Federal dollars are being spent by school districts to purchase all kinds of fancy gizmos and high tech equipment to “better prepare students for the high tech economy of tomorrow.” Or something like that.

Via the WaPo:

Under enormous pressure to reform, the nation’s public schools are spending millions of dollars each year on gadgets from text-messaging devices to interactive whiteboards that technology companies promise can raise student performance.

Driving the boom is a surge in federal funding for such products, the industry’s aggressive marketing and an idea axiomatic in the world of education reform: that to prepare students kids for the 21st century, schools must embrace the technologies that are the media of modern life. (emphasis added)

However, more and more educators are questioning the effectiveness of the new high tech gadgets:

Increasingly, though, another view is emerging: that the money schools spend on instructional gizmos isn’t necessarily making things better, just different. Many academics question industry-backed studies linking improved test scores to their products. And some go further. They argue that the most ubiquitous device-of-the-future, the whiteboard — essentially a giant interactive computer screen that is usurping blackboards in classrooms across America — locks teachers into a 19th-century lecture style of instruction counter to the more collaborative small-group models that many reformers favor.

Engaged and involved parents expecting and demanding performance from their children is the key to success and not the latest teaching technique or fancy video display.

A video demonstration of a SMART Board: