Money and Technology in Schools

I am truly grateful for comments on my blog about What We Know about Technology in School and it is time for a response from me. First of all, I am surprised that the responses to my comment focused on $$$ which is a VERY small part of what I was saying. I think I added that part of the comment in frustration at the end because I was trying to come to a conclusion about why things in education do not change. I really did not mean for money to be the focus of my blog posting. The point was that we KNOW that technology is important for LOTS of reasons. It will not change schools by itself, even if all teachers started using Blogs and Wikis. Money is not the real issue.

However, I stand by my comment that our priorities are measured by how money is spent. A bumper sticker I have always liked says "What if schools had all of the money they needed and the Pentagon had to have bake sales?" I know that even the Pentagon does not have all of the money it needs, especially now; but I do know that the military recruiting offices at the University of Texas seem to have lots of resources and I am sure that this is true all over the United States. I doubt that anyone questions the need for each recruiter to have a new computer with adequate software.

See, now even I am fussing about money.... The issue is not really money, but priorities and what will bring about real change...