after all of that excitement... (or goodness, I want an Iphone, but I would LOVE a Smartboard)

(in playing w/ my friend's Iphone)...I had to start daydreaming about what it would be like to be in a "wired" classroom. Not one that just had "access" to technology, but one that actually had technology integrated into it. Would my students sit down, pull out an Iphone like device, and peruse the map of the original 13 colonies I was streaming to them? Could they walk in after being ill and sit in the back with a podcast telling them what they missed the day before?
Would I finally feel comfortable "requiring" that they ALL type their essays/writing before they turn it in? (right now, I make about five exceptions, total, but I would love not to do that...)

Technology, as great as it is, depends on mass access to really be useful for education. I spend quite a bit of time reading, and loving, other teachers' journeys with their students via blogs and wikis. Unfortunately, at my school the internet is shot more often than not, and our IT department often calls me for help--even if I'm the one that called them first!

Why is it that schools are always just that bit behind? How can we convince ourselves that we're preparing students for a future when we're teaching out of the past? I sincerely believe that I'm teaching my students to think and that thinking will enable them to learn anything new they have to--but I would love to also be able to to teach them the content with the same sort of technology some of them use to browse the web.

Is this impossible? Are public schools just "out of the loop" and destined to stay that way?