The kinds of questions asked about the incorporation of computers into the classroom's social environment will largely dictate the methods of answering them. Asking about the effects of technology and the social life of classrooms is problematic, however. For example, traditional two-group, experimental studies are flawed because computers per se do not constitute a treatment, the treatment would not be uniform, and the effects may not be observable except over time. An alternate view would consider the classroom as the social context. Questions would then concern the places and processes of change that may accompany the use of the technology. The critical elements of the incorporation process include teachers' interpretation of the purposes of software, whether computer-based work is a legitimate part of the learning agenda, the interactional changes in the classroom that the technology can support, and whether these changes are viewed as legitimate. Computers offer the option of rethinking the selection of learning agendas, the design of curricula, and the ways in which learning tasks are done in classrooms. Thirteen references are listed. (LMM)