Solutions

With all the issues at hand it is hard to imagine a sustainable learning environment in which all schools have the same learning equality as the next. Even if schools could find a way to fund for every child to have a laptop, is that what every school wants? It has been shown that getting students online can greatly increase their success in school and students that take courses online often outperform students that take it in a classroom.  University of Minnesota Finding a way for schools to even have a few computers can be very daunting and some solutions can be made to find an equal learning environment, to a certain extent, across the country.



If a school or district is given a grant, or have resources of money, then they are already on their way to gaining technology. Before they spend all of the money on technology they must remember to budget some of that money, and to also set aside money for learning how to use this new technology. It won't do any good if they receive technology that they are not able to use to its full extent. A type of budgeting that could work for schools is the life cycle budgeting. Through this system it is know that hardware lasts up to five years and schools will know how to budget their money by having to upgrade around every five years. This system is not the only way to budget, but is a great example of how schools can plan their money for future upgrading. "Budgets are the link between the plans and actions. They translate strategic plans into the financial resources necessary to implement the plan."
(Above information from Solutions to Funding Technology)

By having the funding from either federal, state, public, or private sources is a great resource for schools to get aid in their quest for technology. Using systems of budgeting and planning and balancing the funds that are given to schools, they will be able to find a way to keep up with technology and gradually let classrooms gain this access. Not all schools are even given access to these grants and thus rises the issue of the digital divide. It will be a hard task to close this divide, with so many people in our country unable to have access to a computer or internet. This then results in citizens unable to afford this technology due to the economic crisis we are in. If our economy starts to build up again, then citizens will be able to start affording these necessities and have access. The digital divide will start to narrow and more students will have access to technology both at home as well as in the classroom.

"The fact is that if America wishes its future generations to be able to meet the demands of a global community, to compete in a world that is technology-based, and to manage the vast amounts of data and information available, we must give today’s children the tools through education." Future of Technology
 
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