Raising the bar

I have had 2 conversations with teachers lately around this theme.
One teacher talked about his class, and the expectation as secondary school students, was that they would log on to an online site and upload homework, assignments, add to discussion areas etc. When asked if by setting this criteria he was diasavantaging the students without web access. His reply was that there were 7 students who did not have www access at home, less than 25% of his class. Then came a very powerful statement. Why should I lower the bar to teach to the lowest common denominator? More aptly put, should he penalise the 78.5% of students who had access by making everything available in paper copy and accepting paper copy when this generation really do work online and are very comfortable in the environment. The school provides access in the library from 8:00 am - 4:30pm and has a laptop loan scheme. therefore the students do have opportunities to use the technology for course work. Education for some families becomes a priority. My teacher argued is having Sky TV and an X box a priority or is a computer a better use of money? A hard call, but one that really got me thinking about the job I do
Should I as an Inservice teacher educator work to the lowest common denominator. While visiting schools some teachers show no growth at all because they have not done anything between visits. Should I make excuses and accept their excuses? I think not. We are all busy people, and we fit into our full lives what we want to fit in. Its a priority thing again. I intend to start now, having the hard conversations with teachers and principals. In our curriculum the vision uses these words: connected, global citizens, life long learners, enterprising etc........ Are we living the curriculum or paying lip service to it?
One of my recent authors used this term. Don't water stones.