Many of today's information producers are converting their knowledge bases to digital format and are constructing new technologies to increase speed, capacity, and reliability of dissemination. As telephone, computer, television, and other media merge, incredible resources will become available. Schools must increase their productivity and efficiency . When stage-three educators determine what students should do and how teachers and technologies can support students, many of the routine tasks done by teachers can be reassigned to technology, elevating the role of teacher. Some things only teachers can do.
Teachers can build strong, productive relationships with students.
Teachers can motivate students to love learning. Teachers can identify and meet students' emotional needs. Technology-based solutions in education can, and must, free the teacher to do the important work that requires human interaction, continuous evaluation, and improvement of the learning environment. Computer-based technologies can administer individualized lesson sequences that branch and remediate according to students' unique needs, quickly and automatically track progress, perform data analysis, and generate reports. Other computer-based tools enable teachers to quickly generate individualized communications to parents, create lesson plans, and select instructional materials from a rich resource database.