It is being touted as the great panacea to education, the tool that will bring the city to the country and the country to the city. With a mixture of emotions that ran from excitement and enthusiasm to trepidation and reluctance, these teachers spoke of their desire to make the Internet available to students. Many were afraid of the medium and full of self-doubt as to whether or not they could master this new technology after only a few workshops. There is a lack of communication between museums and schools. Internet technology with projects like At Home in the Heartland Online can begin to remove some of the barriers that exist.
Educators work with a whole host of issues that absorb their time.
In order to deliver a useful classroom resource, museum curators and museum educators need to understand the demands placed on a teacher's time and work with his or her schedule. Many educators told me they wanted their kids to have access via e-mail to curators so the students could ask questions. Because of time constraints, this was not realistic for curators at the Illinois State Museum. Due to state cutbacks, the museum staff has been chiseled down, and all the curators are overextended. Museums and schools have a lot in common, including an educational mission and the fiscal limitations of being nonprofit.