Seeing older teachers realize technology really will become a major driving force as we move into the next millennium. When I was in one of our schools, one of the kids was working with a particular technology application and I asked him whether it was hard to do. It wasn't a profound statement, but when you think about how adults look at technology, and then you think about this kid who's only eight or nine, it signifies for me the vast difference in how the generations view the use of technology. They realize they can network with their colleagues, be a co-developer of a Web site, use it as a vehicle for conveying best practices in the classroom, as a motivator for students, etc. As we moved from running big mainframes into the early use of PCs, I began to see the acceleration of technology use and the benefits it had from an administrative standpoint.
Technology can do that.
It can allow students to move forward whether the teacher is ready or not. As I watched reading become an equalizer for kids, opening up worlds that they might never visit except in their minds, and what potential that had, it occurred to me that technology had that same potential. It opens the world and gives you the potential regardless of artificial roadblocks that exist. To the extent we can make the roadblocks of race, color, income level and parental background disappear, we will provide an education that educates every child. But in the evolution of technology over the last 10 to 15 years, I've seen the potential for equalizing access to information and an ability to work with it that has not been there before.