No problem. It has been eye-opening seeing what people are doing. The stage picture is of a special ed. teacher who worked with a dentist to develop a stylus for his students so they could use iPads on their own. Tears all over the place when I first heard the story.
I try to reach out when I can on the ESL front (all levels) when I hear about teachers struggling with classes (technology usually grabs my attention first, but in as many cases as I can). I have worked with a few jhs teachers on everything from classroom management, ed theory, and of course tech. They can be tricky to track down though. The local schools are easiest to maintain contact with, but I have helped a few teachers here and there all over the country.
Definitely. The computer rooms I have seen generally are being used as a high tech replacement for tape recorders. Students aren't allowed to take the software home (and it is horribly out of date). The teachers aren't trained on it and many have limited options on when and how it can be used because the head of the English departments are (generally, not always) scared of the tech and just want to rely on the tried and true books.
That said, there are teachers who take it upon themselves to take chances and are able to effect some change in their systems. Just need more of them. The Apple store in your area should have Teacher Tuesdays starting or in the processes of being set up. The goal is to demonstrate solid pedagogical uses and examples of how to integrate tech in the classroom.
RE: Recap of the educational conference in Kyoto this week