According to professors Gregory M. Lee of San Antonio College and Mary L. Lind of North Carolina A&T State University, the achievement gap has narrowed between impoverished school districts and affluent school districts as a result of improvements to the technology infrastructure. Technology can also bring new educational opportunities to individual children. E-readers can put a library in the hands of every child and according to eSchool News columnist Nora Carr, a correlation exists between access to books at home and high school graduation.
Education technology can take on many forms: distance learning, videos, audios, simulations, lessons, assessments and ePortfolios. The National School Boards Association reports that students don't just learn content knowledge from using technology. Their organizational and problem-solving skills improve as well as their ability to "organize complex information, recognize patterns, draw inferences and communicate findings.” Further, the ability for students to collect and save their own work allows them to monitor, reflect upon and improve their own performance.
Technology assisted learning can increase student engagement by providing immediate feedback on performance. Students can now collaborate with teachers and students in other geographic locations through podcasts, webinars and shareware environments. This provides active learning and allows to informally assess their performance compared to others or with the input of others. The National School Boards Association reports that children like using technology in the classroom, it motivates them, it results in their taking more responsibility for their own learning, and it fosters family involvement, resulting in better attendance and fewer behavior problems.
Technology improves teaching, as teachers can move away from just presenting data to working one-on-one with students while they are working at their own speed. Students can also spend time in labs supervised by teaching assistants, leaving the teacher free to tutor or mentor students. Technology allows teachers to electronically capture student work, analyze it and quickly identify areas of strengths and weaknesses for each child, then adapt curriculum to individualize teaching. Teachers can also use technology for their own professional development.