Thought for the day

As I work through the tech in ed classes, I'm learning many things. Today, I learned something that came from an unexpected source. My tech guy, who has not always been as supportive or helpful as he could be, gave me some insight while doing some needed work on my computer. Our building is relatively new (at least in my area). It began in 1998 and was completed a while later. The community was in an uproar over the "extravagance” of such a new building. Anyway, my point is that education here isn't always at the top of the financial food chain.
Looking at tech and its return/dollar spent. I'm really questioning some things. One example, which was the tidbit picked up from the tech department, involved switches. These are the unsung heroes of your access to the world. When they go down, your computer is a stand-alone item. The life expectancy is about five years. Those in our middle and high schools are going into their seventh year with few problems. At any moment, all or part of my building could be without access to the grading program (based in another state), attendance program (same), emails (wouldn't that hurt?) and various other things used in the classroom. What it amounts to is about a $70,000 investment. This put me to thinking about what other things could be done with that money. That lead to thinking about how much more we spend on new computers, that age so quickly and all the things needed to keep up to date technologically. Is this the best bang for the buck? I don't really have the answer to that one yet. Maybe we’re just under using it? Ahhh to know it all....
Thanks to these classes I'm thinking differently, but am still a tech person. I like the stuff and use it as much as possible. As long as there are funding streams (the light bulb for my projector costs about $399) and functioning switches, I'll use the stuff, but don't want it to be all that I do just want it to help me do what I do. :)
mark