Community Inquiry

The Community Inquiry

Technology

(tekn'olijee)

Greek orgins

First recorded use: 1615

Word Frequency:

Written = 1/7900

Spoken = 1/2600

(based on the 100-million-word British National Corpus)

A challenge for school officials is the appropriate identification of the "problem(s)" to be addressed when developing a budget and making decisions about staffing and financial allocations.

2.1 Budgeting - Preface:

Budgeting is the process of allocating resources to the prioritized needs of a school district.

Texas Education Agency Financial Accountability System Resource Guide, June 2008

Of the major universities in the area, the following shows the number of technology-related bachelor's degrees compared to the total number of granted:

Texas A&M: 1242/8322

University of Texas 1127/8251

Louisiana State 407/4668

Texas Tech 464/4937

University of Houston 463/4810

However, this number does not represent the fact that all students must demonstrate proficiency and use technology integrated in with their content area.

(Based on 2007 Wolphram Alpha Data)

"Technology ranks among the top two or three tools to be used in education and in the top five of skills that need to be mastered by today's students to be successful in tomorrow's world. A school system should be able to demonstrate measurable improvements in the use of tools and in imparting the skills via objective measures that can be used in an effort to help drive the cost of school-used technology down over time."

- Male, 50-60, Tennessee

Technology is now as important as any other basic academic subject (i.e., reading, math, social studies, etc...). Today's students must have a basic understanding and working proficiency of the technological tools used throughout the world. Schools should supply the student accessibility to computers and software necessary for learning and functioning. Schools should not be required to supply each student with his or her own personal computer, but the students must have easy access."

- Female, 40-50, Texas

Technology is very important in education as without it, our children would be left behind. Our children and our future's depend on it.

Funding should be split by both parents and school funding. It is more important to our school's and future's than sports... yet it seems more funding from schools and parents go there."

- Female, 20-30, Texas

"Technology is vital to the success of this nation. There is no industry where technology does not play an almost defining role. Even when it is used as an auxillary to the main service or product, it is still essential for communication and marketing . . . . The most profitable companies claim it to be one of their highest reasons for success and companies who have limited it have met their demise quickly. This is why it is important to educate our kids with technology. Without it, we will have to continue to look overseas for skilled, technology-savvy labor, and will lose our position as the technology powerhouse. Setting a price point is hard; behind teaching the children character and moral fortitude, enough money should be spent to get the job done."

- Male, 20-30, Texas

"Learning and applying technology is critical today for success in the workplace and in life. It should have a high priority in our schools.

All education costs money. The budget for technology in our schools should be worked in with the other priorities, then should be funded in the normal way."

- Male, 50-60, Utah

"I think technology is very important in education if our children are to be competitive in the future. If you are requiring students to have to use computers for their classes, the school needs to make sure that all students have access to the required technology."

- Female, 50-60, Utah

Ashley Andreas Johnson

Texas A&M University

Fall 2009

It takes a village to raise a child...

What do you think?