"Opportunity for all is a cruel myth," said Lord Puttnam, warning that technology, rather than opening up learning, could be reinforcing social divisions.
Speaking at the launch of a report calling for a fresh approach to "digital inclusion", Lord Puttnam said the education system currently "is failing to challenge a whole slew of longstanding inequalities in opportunity and access to learning".
And despite large sums of money being spent on technology in schools, the report from education researchers Futurelab says we need an urgent re-think in how that information and communication technology (ICT) is applied.
"We need to move beyond the assumption that simply providing hardware and offering access to ICT will bridge the gap," says Futurelab's research director, Keri Facer.
As Lord Puttnam put it: there needs to more than a "technological sticking plaster".
The "digital divide" has been a problem almost since computers first arrived in education - with warnings that the haves would become the have-mores and the have-nots would be left even further behind.
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