There are now public schools in America, mainly in the suburbs, that are wired to the max and where every student has an e-mail address on the Internet. Most classrooms, however, remain disconnected from the wide world of electronic information because they don't have a phone line. Teachers see education fads come and go, and for the sake of the children, develop a healthy sense of skepticism. But increasingly, our members are incorporating information age technologies into their professional practice because they make them more effective teachers. The age of information has only just begun.
Many questions are yet to be answered.
While we knew that we needed to do a better job preparing educators to use technology to improve instruction, we initially underestimated the seriousness of this issue. It is clear that, from the beginning, we must do a better job of allocating the time and financial resources that technology implementation demands. Educators are being asked not simply to utilize new equipment, but to fundamentally transform their institutional practices. This is a big job, but it is happening. I believe that school improvement is never the result of a single element.