Human Capital Issues in the Use of Information Technology in Education

Abstract

Local technological applications and their implications for human capital depend not only on the local environment, but also on successively larger social structures. In a world with a complex international division of labor, events in distant countries now intimately affect the nation, states, cities, and social institutions. Indeed, the long-term effects of the chaotic world economy of the 1970s still ripple through the United States. They impact the national output, national indebtedness, the shift from federal to local responsibilities, and the overbureaucratization and fast-paced technology of the megainstitutions where livelihoods are made and the quality of life is determined. The authors elaborate these themes, working from the most macroscopic or global level to the most microscopic or local level of social organization, and tie their discussion to data on international-, national-, and state-level trends. The authors explore a single but representative local case, which documents the impact of these megaforces on an educational institution.