I am more concerned because in my state we are moving to common core and all testing will be via computer. This is a huge disadvantage for kids who have no tablets at home. I would say that 40% of the parents at our school do not have email and email is available on smart phones. So a higher percentage of kids don't have a computer at home or internet access. Not sure how many have a touch screen tablet.
So kids who are very bright (and gifted) who do not have technology at home, are not going to score well on the tests and the tests are used as a screening tool before they test kids for the GATE program.
Our teachers use their smart boards all the time and I have not found them to be a waste.
We have a computer lab and all the kids get computer class once a week (and this is at great cost to the PTA because the school district pays for none of this) but the computers are 8 years old.
I would be thrilled if we could have a classroom set of tablets that could be shared within each grade.
We have equipment like digital microscopes but no computers to use with them anymore.
I also wish (so very much) that we could supply the students with e-readers (e-ink ones) to get to take home. If they could get e-books from the library at school and use the school internet access to check out e-books from the public library, it would definitely reduce the barrier to getting books that a lot of families have.
