I enjoyed reading your thoughts about homework, and those on technology. Perhaps you would be interested in looking at what I think is the most modern use of technology in encouraging homework, by looking at
http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~cdavid/chem263.html
where you will see the homework for a junior college level advanced chemistry class. Before the chemistry material, you will find a set of "review problems", some of which are elementary, i.e., pre-calculus level, which can show you how the system works. Notice that students can do their homework from any web-terminal, have it graded in real time, and can have the report of their activities sent to their teacher instantaneously, which means that if students get a question correct on a homework problem, and fail to get it (or a near clone) correct on a test, there is some other problem, such as having friends do one's homework, but the onus of failure lies squarely on the student.
I am trying to write proposals to teach teachers how to construct homework in this manner, which would relieve them of the task of having to grade homework, but would make homework properly available for their students. So far, I have failed at this, but I keep plodding on. Hope you enjoy browsing.
Carl W. David
p.s. There is a freshman chemistry site at
http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~chem12x/
where easier problems (in chemistry) exist, in a examination only mode.
These problems are old exams, used by students for review purposes.