I'm thankful that more and more schools are being connected to the Internet with high-speed connections. The utility of surfing the Web to gather information becomes much more apparent when you connect at speeds of 56k and above. The board also recommended the establishment of a universal service fund whose unexpended resources can be carried over from year to year. Next May, the FCC will decide whether to accept the recommendations of the joint board. I'm thankful that Apple is cutting Power Mac prices again.
Competition spurs innovation.
Because it is Thanksgiving week, I also have a few turkeys to hand out. A turkey to administrators who think they can keep adding technology capabilities without increasing budgets, training funds or staff. The world is becoming an increasingly info-centric place. As we rely more on technology to store and deliver information, we need to keep in mind the costs of researching, recommending, installing, supporting and servicing the information infrastructure. Rule one is you cannot continually add new technologies without adding the staff and increasing the budget to support them.