Technology

While the nation's public schools spend upwards of $5 billion each year on technology, many districts still scrimp on providing the training that teachers need to use those new tools to enhance student learning. At the same time, educators who use technology say it helps to raise test scores and motivate students. Those are among key findings of two reports on educational technology released this week. Market Data Retrieval's 1998 Technology in Education used results from a survey of the nation's 86,600 public schools to look at the technology being used.

The ever-increasing technological aptitude required to make it in the real world has had a trickle-down effect at schools, where teachers and students alike are learning to use high-tech toys that years ago would have been accessible, and understandable, to only the most tech-savvy. Chris Penny, 34, of West Grove, an educational technology professor at West Chester University's College of Education, works with undergraduate and graduate students, priming them on the ins and outs of the technology they will need to teach coming generations.

Don't miss the free Small Business Services breakfast event, "How Technology and Social Media Can Benefit Your Small Business," Thursday in the Public Meeting Room at The Inquirer, 400 N. Broad St. Networking starts at 7:30 a.m., and the event is scheduled to run until 9:30 a.m. You'll learn how small businesses are integrating new technologies and social media into their business models. The forum examines Philadelphia's obsession with good food and the small businesses that provide the best digital edge in serving their customers.

Widener University in Chester will combine management and technology courses for a new master's degree program in the fall. The program is designed for professionals in technical fields seeking to enhance management skills and keep abreast of technology. "The uniqueness of the program comes because of the equal weight we assigned to business and engineering components. . . . Technology management is generally at the purview of the business school," said Iqbal Mansur, head of Widener's management department.

WARNING: Any mice even thinking about taking refuge in Taryn Scanlon's Newtown Square home - don't. Using a series of simple machines - inclined planes, pulleys and levers - Scanlon has designed and built a better mousetrap; and what's more, with enough cheese, it's large enough to catch a bunch of mice. Lauren Dodd wanted to be able to water plants more easily. By merely pulling on a string, which activates several pulleys, levers, inclined planes and a couple of wedges, plants are watered.

The Consumer Electronics Show will turn Las Vegas into a technology wonderland next week, as 3,260 companies from around the world vie for attention from the media, the public, and potential business partners. For consumers, the show provides a window onto what's in store in the months ahead. Sometimes it's a preview of big hits, and sometimes of misses. Last year, Intel showcased a "reference design" for a light, long-lived Windows laptop billed as an alternative to tablets and to Apple's popular MacBook Air. So far, sales of Intel-based "Ultrabooks" have underwhelmed, though the technology is promising.

Technology, technology, technology: Welcome to America in the 21st century. We've got televisions, radios, BlackBerries, computers, iPods and, now, iPhones. So why do they have to be on almost all the time? Would the world as we know it fall apart if we didn't know immediately about the latest disaster somewhere around the world? Would teenagers' lives be less meaningful if they didn't text-message each other 50 times a day? Would you really resent a friend who asked that you turn off your TV so that you could talk without interruption?

Special thanks to Kevin Riordan for capturing the courageous spirit of young Deanna Greco, who is losing her vision to a genetic eye disorder ("13-year-old struggles with the onset of blindness"). It was distressing, however, to read about her struggle with an oversized closed-circuit TV. Portable, compact models of this device, specially designed for classroom use, are readily available. Many mass-produced textbooks exist in digital form and can be accessed auditorially through portable digital book players or downloaded onto computers.

Meet George Jetson. A cartoon character who flies to work, has robots as support staff and is mechanically installed in his desk chair each day. Meet the future. Some people fly to job obligations. There probably won't be large robots - interactive technology has been miniaturized, but it's there, replacing clerical workers. And the personal work station is specially designed to suit the worker physically, emotionally, maybe even culturally. Technological advances will shape the workplace of the future, experts agree.

Detective Kenneth W. Beam, Chester County's fingerprint expert, is not ready to retire his magnifying glass. However, the automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) has relegated Sherlock Holmes' trademark tool to a lesser role, and law enforcement officials across the region are applauding the results. "It's an amazing tool," said Chester County Chief Detective Albert L. DiGiacomo of the AFIS. "We've been able to solve cases that might not have closed otherwise. " Chester and Bucks Counties, both of which gained AFIS capability within the last few months, are the last areas in the region to obtain the equipment.