Computer useage in schools spreading, but limited (Score 1)

I know that many of there students are miles ahead of them, but they try to incorporate it in their curriculum when possible.

When I was in school, the web was still very young and the only valid use in school for the internet might have been research for a paper. But now times are changeing. Some teachers in highschool are answering questions by email, some post materials online for students.

Both of my parents are highschool teachers, and I got them to use computer more and more in there teaching method. It started with useing word processing to create tests and assignemnts, but now they do online research, answer questions by email, do virtual since labs over the internet, use computer games such as Sim Coaster to demonstrate the principles of physics, etc.

The big complaint I hear from them is not that they are not able to incorporate the internet and computers more becuase of there skills (they are not experts by any means, but they get by with what they need to do), but that schools do not have the proper equipment to do what they want to. Computers, internet access, etc are all limited resources in many schools.

To make maters worse, when the schools do get money for equipment, it often gets improperly set up or isn't getting used as it is down. The schools often can't afford to spend them oney to higher a descent IT staff to setup and manage the computers efficiently. This made worse by students who decide to hack and break the school systems for fun...the staff can't keep up.
Unless schools are willing to shell out the money to get descent staff to setup and support the systems and networks well, and train the teachers to use them effectively, the teachers will always have a hard time keeping up.