An article in e-School News Online reports on a survey of several thousand people which concluded:
“The majority of respondents said technology is an important factor in connecting schools to their communities, as well as in leveling the playing field among more and less affluent schools by providing equal access to educational content.”
In addition:
“According to the survey, 59 percent of Americans agree that “information technology is a vital tool that can help educate our students by providing access to video and other dynamic content” and that more should be done to incorporate technology into the learning process.
Americans also recognize that understanding science and technology is important to success in the 21st-century workforce, the poll suggests: 69 percent of Americans believe that science and math courses should be made mandatory for grades 7 through 12. “
The flip side is that respondents were not in any agreement on how this kind of technology education should be delivered, nor did people see teaching technology at odds with the push for more standardized testing.
Some links from the article:
Video of panel discussion
http://www.463.com/Clients/Cisco/
Cisco Education
http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/education/index.html
Consortium for School Networking
http://www.cosn.org
International Society for Technology in Education
http://www.iste.org
Peace (with tech),
Kevin