Is technology in schools the future or just a fad?

The Milwaukee Journal has a piece on technology and the school.Rigid,old institutions are difficult to change:

according to a 2004 report by Education Week, a weekly publication for educators, even though U.S. schools have more computers per student than any other country, 15-year-olds elsewhere report more use of them. Countries where students say they use both computers and the Internet more often include Korea, Denmark, Austria, Australia, Iceland, Sweden and Canada.

The problem, according to Stanford University education professor emeritus Larry Cuban, is the decision to add technology in American schools is often made by someone other than classroom teachers, even though they are the ones expected to make them work.

"I see much more imaginative use" when teachers are involved in the acquisition process, said Cuban, who documented his findings in "Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom." "But, for the most part, these are hierarchical decisions that are made, top-down decisions, and teachers end up being the recipients of decisions and they see technology, for the most part, as add-ons to the work."

Public education is probably ill suited for rapid change and improvement because it's too hierarchical.But,who's to say in the future the traditional bricks and mortar public school will make it.