This book examines old and new technologies that can be used in distance education and provides cost-benefit comparisons among them. The first chapter of the book summarizes the findings of the next 10 chapters and provides a framework for decision making for all the technologies. The following criteria for choosing educational technology are discussed in chapters 2-3: access, costs, teaching and learning, interactivity and user-friendliness, organizational issues, novelty, and speed. Chapters 4-10 are organized around one of the following media, depending on whether it uses one-way or two-way technologies for delivery: broadcast television, instructional and two-way television, print, one-way audio, two-way audio, computer-based learning and multimedia, and computer-mediated communication. A vision of how learning and teaching should take place is addressed in chapter 11, a theme that also runs through the discussions of each of the technologies covered in the book. The book includes 28 figures, 38 tables, and 132 references. (KC)