In a world that is more technologically savvy than ever before, it has become increasingly necessary to purchase and use the products of the current time. Within the last several decades, the nation went from few people owning televisions to almost everyone owning one. Currently the United States seems to be making that push with products such as computers. Technology, instead of merely being something to buy, has become a way of life. .
Although technology has been easily slipped in to the home life, it is not used as effectively as it could be at the school level. There is a teaching strategy, however, known as instructional technology which seeks to incorporate technology into the everyday school curriculum. The definition of instructional technology as determined by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology is, "Instructional (educational) technology is the theory and practice of design, utilization, management and evaluation of processes and resources for learning."(Higgins Hains, 2000) The act of actually integrating technology into the school curriculum is neither easy nor beneficial at all times, but if time is spent correctly implementing the technology into the everyday curriculum, then there are many advantages to the teaching strategy.
Although using technology as part of teaching strategies can be very successful, it also comes with a fair share of problems. One of the biggest problems and disadvantages of the strategy is that it is almost impossible to stay at the same pace of technology today. "Adding to the problem is the fact that hardware and software become obsolete rather quickly," Grasha states. (Grasha, 2000) With every minute that passes, people are focusing on how to update and improve technology to the point that something is almost outdated immediately after it is purchased. Grasha also adds, "Although this sounds exciting, the use of technology entails inherent problems.