Issues with Using Technology in Education (week 2)

I love to use technology in my classroom especially since it is such a growing environment.  It always engages my students when I incorporate some into the lesson.  However, there are several factors why schools do not have much technology.  The first is funding for it.  In the state of Alabama, proration is hitting the education budget so hard each year we are having a hard time having enough teachers for the students must less providing technology for the classes.  I am fortunate that where I teach we have received some grants and been able to purchase new things for the classes.  I have a symposium, LCD projector, teacher & student computer stations and a laptop.  I believe teachers should apply for any and all funding to purchase technology.  Secondly, online plagiarism is an issue with using technology in schools.  Students can easily use the internet to find papers to turn in that was written by others.  Teachers should be aware of online sites that can check the students work for plagiarism.  I know of a group of students that were taking online classes and when it was test time they would type the problem into yahoo and find answers online.  The teacher caught then and turned them in.  They received a F in the course.  The last issue I want to discuss is that schools are having to spend a lot of money to purchase anti-virus programs because of the growing issue of viruses and hackers computers.  When we allow students to input data into a program, hackers are waiting to attack and steal all their information.  And when a virus gets on a computer it may weeks to get them cleared off.  School systems may spend a lot of money on firewalls, but it is so hard to prevent viruses.