In an effort to help special needs students in the classroom, many teachers work very hard to differentiate curriculum for their struggling students. According to A Nation Deceived (Colangelo, Assouline, & Gross, 2004), the one group of students in American schools who make little or no yearly progress are the gifted students in the classroom. Enriching the curriculum for gifted students does not appear to be a high priority for teachers (Horne & Shaughnessy, 2013). Increasingly, teachers turn to the computer to provide independent work for students, relegating education to a solitary endeavor. Social skills and collaboration are traits encouraged in many classrooms. Instead of isolating gifted students, technology can be integrated into instructional strategies in order to enrich the curriculum for all students. Enrichment can become an integral part of instruction. Technology can create learning environments that challenge gifted students.

The success of any educational technology lies in how students interact with it in an educational setting. In the iLRN model (Lennex & Nettleton, 2009), the teacher provides instruction but through activity theory the students transform the learning to suit their own designs. The quality of teacher directions determines the extent to which students depend on the teacher for further feedback and technical assistance. If a teacher is perceived as not understanding even a small part of the technology, Lennex (2008) discovered that P-12 students are unlikely to ask for clarification of assignments or for any further assistance. Exploration and peer coaching replaced the teacher. Technologically literate teachers who interacted with their students and encouraged the scaffolding of knowledge discovered that final student projects demonstrated higher levels of critical thinking and creativity when compared to teacher-controlled projects.

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When students are identified for gifted services, one of the first questions asked by parents is, “What will my child be doing that is different from what is being done now?” The purpose of this first chapter is to provide a foundation as the reader proceeds through the following chapters in the book. The chapter presents the characteristics of gifted students along with the ways gifted services are delivered to students at various levels. This chapter, and actually the whole book, looks at ways to meet the needs of gifted students in the K-12 environment. Gifted students need instruction that enriches their conceptual attainment, helps them make connections and patterns between content areas, and develops an understanding of real-life applications of content. The growing availability of technological resources has empowered teachers to meet the academic needs of students and provide an enriched learning experience for all students. The wide range of software has provided gifted students opportunities to independently explore areas that would not be possible in the regular classroom.