Those who, during the 1960s, predicted a trend toward the increased use of electronic media in English instruction did not foresee the incompatibility of the humanities graduates of publishing houses and the engineers and mathematicians of the electronics industries, or the resistance of teachers and administrators to instructional innovation. Similarly, such forecasts in the 1970s failed to anticipate shifts in the economy and in the values of the young. The current conservative mood of the country, censorship and the back-to-basics movements, civil rights and women's movements, and the reductions in federal funding are also factors beyond most English educator's foresight. Nevertheless, teacher educators must continue to help teachers anticipate and responsibly direct the course of educational change, much of which will occur due to the increasing accessibility of microcomputers. The traditional classroom will, of necessity, give way to more flexible, individualized instructional environments, and will include electronic media and improved printed materials. All of these changes are dependent on a healthy economy, the willingness of citizens to give financial and moral support to public education, and the quality of teacher preservice and inservice programs. If teacher educators continue to ignore the potential enrichment of English teaching offered by electronic media, they will assist in making more irrelevant to public school students a subject too many already consider irrelevant. (HTH)