Innovations abound: with a steady incline in technical know-how, educators are using software in more creative ways. (Software).

First of all, CD-ROMs are so last century and the World Wide Web is in. Second, a slow economy has left districts frugal or at least bracing for tight software budgets this coming year. And lastly, big company mergers are making some administrators gnaw their nails, wondering if mergers will mean they'll have to spend more for software.

These are a few trends that school administrators and the Software and Information Industry Association saw this past school year in software.

"Because the education technology market has matured, educators are beginning to leverage their investment: moving from access to integration mode, and from technology adoption to educational innovation," according to the SIIA Trends Reports 2001. "Today, educators are sophisticated enough to be asking the fundamental question: "How can technology help me better achieve core teaching and learning goals?"

In California, Debbie Abilock agrees. She's the curriculum coordinator and director of Technology, Library and Curriculum at The Nueva School, pre-K - 8, in Hillsborough. Educators are using more "old favorites" in novel ways, Abilock says. For example, she says Inspiration software, which was previously used as a "rigid" pre-planning tool/outline for school projects, is being used as a "pre-planning tool" to Stage Cast Creator, another program that teaches students about programming. "They [educators] are inventing new uses for software they have had," she says.

Many school vendors are also using graphical user interbases, which, for example, allows a child to tap into many sources of information, says Sally Trexler, library technology coordinator for Allentown, Penn., school district OPAC software can connect to online subscriptions allowing a student to search the term "dinosaur" and find a list of search engines that could offer other resources. "It's opening up their eyes to a myriad of sources to get their information," Trexler says. "It's like one-stop shopping.... The search is executed in the product's own search engine."

SO "LAST CENTURY"

Administrators agree the CD-ROM trend of years past seems to be on its way out. CDs that need to be physically flipped in CD towers pale in comparison to the anytime, anywhere access of the Internet, administrators say.

"[Districts] are going to more Web-based, districtwide audience, Trexler says. "It eliminates the fuss and muss with servicing and responding.

As far as the slow economy since mid-2001 goes, it forced some districts to hold on to what they already have. "We're not running out to buy new stuff," Trexler says. "We have good basic standard reference resources, like encyclopedias, dictionaries, periodicals, newspapers."

"We're being very picky on what we buy," agrees Jeffrey Gibson, technology supervisor for Wisconsin Rapids Public Schools in Wisconsin. "There's no widespread installations. It's more targeted and pilot-oriented."

Karen Billings, vice president of the education division of SIIA, adds that if schools do wait to purchase software, a main reason is that schools want to understand the new No Child Left Behind legislation better. "Educators are not sure exactly what levels of funds are coming from the state and how they will be able to spend it," she says.

Phyllis DiBianco, library media specialist of N.Y.'s Scarsdale High School, says applications might not be updated in light of the slow economy. "People might hold on to (Windows 2000) for a year or two," for example, DiBianco says. "A lot is driven by the industry. I think there was this hype to always update, but it may have been more bells and whistles."

John Brim, section chief for the instructional resources evaluation services for the Department of Public Instruction in North Carolina, adds that the coming year will be financially worse for his state's districts. "Generally, the discretionary instructional resources will shrink and they won't buy as much as they have been," Brim predicts. "There will be less purchasing of major large ticket items, [such as] a comprehensive expensive package that requires renewals."

And recent mergers and acquisitions, such as Riverdeep acquiring assets of the Learning Co. and partnering with Harcourt, have some administrators worrying. "We've got these big companies buying little companies," DiBianco says. "It's kind of frightening.... The competition for products is not there and it's driving up prices.... I just think [vendors] have to try to make it available to places that don't have a lot of money and that's most of our school districts."

Angela Pascopella, [e-mail], is associate features editor.