As difficult as it is to assess the tradeoffs due to time, it is even more challenging to factor in phenomena such as psychological stress and risk taking. Not only are individuals who use technology subject to the stresses of time pressures and career development, but those who do not use technology may find it stressful to NOT adopt technology. Teachers have to deal with the usual technical problems that invariably occur and share expertise with students who spend much time using the technology. Todays networked technologies provide rich sources of information and students can bring all these resources to the class as easily as the teacher. For most teachers this is a truly exciting advance, but is quite frightening to those who are less secure with roles as facilitators rather than information providers.
Technology sometimes leads to power sharing and blurs distinctions between teaching and learning.
Since much instructional theory calls for carefully planned presentations and students and parents typically expect such presentations, traveling down blind alleys and exploring ideas can easily be interpreted by students and other adults as disorganization or incompetence. It may be even more difficult to assess teaching for critical thinking than it is to assess the extent to which students do think critically. Devoting more time to technology, some mechanical advantages are gained that allow skills and facts to be acquired more rapidly. However, reflection on and evaluation of ideas will likely remain dependent on time on task. Some topics must eventually be forced out of curricula as technology enables teachers and learners to address more abstractions.