Technology in the Education Arena

When I read David Warlick’s recent post, I became a little concerned.  He states:

It’s not about the Technology, It’s about the Information.

This statement comes from my extreme dissatisfaction with the term, integrate technology, as it is used a conferences and other staff development events to urge teachers to modernize their classrooms.

Many people say that, “technology is only a tool,” and this is correct. I would continue by saying that information is also a tool, used to construct knowledge. My question is what should teachers be thinking of as they are working through ways to modernize their classrooms. Should they be thinking of the machines? Or is there something else?

I began thinking — is my job going away (since my title is Technology Integration Specialist)?  Should I rethink the subtitle on my blog?  Viewing other postings, I find I was not the only one concerned.

Technology should not drive our curriculum but rather curriculum should drive the technology.  As stated, technology is a tool; however, it is a tool that needs to be integrated in today’s classroom and we need to learn the best practices for integrating.  Years from now I am hopeful that technology will no longer need to be integrated but will be a permanent part of the classroom and it will as natural as opening a book in the classroom.  Do we think about integrating computers into our family life?  I don’t.  Computers are a big part of my family life and are there — always.  I don’t have to think about it.  As my daughter stated to me on Friday after our 4 hour shopping trip from 5:00 a.M. to 9:00 A.M. — we are such a “geeky” family — we go shopping on Black Friday and only buy technology toys.  I love it.

 We still need to think how best to use the technology — how best to integrate.  We need to blend (or integrate) the literacy skills.  Things are happening faster than we can keep up and in education we are already so far behind.  Students are blogging before many of us even know what a blog is.  Education needs to step up and start educating the students on the best ways to use these tools, the best ways to use the information.  I believe we still need to focus on the integrating of technology but now it is just as important to focus on the integrating of the information.