A look at the potential impact of high technology suggests that there may be a dim side to the popular view that high technology is the answer to America's educational and occupational problems. In reality, as technology advances continue, required job skills will decrease further. High technology will account for only 7 percent of all new jobs created between 1980 and 1990, while managerial, professional, clerical, and service occupations will account for 68% of the employment growth during this period. Contrary to the usual assumption that increasing technology will allow machines to perform the more tedious and less skilled tasks, high technology will actually further simplify and routinize work tasks and reduce the need for worker individualization and judgment. Educators must resist the pressure to concentrate on specific skill training that will become useless as job requirements change. Instead, education should prepare students for success by providing skills in logic, analytical reasoning, scientific knowledge, communication, and the cultural arts. By providing these skills in addition to on-the-job training and recurrent education at various times over the life-cycle (as technology changes job requirements), schools can best utilize high technology as a tool for learning rather than as a subject that will displace more fundamental learning. (LH)