In the School district of Greenville County in South Carolina, the need for change in teaching style and techniques is now one the main concerns of school administrators. As the young learners of the 21st century are now spending more time using the Internet, using mobile phones, and playing video games, teachers should find better means to get the attention of this plugged-in generation.

With the help of technology, Greenville County, South Carolina is directing its efforts to develop its technology literacy and focuses on integrating technology into teaching and learning. The move to use of technology in the classroom would really be an advantage for those students who are going to benefit from this big change.

There are around 100 schools scattered at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the School District of Greenville County, South Carolina, and the student population is diverse with around 63,000 enrollees.

Economic development has been helping South Carolina progress in the past decade. Today, South Carolina enjoys the privilege of working with a number of international corporations, such as BMW from Germany, Michelin from France and Kyocera from Japan which have helped Greenville County for the past seven years to earn $ 3 billion in new capital investment.

These new developments and influx of jobs to the residents have also presented new opportunities for the school district of South Carolina. Moreover, statistics have shown that employers nowadays are welcoming more technical skilled employees and this is the reason why South Carolina’s technological framework was put into the development of the students so they can make good use of this in the future.

The district has expended ample energy in the infrastructure technology. Schools are being hooked on networks via fiber optics. Voice-over internet phone services are being installed in every teacher’s desk. But having sufficient hardware and technical support are just the start of the solution, the need also to have instructional support should be done so that teachers would feel comfortable using technology in their lessons.

To help them with this, teachers are were provided with a 40-hour instruction program in the use of doing effective integration of technology into the classroom. It helps them with instructional planning and project-based learning so that the students can be supplied with skills such as technological literacy, problem solving and critical thinking.

Master teachers also led their colleagues in computer labs hands-on sessions; this will help their district to use their few instructional technology staff to achieve the proper knowledge needed for a large-scale professional growth.

The curriculum that was given to them focused on the importance of planning units to meet standards, of asking curriculum-framing questions and of developing effective assessment. By introducing this development, the administrators were able to touch on the concerns of the teachers and not only of the students. The teachers have the chance now to engage with their students in the different tools of technology, and helping their students meet their learning goals as a result.