Principal Points:

1) As teachers and suppliers of information and resources useful to teachers we must make the technology work as simply and as reliably as possible.  As a recent Baltimore Sun Article pointed out. "Schools tech use is slight in Md."

2) But the real issue is not so much learning how to surf the web, but rather how to make the tools of the web and web-based materials  work in the classroom.  To do that is relatively simple if we keep what we use to the basics and force the system to meet teaching needs instead of permitting the glitz of the technical world to consume us with no appreciative results except frustration and failure.  Who has not had software fail, the network down, and the web slower than molasses in January in the midst of a 40 minute class period?

3) how such a goal of independence and creativity for the teacher and the student  is accomplished can be relatively simple and  painless, but does require a personal investment on the part of the teacher, unless of course, the teacher/parent lobby can convince school boards to do the right thing.  What I mean by that is that every teacher needs a web-ready, fast modem, windows 95/98 based portable containing a a cd player as basic equipment for teaching with the web.   Each classroom needs easy access to a digital projector and screen, but not every classroom needs to be wired.to the web  Every school also needs sufficient computer labs equipped with at least the bare essentials of a pentium class computer, cd player and web access, and the ability to create cds, but not necessarily a well-functioning network (in my opinion often an oxymoron).  All the productive teacher making best use of the web needs to do is to steal wisely from what is available on the web, combine it with whatever lesson plan is at the heart of the 40 minutes to be taught, and bring into a local environment in the classroom to teach, along with any supplementary materials provided the students cd's (either individually per student, or on a loaned as needed basis from the media center)..

4) the key to successful web-based teaching is to create the materials needed in class in a simple web based environment using free tools such as Netscape's Communicator.that are displayed locally or used locally by the student in a local environment that is infinitely superior in speed and accessibility than all but the most expensive networks.

In my remaining few minutes (less than the shortest of any class periods) let me try to demonstrate what I mean.   Let's begin with  the Declaration of Independence.  Although not identified as to source on the web site where I found it (often the case with web-based materials) it is the 1823 facsimile engraved by W. J. Stone and probably is the University of Indiana copy reproduced in "The Dye Is Now Cast" The Road to American Independence, 1774-1776, by Lillian B. Miller (Washington, 1975), p. 274.