The place for bulky textbooks, pencils and paper in the classroom is slowly shrinking and on-site lectures are occurring less and less in educational engagement, especially as technology evolves, and the market is infiltrated with new mobile devices and virtual classroom solutions, such as Web meetings.

At a time when technology devices and solutions are being argued as detrimental to today’s youth through cyberbullying, sexting and harmful aggressive behavior, educators are trying to incorporate the new technology into the classroom—shifting the focus to education. 

The only problem is—it won’t come cheap.

As stimulus money dries up and in many cases, state funding struggles to pay for the salaries of staff, it’s difficult for schools to meet the costs of purchasing, and maintaining these electronic devices and virtual systems.

Total integration seems more likely for higher education. With larger budgets dedicated to technology, companies like Kno are in the market for tablets entirely dedicated to education. After securing $46 million as part of an equity debt round, the company will be offering an all-in-one tablet for higher education combining digital textbooks, course materials, e-mail, and the Web into a dual-screen, notebook-shaped device, said VentureBeat.

But this is not something likely to be seen in public middle and high schools. While the price of this tablet has not yet been confirmed, VentureBeat reported Kno CEO Osman Rashid estimating the cost as “likely to be under $1,000.”

One Missouri school is trying to keep up with the rapidly evolving needs of technology while managing the budget to maintain both the teaching, and IT staff. According M.D. Kittle from seMissourian, the school’s comparatively lower wages for the district’s tech staff are detrimental to recruitment and retention of qualified employees.

But that’s not to say the shift to a tech-based classroom will be put to halt, only delayed. Bradon Technologies, a provider delivering Web Meeting capabilities with cost-effective pricing, may help tech-based classrooms eliminate this delay with its SAVii5 Web conferencing solution.

Bradon does well by recognizing the challenges that an organization, or school, will face when trying to facilitate communications and collaboration between colleagues and customers and sticking to a tight budget. The SAVii Desk is designed to be used as a unified communications platform, allowing individuals to meet, present and interact online with the use of real-time voice, data and video.

The SAVii Desk can be used to deliver sales presentations, product demonstrations, company-wide briefings, production launches, information sessions, team collaborations and now, educational lectures. The solution is designed to focus on the effectiveness of communication and collaboration with next generation technology offerings and cost-effective pricing.