This presentation examines critically the perspective of deschooling as one possible "ideal" framework to understand and approach the relation of education and technology. The concept 'open learning environment' and its interpretation is used as a key example to highlight the logic of deschooling discourse and its position in the present discourses on educational technology. Within a late modern society or the information society the structures of the modern society are challenged: the logic which has shaped schooling is seen to be capable of producing citizens to a mode of work which is best exemplified by conveyor belt. However, once the structure of work has changed this kind of schooling has lost its social justification. Schooling as a production system can be seen to have dehumanizing elements. This criticism was originally represented by deschooling movement. The main idea was to offer citizens possibilities of accessing knowledge whenever they felt this need. For society to be fully functional the requirement is that "teaching is a possibility always being offered" (Foucault 1988, 329). The wide accessibility and interconnectedness of the net seems to grant this dream to every citizen who is equipped with the necessary technology and has capacities to use it for her interests. In this discourse 'open learning environment' means a lack of centralized governmental control over educational means and purposes. In support of the deschooling idea, it can be defended that all education has an element of self-education. The basic principle of the democratic society is that people have possibilities of fulfilling their needs without harming other people in a significant manner. From the point of view of the individual, deschooling could mean better possibilities of gathering information or entertainment suitable for one's purposes. When the individual is interpreted this way, the main metaphor of the individual is a customer, an enterpreneurial autonomous chooser. On the other hand, the democratic society needs a participatory activity. An important educational goal would be securing social action towards better future. Within the discource of deschooling movement, education for social transformation is seen to be dependent of the will of individuals. However, individual choice is greatly shaped by existing social institutions, such as market economy. The identity politics in general, and identity production in the internet in particular, can be said to have ideological dimensions one may not be fully aware of. This social framework may in fact stay hidden if the decontextualised nature of metacognitive learning skills is emphasized From the viewpoint of social criticism the deschooling perspective seems to have rather severe limitations. Firstly, in the conceptual level 'open learning environment' has been described as a possibility for the individual to be free from the restrictions of time and place in the pursuit of knowledge present in the traditional schooling. Secondly, the deschooling discourse describes technology as an existing naturelike environment, which gives an individual a positive freedom to choose whatever she pleases. This means that deschooling perspective sees the ideal solution for education as meeting two basic requirements: the non-interference of formal educational institutions and the existence of accessible technical framework. The questions that are suppressed in this point of view are, on one hand, what the nature of technology is that is spoken of, and what interest groups are maintaining the technical infrastructure. On the other hand, the cultural conditions under which the successful self-education would materialize in practice are not touched in this discourse. The main problem is that technology and the self- improving tendency of an individual remain as an "invisible hand" yielding the positive outcomes that are discussed in the conceptual level.