As we approach the twenty-first century it is clear that innovative, instructional technologies are offering impressive possibilities in education. They are also causing a great deal of concern. ÒQuite simply, if you think that the world is troubled by chaos, multiple meanings, lack of direction, uncertainty, irony, and confusion then you have encountered the postmodern condition.Ó Hlynka goes on to say ÒFinally, educational technologies, by conveying the sheer amounts of information available, inevitably stumble across and even showcase the ironic juxtaposition of ideas, concepts, facts and theories.Ó (Hlynka, D., 1995) Into this world we throw the regular classroom teacher, with little experience in Instructional Technologies and often a built-in mistrust born from limited successful experiences in the past.

What is the poor teacher to make of all this when they enter their tradtional classrooms. Many have taken some initiatives and done their own personal kinds of research. This has resulted in the use of some new technologies (usually in areas which are non-threatening, non-pervasive and Ôfit inÕ with existing teaching practices). Does this mean that the adoption of new technologies is only going to happen when they fit seamlessly into the existing fabric of educational institutions? To some degree, we all must admit to this being the norm. But todays teachers have access to an enormously rich and challenging theoretical foundation upon which to build the learning experiences of their students. Educational theories have been evolving over the last fifty years moving from behaviourism, to cognitivism, to constructivism and beyond. Most master teachers have adopted one theory or another into their instructional paradigms, often changing them to fit the realities of each learning situation. But this one pattern seems to be emerging - that of a postmodern reality theory. If we believe that the learner constructs his or her own unique view of the world then teachers can and should utilize whatever tools are at their disposal to accomodate the ÔrealityÕ of that learning. What may appear to be 'chaos' in the educational system could simply be a pragmatic mixture of learning theories applied to specific circumstances with specific learners to achieve the most effective and affective learning experiences possible for the learner. This is an area of research that begs further investigation.