But here is the rub: interactive text based applications lack the
pizzazz of video alternatives and cannot promise automation, nor
can they be packaged and sold. They do not conform to the fantasy
of total central control over a flexible, disseminated system
defying spatial and temporal boundaries. On the contrary, they are
labor intensive and will probably not cut costs very much. Hence
the lack of interest from corporations and administrators, and the
gradual eclipse of these technological options in public discussion
(if not on campus) by far more expensive ones. But unlike the fancy
alternatives, interactive text based systems actually accomplish
legitimate pedagogical objectives faculty and students recognize and
respect.

To resist the automating trend in education is not simply to wallow in
an old-fashioned Mr. Chips sentimentality. Rather, it is a question
of different civilizational projects with different institutional
bases. The traditional conception of education must be preserved
not out of uncritical worship of the past but for the sake of the
future. I have tried to show here that the educational technology
of an advanced society might be shaped by educational dialogue rather
than the production oriented logic of automation. Should a dialogic
approach to online education prevail on a large enough scale, it could
be a factor making for fundamental social change. This prospect is
explored in all its utopian impl