We are very fortunate in our district here in St. Louis in regards to the effective use of technology by teachers, not only to support their teaching but to support the kids' learning.

An example is my elder son's Geometry teacher - using a smartboard and .mp3 recorder, he records all lectures, including examples, and posts them to his website before leaving school that day. Not only does it help my son go back and make sure he's got his notes straight, it helps us parents to know what they should be working on.

A great (huge) improvement over the last district we were in, which sounds a lot like what you described here.