Technology By Any Other Name...

I have been following a recent LinkedIn discusson where the following question was posed, "Should teachers be required to teach with technology?"

It has been one of the more active discussions with this particular group and there are, of course, many people on both sides of the argument.

My first instinct is to say, "yes, of course." Our students have embraced the technology, no, not so much as embraced, but are part of it and it of them--it is as much a part of their lives as television was to our generation.

I think if you asked this question of students, they would think it was a mute point. How do you learn without technology? How do you do research without the Internet? In fact, the annual Beloit College Mindset List (http://www.beloit.edu/mindset) reminds us that these college freshman have never used a card catalog and most don't wear a wristwatch (who needs one when you can check the time on your cell phone?) How do you collaborate with classmates on projects without technology-enabled collaboration tools? How do you write a paper without Microsoft Word (also according to Beloit, most of these freshman do not know how to write in cursive).

So, should we be required to teach with technology? I think most teachers already do and may not even acknowledge it. Technology is becoming such a part of our lives that even the digital immigrants are beginning to take it for granted.

I am working with an organization that is supporting the use of cell phones as audience response devices (clickers). This can be a little bit of a stretch for many teachers, but I have ridden this wave before. Remember when calculators were outlawed?

Feel free to share your thoughts.