We argued earlier that the effective use of a technology requires a clear vision of an appropriate social envelope, a point that policy makers and advocates of home computers for education tend to miss. However, clear visions of home computing are not enough. In this chapter, we argue that such visions have to be enacted in homes. They do not occur automatically, as the technologically minded so often seem to assume, by simply “letting the technology loose.”

A second broad lesson of our research is that creators and champions of home educational computing need to view the effective use of a technology as the consequence of a multistaged, social process of diffusion, adoption, and then implementation. The evidence uncovered by our study suggests that most “strategies” used by marketers or advocates to get educational software and hardware into homes are seriously flawed. Their strategies often limit diffusion, curtail adoption, or overlook the problematic nature of implementation. The prevailing “here it is, buy it” and then “simply do it” approach may work for the occasional or passionately proactive family. It is not sufficient for most others.

In this chapter, we review our findings in light of the aforementioned steps in the planned change process.