Published: March 29, 2007

Teaching Assistants

Though some see them as valuable assets, today's high-tech tools have not caught on with many teachers.

Compared with the digital tools at many teachers’ fingertips today, the technology of the typical American classroom 10 years ago was a Model T Ford bumping down a two-lane road. Traditional chalkboards still reigned, instead of the Internet-ready whiteboards now cropping up in classrooms. Clunky desktop computers were de rigueur, instead of today’s wireless laptops loaded with multimedia software. Instead of going online to upload digital videos and beam them from liquid-crystal-display projectors, a decade ago teachers still trooped to the school library to check out laser discs or VHS tapes.

And it’s not only the machines that have changed. How some teachers are using them has come a long way as well.

Where once they used classroom computers for little more than rewarding students with games, teachers now can assign online assessments to get an instant read...