| Summary: | This article examines the cost and educational effectiveness of integrated instructional systems, or custom packages of computers, data storage devices and instructional software. School boards in the U.S. are snapping up instructional computers, software and related services at a billion-dollar-a-year clip, according to industry leaders. Approximately half that sum is spent on integrated instructional systems. Proponents say these products offer schools their best hope of educating and increasingly diverse population. Integrated instructional systems combine some of the best new educational technology with strengths of computer systems that started drilling low-achieving students in mathematics and languages in the 1960s. On more economical microcomputers, integrated systems still provide electronic drill and practice. But the range of lessons and the ability to individualize them have expanded substantially. But advantages of integrated systems do not come cheap. Critics maintain integrated systems are just too costly for the time students use them-typically they say, no more than an hour a day. Furthermore, they argue, integrated systems devour money available for other new learning technologies.
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