The definition of technology remains the same, even though what one considers technology depends on the era in which they live. It is a method of achieving a practical purpose; the totality of the means employed to provide what is necessary, including education. Fifty years ago, a filmstrip projector was new classroom technology. Today, options come at a pace that staggers comprehension. You may consider technology to be thrilling and fascinating or overblown and annoying. Whatever your feelings, it is a fact of life, and it is a school district's charge to not only prepare students with such skills, but to be as efficient as possible with their resources when so doing. Technology can do both.

In managing the structure of education, technology can save time and increase productivity. Record keeping, such as student attendance, grade submissions and memos can circulate instantly, without paper. Because communication is easier, more of it happens.

Purchase orders are written and automatically entered into coded accounts. Bus routes are more easily planned to optimize time and fuel. Students' lunch accounts can be managed and monitored without the daily handling of money. These systems generally allow teachers and staff to work more efficiently.

Teachers are still performing standard tasks; doing research, presenting information and creating assignments. But technology gives them more options, often allowing them to present information to the students more effectively. Teachers need to understand the technologies well enough to know how best to set them up for student learning.

Using computers for drill and practice, while an option, is not their best educational use. Video images can be streamed from the Internet into classrooms and through data projectors, bringing the world to our students. This helps level the playing field, not only between academic abilities, but also between rural and urban students. Without a doubt, the world becomes smaller and more tangible.

Cathy Mullarney, the elementary music teacher, found a Chinese New Year song on the Internet. After verifying that the song was used in China, it was used in her classroom. Art teachers have vast resources available to them to illustrate art history and styles; a world-wide museum of their own making. Physical education teachers promote an awareness of activity and health with individual heart rate monitors. iPods store folders of accompaniment music for instrumental lessons. Several sites are used in our district that allow teachers to select and illustrate, and have students practice specific concepts.

One important task educators now have is teaching students to discern between useful information and “garbage.” The view that “because it's on the Internet, it must be true” is a new battle to be fought.

Students do not perceive technology in the whirlwind that adults do. For them, this is how life has always been. Studies prove that students' brains learn and work differently from ours due to their exposure to interactive technology. You can argue that this change may be for the better or worse, but for the educator the students' “how” has to be employed.

Our kindergarten students can visit an ocean institute on the west coast or a science museum in Buffalo to learn about dinosaurs, without leaving the district. French students use computers equipped with Web cams to speak with students in France.

Distance learning capabilities allow our students to interact in the same class with students elsewhere in the county or even the state. This fall, Southern Cayuga and Union Springs students shared a journalism class via interactive telecommunications.

The key to using technology successfully is a clear vision of your goal and choosing the correct tool to get there.

The tool might be chalk, or the tool might be a document projector with video and freeze fame capability. The ultimate goal of school districts and educators today is to use the tool that helps the student reach the height of their potential.

Cindy Sharshon works for the Southern Cayuga School District