Education technology boosters see the classroom as a changing frontier. New gadgets. New connections all the time. But with continuing budget cuts, teachers stuck to traditional modes of instruction and little support from district administrations, new tech advances often go unused or misused, ...]]>

Education technology boosters see the classroom as a changing frontier. New gadgets. New connections all the time. But with continuing budget cuts, teachers stuck to traditional modes of instruction and little support from district administrations, new tech advances often go unused or misused, according to education leaders, technology providers and policymakers who gathered in Boston today for EdNet's 2010 conference.

As Donna M. Harris-Aikens of the National Education Association told the group: "It's great that every classroom at a school gets a new SMART Board. But if [the smart boards] sit in a storage room collecting dust because no one knows how to use them, that is a waste of money that could have gone to something else."

The EdNet conference, sponsored by the education marketing group MDR, aims to open conversation among district leaders, teachers and technology businesses to encourage partnership and innovation during a critical time for education.