This is probably the most important question of all. Technology is expensive, breaks down, and requires extra time and effort that most teachers do not have. Many efforts at improving education and school reform have come and gone. Teachers who spent a great deal of time and effort adjusting to some change in the past that was ineffective do not want to put effort into change until they know that it is going to stay.

Many leaders in education today are saying that technology is different than other changes that education has gone through. Technology is essential throughout our society in different forms. Kids who are in school today are going to graduate and need to work in a very different world than when they started school.

Technology is like a moving target for researchers. By the time a research study is completed technology has changed and it no longer applies. Donald J. Leu makes the point in a paper called "The Convergence of Literacy Instruction with Networked Technologies for Information and Communication" that we don't have time anymore to research. He asks the question "Who needs hard data on the beneficial outcomes of new technologies for literacy or learning when it becomes clear these technologies, or their related successors, will be the technologies of the children's futures?"

A better question to work on may be, "HOW can we support teacher's efforts at unlocking the benefits of new technologies?"

The following is a list of web sites with further reading on these subjects. If you are interested in reading what has been presented here in more depth the paper it comes from is available in PDF format. It's Too Late To Read This Paper. I hope that the thoughts here have been provocative and helpful.

EdWeb

http://edweb.cnidr.org

From Now On-Excellent thoughtful articles on technology education. See the September issue with an article on Information Literacy.

http://www.fno.org

Reinventing Schools-The Technology is Now (National Academy of Science)

http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/techgap/welcome.html

Center for Leadership in School Reform

http://www.clsr.org/index.shtml