This synthesis of the main trends and issues in the use of the new information technologies in education is based on background reports prepared for an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) conference held in 1984. Topics discussed include: (1) the challenge posed by the educational potential of the new technologies and factors that will influence the response of education to this challenge; (2) the roles and responsibilities of member countries as they respond to the new information technologies, including national policy formation, policy objectives and priorities, industrial development links, and economic concerns; and (3) outcomes of educational policy and grassroots developments, including hardware/software use and variation in use by schools, computer science in the curriculum, impact of the technologies on learning, teacher roles and teacher training, and societal use patterns. An agenda for future work which is suggested to help education face the challenge of the new information technologies addresses such issues as the need for more hardware and software, the need for more evaluation data, the prevention of educational inequalities, and the importance of careful and coordinated policy planning. (MBR)