School technology investments

-Providing the Right Tools


-Teaching 'Digital Natives'
We must prepare our children and our country for the future. This is an investment we can't afford to ignore.



School technology investments enable 21st-century learning and provide our current and future workforce with the tools they need to compete and succeed in our globally integrated world. To accomplish this goal, Obama's reported $850 billion Economic Recovery Plan should include two critical components:

1. Investments in school technology and broadband; and

2. Investments in home-to-school technology targeted at low-income families.

Specifically, the federal stimulus package should cover expenses for schools to install or upgrade Internet connections to broadband; hire technical and instructional technology support; and purchase or upgrade hardware, software, and services. And, the home-school investment should enable low-income families with one or more students to purchase eligible learning technology devices (computers, laptops, and other new devices) and educational software, as well as broadband Internet connections.

Short-term economic benefits of this strategy include:

1. Creation of jobs in the technology and telecommunications sectors;

2. School districts hiring technical and technology curricular staff (a vastly understaffed function today); and

3. Upgrading and retooling of school facilities and equipment (which is impossible in the current fiscal environment).

This strategy's greatest impact is that our children would receive an education that reflects the wider world, and would emerge from schooling "future ready" for higher education and our global economy.