Instructional Management
SPS has years of experience helping K-12 school districts use computer tools in the “right way.” We do not believe that computer technology can replace the traditional techniques used to instruct students for generations. Teacher to student interaction is, and always will be the primary form of instruction. However, we believe that the advantages of a computer equipped school are two-fold. Firstly, in a changing work environment where technology is of increasing importance, students that use computers in school are ahead of the learning curve and will be better prepared to be successful in the 21st century workplace. Secondly, computer technology expands the types and choices of tools that teachers are able to use in the classroom. The initial introduction of a new technology is usually accompanied by an underestimation of how pervasive that technology will become. For example, when the cell phone was invented in 1973 one very early estimate predicted a total market of 100,000. Three billion have been sold. The same underestimation occurred when the personal computer was introduced. To what extent a technology is accepted and adopted is determined not by how clever or innovative the technology is, but by how useful it is and what benefits it provides to the users. Nowhere is this truer than applying computer technology in the classroom. "The computers have to be placed in the right hands and used in the right ways," said Virginia Edwards of Education Week. "In fact, used for the wrong purposes, computers seem to do more harm than good. Technology is, after all, only a tool in the educational process, not terribly unlike a pencil."
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