Chapter eight discusses the multiple technological problems that teachers and their schools are faced with.  These problems might be a result of technology growing at the speed of light or as commonplace as troubles with funding and financially supporting technology systems.  The authors specifically targeted the issue of the increase in students who do not speak English as their primary language.  As students who fit this description increase, the opportunity to assist them linguistically increases as technology improves.  The key to successfully using technology to assist these students, is to ensure that the instructors are using proper assessment.  The students must be engaged in a dialog that is useful and meaningful to them so that they can make connections and gain a deeper understanding of the English language. 

The authors also mentioned assistive technology.  I feel that assistive technology is a field that grows exceedingly fast.  When I was first interested in becoming a teacher, I observed a classroom with a student with special needs using an electronic lap keyboard.  The student would type assignments with the keyboard due to poor hand writing or poor pencil coordination.  The keyboard would save the student’s input and either print it or transfer the information to a computer.  Now this former assisstive technology would seem clunky, awkward, and out of date.  Keyboards have evolved and decreased significantly in size.  As a future educator, it will be important to stay informed in regards to assistive technology applications that may help students who are struggling in my courses.

The book also mentioned the use of electronic portfolios.  It seems as though electronic portfolios are all the rage for education majors but perhaps their popularity needs to be felt in every discipline.  These tools would forever serve students as they transition from school to employment opportunities.  Paper and contact information can be lost or damaged.  However, electronic information can be saved to a website or Internet file space and kept forever.  The developmental experiences of high school students should be photographed and summarized electronically to assist the students in the future.  I think any employer would be impressed with a student who could navigate to their resources online and manipulate the web in a way that displayed their digital talents.