Alan Kay examines how personal computers might contribute to education, distinguishing their potential for supporting learning from their use as conventional teaching machines. He identifies several important functions of personal computing, including attracting attention, supporting writing and related tasks, retrieving information, running simulations and enabling communication.

The article also considers how computers can affect ways of thinking about education and the future. Kay places particular emphasis on computers as environments in which learners can explore ideas, create representations and test possibilities rather than simply receive predetermined instruction. He discusses educational technology within the wider development of personal computing and considers how emerging systems could alter access to information and intellectual tools. The article presents these possibilities alongside broader questions about how educators understand technological change and how computers should be incorporated into learning.