The quality of education received by children in the southern states will be greatly impacted by technological change, which will present educators with both unprecedented opportunities and substantial risks. As the four model programs described in this paper illustrate, advances in telecommunications and computer hardware and software can be used to great advantage by school systems. Through telecommunications technology, students in five rural high schools in North Carolina have recently completed a course in applied physics and vocational education that had never been offered in their schools before; three low income, predominantly minority middle schools in Mobile, Alabama, eastern rural North Carolina, and downtown Atlanta, Georgia, are participating in Project MICRO, a program designed to overcome disparities in access to computers; special needs students in Louisiana can use specially adapted microcomputers to improve their leisure and learning skills and boost their self-esteem; and the computer literacy program in Houston, Texas, emphasizes access to microcomputers and training in their use for minority and low income students and their families. On the risk side, introducing technology into the classroom can be costly, alienate teaching staff, and widen the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students. The development of effective curricula relying on the new technologies can benefit the entire community, while careful long-range planning can prevent the negative outcomes noted above. (DJR)