RE: Technology in Education

Richard's comment that "it is becoming nearly impossible for high schools to hire top notch science and math teachers" reminds me of one the ideas behind an early school networking project with which I was involved.  We were working with technical staff at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center to develop and deploy a network for the Pittsburgh Public Schools - pretty much a prototype for the networks you see now in many schools around the country.  One of the tech people started asking about opportunities for spending a sabbatical working in the schools.  His thought was that the network environment in the schools was good enough for him to pursue any of the work he did at the Supercomputing Center.  

More generally, the way scientists keep up with activities in their field is largely through the Internet.  In the past one reason that research scientists didn't go into teaching at the pre-college level was that they feared losing contact with their colleagues and with activities in their field.  Now that schools have good Internet connectivity, this argument no longer applies. But perhaps few people recognize the change that has taken place. Sabbaticals in the schools or other mechanisms to bring scientists into the schools on a temporary basis might highlight the new environment that technology is bringing to the schools.

Bob Carlitz