Part of the appeal of the personal computer has been its value as an educational tool for the children in the family, and the computer has also become an important component in the elementary school classroom as a way of allowing children to access information in a new and more rapid way. There are other technological developments that have also served the classroom, and the rush to wire schoolrooms and libraries is part of the desire to achieve the so-called information superhighway which will eventually link home, school, business, and government in a huge electronic network of services. Teachers and administrators have found new technologies to be valuable in the classroom but also to create new problems, not the least of which is how to pay for the technology in the first place and for upgrades as needed. This difficulty has also exacerbated a perennial educational problem, the disparity in the provision of resources to richer and poorer districts and children. Technology benefits those schools that can purchase it, but the lack of technology only places poorer districts that much further behind the rest of the nation.
The value of new educational technology is emphasized by students, teachers, and administrators in the heart of the Silicon Valley where much of this technology is made. Harvey Barnett of the Cupertino Union School District says that his goal is to provide 5 or 6 computers per classroom. The district has not achieved this goal because of money, and there is a growing gap between what students want and what schools can afford. One student in Cupertino recently suggested the development of a virtual reality classroom where students could interact with figures from history, as an example. Another student suggested carrying laptops instead of books. A third referred to
videoconferencing capabilities so students could connect with other schools. As Barnett states, "Our students know more than we do. . . ...