The Tool assumes that the design and development of contentware will be carried out by multifaceted professional groups at a central level. See Section 3 below. The advantages of this option are:

• These groups can be highly trained and can be assigned to work full-time on this activity. This leads to consistently high quality product, build-up of experience and learning, and systematic coordination with national curricular and instructional plans.
• The groups can be efficiently equipped with suitable hardware and software.
• Development of contentware that may be used on a large scale offers economies of scale, leading to low unit costs.
• Planning for contentware developed that easily include plans for packaging and dissemination.
• This option lends itself to a central maintenance system that includes revisions, updates and administration.
  

This should not, however, stop teachers from developing certain educational assets or modules. There arte many benefits from that. Teachers have a good understanding of the cognitive and instructional contexts, and are experienced judges of what may or may not work. However, to rely on teachers to develop the system of integrated contentware will encounter many issues. For example:

• Teachers normally do not have time, skill, and technical support to design and develop high quality and integrated contentware. To provide teachers with sufficient time, training and technical support is more expensive and complicated than providing these resources to a central team.
• The quality of the product will vary.
• It is difficult to provide a wholesome program of contentware that responds to the full range of curriculum content and objectives.

There is, however, a place for the development of contentware by teachers to be used on in the classroom or school. Also the central team may co-opt certain teachers to develop draft assets or modules in the context of an integrated plan. The process that this Tool presents will help teachers in both cases.

It is also desirable to engage students in the exercise of development of assets and modules with the aim to build conceptual understandings, express ideas, create new resources, and acquire high level of technology literacy. Some elements of this Tool can guide students in such exercises.