RE: QUESTION: The Technology of Technology

This past year my school attempted to make computer use an integral part of all school work.  Each student received a pentium III based laptop to use at school and at home.  The school was wired with a radio-based Local Area Network to provide Internet access.  The student body is a high percentage of low income, Black and Latino students.  To a great extent this was a successful experiment, but there were problems.  The support unit was the District technology staff, generally overworked and unable to respond in a timely fashion. Minor repairs took months; set up was slow; some students never got the Internet access cards.  One teacher (of four involved) was not computer literate.  These problems meant that the computer was mostly an ancillary tool extreemly helpful for some, but lack of equal access meant ineffective integration in the class.

So, Yes computer based technology should be available to all, but I RECOMMEND that part of the plan include making sure the support structure is included both teacher preparation when needed and knowledgeable local support with the ability to solve problems quickly.

Because the computer can have more than one role the schools should be able to use these computers for electronic grade books, attendance collection and submission, and as part of speciallized coursework with data analysis hardware and software for science or math, art programs, publishing software, etc. where those are appropriate applications for the classroom experience.  Remember this may be important for the school-to-work transition as discussed elsewhere.