the whole point about the computer and its main function in schools or universities. 

For the academia, computers should play a much bigger role than as a productive means in teaching.  Instructors or lecturers should harness the power of the computer and putting it to work as a teacher.  The expectation was that the computer should be as effective as a human teacher/lecturer, and would soon be less costly.  As in other areas of modern life, efficient technology would replace labor-intensive practices and change the shape of education.