Stages of Integration Teachers follow similar stages of adoption as they first learn about technology and then begin to incorporate it into their teaching and learning. Early activities tend to mirror activities with which the teachers feel comfortable. As comfort and proficiency improve, teachers may begin to use technology for instruction in novel ways or create activities that better capitalize on the capabilities of the technology. The pivotal, longitudinal project, the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow™ (ACOT™) began in 1985 and has provided a wealth of information about teacher attitudes, practices, and integration behaviors when using technology. Early reports from this project identified a five-stage continuum of technology integration that emerged at all of the project's sites. These five evolutionary stages are described below. 9 A similar pattern of integrating technology into the teaching process appears in several sources, such as Sheingold and Hadley's finding that teachers begin with technology that replicates familiar teaching activities. 10 ACOT™ Stages Teachers typically learn the fundamental aspects of using new technology, including the basics of configuring hardware and software. Teachers concern themselves with ways to use the technology to support traditional instruction. Teachers integrate technology into existing classroom activities. The emphasis is productivity. Students use word processors, databases, and some graphics programs to create familiar products of instruction. Teachers begin to develop new approaches to teaching and learning that make the most of the technology available to them. A teacher's mastery and skill level have developed to enable the creation of new learning activities not possible without the technology. Teachers no longer try to adapt instruction to technology but adjust their fundamental perceptions of instruction. Teachers who reach this stage reflect on the actual craft of teaching, and their classroom strategies may become quite different.