Appointment of a national Commission on Instructional Technology under the Public Broadcasting Act points up the need for broad participation in defining agreeable boundaries of the field of instructional technology. The assignment is complicated by a posture of pessimism in a new power structure of instructional technology, or "learning systems," particularly among those involved in adapting computers to instruction. Essentially, instructional technology, in its modern usage, involves the management of ideas, procedures, money, machines, and people in the instructional process. As such, it involves: (1) a physical device(s) which mediates information transmission; (2) a system of instruction of which this device(s) is one of several components; and (3) a range of mediating options. The current and historical role of the classroom teacher is highly ritualized. The attitude of the classroom teacher toward any instructional innovation--technological or otherwise--is of paramount importance. While trial or adoption of innovation may be formalized at the federal, state, or community levels of control, it is in the individual school and individual classroom that the transaction occurs functionally or dysfunctionally. One of the most important aspects of instructional technology is the inherent expectancy of educational improvement shared by its advocates. The development, use, and improvement of instructional technology, as defined in this article, is justified in general by the fact that American schools operate as a formative institution of a highly technological society and should therefore incorporate, as appropriate, this characteristic of the larger society as well as other idealized values. [This article consists of major excerpts from an article published in "Educational Technology" in October of 1968 authored by Charles F. Hoban. This continues the current series of articles from the early years of the magazine, now celebrating its 50th anniversary.]