By: Edwin Molina

over the last decade, we as a nation have invested more than $66 billion investment in school technology

unprecedented level of investment in educational technology has raised expectations of legislators and public

As a result of these efforts, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, or Recovery Act), which President Obama signed into law on February 17, 2009, provided a total of $98.2 billion in funding for the Department of Education, creating an unprecedented opportunity for States and school districts to make significant changes to strengthen and improve all levels of education.

Districts are now providing and adopting textbooks that provide solid resources online or computer software programs that aid instruction.

Alief ISD, recently adopted Texas Treasures by MacMillan- Mc Graw Hill with a huge amount of material online for teachers and students.

http://www.macmillanmh.com/connectED/mkt/texas-treasures.html

PAST EXAMPLES OF TECHNOLOGY

PRESENT EXAMPLES OF TECHNOLOGY

Television Radio Books on Tape Projectors

Computers CD players Reading and Math

software and online games to assist reading

ELMO projectors White boards Online discussion

boards

Teachers are overworked and expected to perform without much training

Many educators hesitant to try new technology

Distribution of funds may not always be proportioned appropriately

Many lack technology at home making it difficult to find a balance

Access an online weather forecast. Include URLs in your monthly calendar. Access online weather forecasts in

French, German, or Spanish. Challenge students with online

mathematics problems. Provide a URL in place of a quote.

What needs to happen with teachers to help guide them into this new world of technology?

Various in-services offered throughout the year

Follow up trainings to address any issues Guidance by administrators and tech

specialists

Providing parents with training sessions as well to promote the use of technology at home

Write legislators to allocate funds for public places that provide technology classes

Campuses should consider providing training sessions for teachers as well as parents

Technology is not going to go away! Technology advances faster than we can

possibly keep up with so a day can’t be wasted

More communication needs to exist between the government and schools- administrators and teachers- teachers and students- and all members of the school with parents.

Eric Klopfer, S. O. (2009). The Education Arcade. Retrieved June 9, 2010, from MIT: http://education.mit.edu/papers/GamesSimsSocNets_EdArcade.pdf

Honey, M. (1999). Critical Issue: Using Technology to Improve Student Achievement . Retrieved August 9, 2010, from North Central Regional Educational Laboratory: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te800.htm#context

Starr, L. (2009, August 11). Technology Integration Made Easy. Retrieved June 9, 2010, from Education World: http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech146.shtml

United States Department of Education (2009). Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Summary: http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget10/summary/edlite-section1.html