Wednesday, August 27, 2008

"Educational Technology is like a workshop"

My new favorite coined term--taken from Jim Vanides with Hewlett Packard. Jim says he is tired of that term "technology is just a tool". Well, it's not. Forever, I've tried to spread the word that we need to integrate technology with our curriculum for the kids' sake. So students will know how to function in a world without us. Students of today's generation increasingly rely on technology and computers specifically to get their work done. To manage their work, to create and publish their work---this would be using technology as a tool.

We are well beyond that now. Our students need to know that technology today is the space to be in while using all those tools. It is a large enough space where we can assemble a wide range of people and tools in order to bring an idea to life. And if we are taught how to be safe in the environment, how to organize that environment, how to fully stock that environment with the "tools" we may need, much life a workshop...then we are truly teaching our students "How to fish" and not just giving them the fish.