“In the summer of 2004, technology and education innovators and visionaries convened in Big Sky, Montana, to explore the challenges affecting the introduction of technology to improve the teaching and learning of science. In particular, they explored what educational leaders know about applying technology to improve the quality of science education for all students, and what leaders need to know to ensure that emerging technologies are more successfully integrated into K–12 classrooms and more effectively applied in out-of-classroom inquiries.”

With the help of NSTA, this is the document that was put together: “A New Digital Divide: Emerging Technologies and America’s Classrooms”, and it can be accessed here: http://science.nsta.org/enewsletter/lmr.pdf.

While the document specifically addresses technology in the science classroom, the challenges that it addresses have no discipline boundaries; as educators, these are questions that we must address. “Based on what is known today, participants agreed that universal access to task-appropriate technologies, coupled with teacher preparation and professional development designed to enhance science and technology teaching and learning, should become a national priority.” This is of course, a concern that must be addressed by all educators in the 21st century classroom.